Netflix Email Scam News: Subscribers Receive Fake Suspension Notifications
A new Netflix email scam has reportedly been targeting the popular streaming service's millions of subscribers, falsely informing them that their accounts are on the verge of being suspended.
Deadline has reported that the carefully-designed fake email convinces Netflix customers to update their account information in order to avoid cancellation, which results in their personal and credit card details ending up in the hands of the scammers.
The said email has a subject line that says "Your suspension notification" and starts off to steal user information by saying: "We were unable to validate your billing information for the next billing cycle of your subscription."
The users are then threatened to have their Netflix accounts suspended if they do not update their membership within 48 hours. More importantly, it contains a link, in which, when clicked, takes the worried subscribers to a fake Netflix webpage that requires them to input their log-in details, as well as their credit card number.
According to MailGuard, which is private Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud security company, the fake Netflix webpage that is being used in the scam was created on a compromised Wordpress blog.
Moreover, the security company explained that scammers can actually hack Wordpress sites by using the vulnerabilities found in blog plugins. Once they are in, they can easily make any website look like anything they want it to be, such as a legitimate-looking Netflix login page, to trick users into providing important information.
Netflix has released a statement regarding the recent issue and reportedly assured their customers that they take the members' accounts security seriously.
The statement also said: "Netflix employs numerous proactive measures to detect fraudulent activity to keep the Netflix service and our members' accounts secure. Unfortunately, these 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."
The streaming platform has 110 million subscribers today, and as it plans to spend $8 billion on original content next year, Netflix can possibly reel in even more customers in the coming years.