Just about everyone has a Netflix account these days, and scammers have taken notice. They’re using the popular streaming service as bait in a new phishing scam.
The email hits your inbox, and it appears to be from Netflix at first glance. It says “the company” is unable to process your credit card for payment and the account will be suspended today.
With that sense of urgency, you might be tempted to use the handy link in the email to update your credit card information. But if you glance at the email a second time, that’s the last thing you would do. The message is clearly from an imposter.
While the email bears the Netflix logo, it’s a much smaller version -- and at a much lower resolution -- than the company uses for official communication. The body of the message is short, but it manages to misspell the word “method” twice.
If you place your cursor over the “click here” link you will see a very long and strange URL. Were you to click on the link, you would be taken to a rogue page that is made to look like part of the Netflix site. Once there, you would be instructed to enter your credit card information.
The final tip-off
The final tip-off is in the email’s header. The “from” line says Netflix but adds another very long URL that does not contain the word Netflix.
The ‘to” line does not contain your name; instead, it shows an Apple report URL.
The “subject” line contains the following: RE: [ Statement Added ] [ Alert ] We sent informed the latest code to your account information, Updates Your Bill Now on Mon, October 07, 2019 // de réservation avec reçu [I5hRW6F] ....
You can rest assured that no such communication would come from a major corporation -- or even a small one for that matter.
If you’re ever in doubt about whether an email communication from a company with which you are doing business is real, simply log into your account and communicate directly with the company. In nearly every situation, an email asking you to click on a link to change or enter sensitive information will be a scam.