While we are used to receiving scam attempts pretending to be from banks, online shops, credit card companies, and international courier services that does not mean all the other emails are safe. Far from it. To demonstrate this point we will show you a scam aimed at Netflix customers which has been used in the Netherlands and is now doing the rounds in the UK but could just as easily spread to the US.
The mail in question
The sender address, in this case, was supportnetflix@checkinformation[.]com and the content of the email informs us that there has been a problem with our last payment. Obviously to those of us who are not customers of Netflix this is the first red flag. The fact that the domain name checkinformation[.]com does not belong to Netflix is another big red flag. In fact, the domain is for sale at the moment of writing.
Netflix”>
Account disabled!
Dear User,
We’re having some trouble with your current billing information. We’ll try again. But in the meantime you may want to update your payment details. During the next login process, you will be required to provide some informations like (billing info, phone number, payment info)
So the email asks us to fill out our payment details on a site. This should always be a red flag for everyone. A security-aware company does not provide you with a clickable button to their site. They will tell you to log into their site and provide you with instructions on how to proceed. They will not provide a direct link to a page with a form to fill out asking for billing information and what not.
Pay attention to
When you have to provide such details always look for the green padlock in the address bar of your browser.
Remember that the green padlock is not the sole condition, but it is a must before you proceed.
Another telltale sign is spelling errors, but again, the lack of them is not a definite green light to proceed. Scammers have learned that their efficiency goes up if they pay attention to their spelling.
Also never judge a site by its looks, because phishers are masters in the art of copying the layout and images from legitimate sites. In fact, they usually link to the actual layout and images of the website they are pretending to be.
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