Netflix E-mail Scam News: Streaming Giant Addresses Fraud
Netflix has acknowledged the e-mail scam targeting their subscribers and announced that they continue to implement security measures to protect them.
The entertainment streaming company has addressed the ongoing e-mail scam that has been targeting their subscribers, ABC News confirmed. Netflix also ensures their customers that they will keep implementing security measures to prevent fraudulent acts from happening again.
"Unfortunately, scams are common on the internet and target popular brands such as Netflix and other companies with large customer bases to lure users into giving out personal information," Netflix said in a statement.
The company has also posted on their security page that they will never require their subscribers to give personal information through e-mails, to remind them to stay vigilant of phishing activities and to avoid falling victim to such scams.
Australian cybersecurity company MailGuard detected the e-mail scam targeting Netflix subscribers last Nov. 3 and already took action to prevent more inboxes from receiving the fake messages.
The group who ran the e-mail scam appeared to be using a template system that generated messages that are personalized with use of the recipient data, which makes it look legitimate. Meanwhile, the body of the mail remains generic.
The message in the e-mail informs the receiver that their billing details with Netflix has been invalidated, and that they need to immediately update their information on their website. Once the victim clicks the link provided in the scam e-mail, they are directed to a fake Netflix page that asks for their personal information, as well as credit card details.
The directed site is completely fake and runs on a compromised Wordpress blog site, where the scammers can steal credit card information and use it for their own benefit.
One of the things that revealed how the e-mail was a scam was the "recipient" field not completely merging, displaying the placeholder rather than the receiver's name.