It seems that the scammers of the world are working overtime these days in an effort to separate you from your money and steal your identity.
The latest scam making the rounds is targeted at users of the popular Netflix streaming video service. This ploy is apparently a part of a concerted effort among fraudsters to expand their pool of potential victims to users of mainstream online services.
The Netflix scam works something like this:
You try to log in to your Netflix account, but you receive a very authentic-looking message bearing the Netflix logo. Here is a screenshot:
As you can see, you will be told that your Netflix account has been temporarily suspended and you’ll need to call a toll-free number in order to have it reactivated. Don’t call that number, because if you do the scammers will try to talk you into downloading a program called “Netflix Support Software”.
That software is actually a sophisticated trojan horse that gives the scammers complete access to you computer – including all of your personal and financial information!
During the call the scammers will try to talk you into paying several hundred dollars in exchange for having them clean up and secure your computer from the “security threat”, but in reality the only threat is the one posed by the scammers themselves.
If you receive a fake warning message similar to the one above, I recommend that you immediately take steps to completely scan your computer for malware and remove it. Refer to this post for step-by-step instructions for completely ridding your PC of viruses and malware.
Note: As with all Security Alerts, I hope you’ll consider sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere so your friends will find out about this scam right away.