With more than 282.7 million global paid subscribers, it’s easy to see why Netflix is a favourite for scammers. In this latest email scam, don’t be too quick to reach for your credit card. With a subject that simply reads, ‘Fwd: Important!’, the email urges customers to avoid service interruptions by updating their payment information.
The email sending and display addresses are both ‘wolf(dot)gang(at)pl-kaffee(dot)de’, and there is no display name.
An example of the email is shown below:
Click the red ‘Update my information’ button to proceed to the first phishing page, which is a replica of the Netflix sign-in screen, asking for your email or phone number, and your password.
If you fell for that, your sign-in credentials are now compromised, and if you re-use the same credentials for other services then they’re now vulnerable as well.
In the next step, the scammers ask for your credit card information, with a page titled ‘Update your payment method’, although the formatting is dubious with ‘method’ split across two lines. The form on this phishing page asks for your first and last names, credit card number, expiry date and security code (CVV).
Click ‘Iagree’ to consent to the faux terms and conditions, and then hit the red ‘Continue’ button to proceed.
In the final stage, victims are asked to provide an OTP or confirmation code to complete the transaction. Entering this code enables the scammers to process a fraudulent transaction using the credit card information that you have handed over.
The scam ends by returning victims to the legitimate Netflix website home page.
Netflix credentials are easy prey for cybercriminals, and for any victims that re-use credentials across different services, they may also be the means by which scammers compromise those accounts as well.
Here are some previous scams impersonating Netflix, many of which also coincide with holiday periods:
- November 2017
- January 2018
- November 2019
- December 2019
- January 2020
- February 2020
- March 2020
- April 2021
- August 2021
- November 2021
- October 2022
- July 2024
- December 2024
MailGuard advises all recipients of the emails to delete them immediately without clicking on any links. Responding or providing your personal details can result in your sensitive information being used for criminal activity and may have a severe negative impact on your business and its’ financial well-being.
MailGuard urges users not to click links or open attachments within emails that:
- Are not addressed to you by name.
- Appear to be from a legitimate company but use poor English or omits personal details that a legitimate sender would include.
- Are from businesses that you were not expecting to hear from, and/or
- Take you to a landing page or website that is not the legitimate URL of the company the email is purporting to be sent from.
- Many businesses turn to MailGuard after an incident or a near miss, often as a result of an email similar to the one shown above. If unwanted emails are a problem for your business, don’t wait until it’s too late.
Reach out to our team for a confidential discussion by emailing expert@mailguard.com.au or calling 1300 30 44 30.
One email is all that it takes
All that it takes to devastate your business is a cleverly worded email message that can steal sensitive user credentials or disrupt your business operations. If scammers can trick one person in your company into clicking on a malicious link or attachment, they can gain access to your data or inflict damage on your business.
For a few dollars per staff member per month, you can protect your business with MailGuard's specialist, 'zero zero-day' email security. Special Ops for when speed matters! Our real-time 'zero zero-day', email threat detection amplifies our client’s intelligence, knowledge, security and defence. Talk to a solution consultant at MailGuard today about securing your company's inboxes.
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