As we enter a new year, it should come as no surprise that Netflix remains a favourite with cybercriminals. This simple email phishing scam is once more hitting inboxes in the first days of 2020. The email tells recipients ‘Your Netflix Membership is on hold’ with a sender display name of NETFLIX, although the emails are actually coming from a compromised email account.
The verification link in the email takes users to a fake Netflix ‘Sign In’ page where the scammers harvest the credentials of unsuspecting subscribers. A warning is also presented that warns users that a failure to complete the process will result in their membership being suspended.
The final step in the scam presents a page to ‘Update Your Billing Information’ which also asks for the users social security number and their date of birth. This page also carries ‘Secure Server’ icons in an attempt to assure respondents that the page is legitimate.
Netflix is a regular target for cybercriminals. With more than 158 million paid streaming subscribers worldwide, there’s a high likelihood that many of those that are receiving the email are subscribers and that a portion of those will be too time poor to check the details in the email. Netflix was also targeted with similar scams reported by MailGuard in December, September and November last year.
MailGuard urges all recipients of this email to delete it immediately without clicking on any links. If you see an email from Netflix, please exercise caution and make sure it is a legitimate communication before you open it. Please share this alert with your social media network to help us make the people aware of the threat.
What to do if you receive a suspicious email
As a precaution, avoid clicking links in emails that:
- Are not addressed to you by name, have poor English or omit personal details that a legitimate sender would include
- Are from businesses you’re not expecting to hear from.
- Ask you to download any files
- Take you to a landing page or website that does not have the legitimate URL of the company the email is purporting to be sent from.
Don't get scammed
If your company’s email accounts aren’t protected, emails like the one above are almost certainly being received by your staff. Cybercriminals know people can be tricked; that’s why they send out millions of scam messages and put so much effort into making them look convincing.
People are not machines; we're all capable of making bad judgement calls. Without email filtering protecting your business, it’s just a matter of time before someone in your organisation has a momentary lapse of judgement and clicks on the wrong thing.
One email is all that it takes
Cybercriminals use email scams to infiltrate organisations. All that it takes to break into your business is a cleverly-worded email message. If scammers can trick one person in your company into clicking on a malicious link they can gain access to your data.
For a few dollars per staff member per month, you can protect your business with MailGuard's predictive and advanced email security.
Talk to a solution consultant at MailGuard today about securing your company's network.
Why not stay up-to-date with MailGuard's latest blog posts by subscribing to free updates? Subscribe to weekly updates by clicking on the button below.
