Online Sense is ICDL Arabia's philanthropic arm aimed at raising public awareness on Cyber Safety.

An email scam has been targeting Netflix subscribers, hoping to gather personal information and payment details from those who use the streaming service.

Account holders around the world have been sent a well-crafted email, designed to look official, asking them to update their account information otherwise be suspended. There have been no reports of people in the UAE being impacted by the scam, but it’s best to stay cautious and avoid such emails.

Recently, similar phishing attempts were made through the Amazon email scam. With such scams being commonplace now, users should always call a company an email is impersonating to verify if the email they have received is official. This is the best way to avoid a phishing email.

Coming with the subject line “Your suspension notification”, the email contains a link to a fake Netflix page which asks for log-in information and card details.

According to MailGuard, while the body of the malicious email remains the same for everyone, the sender field shows the intended victim’s name, personalising the message to make it more believable.

The publication posted an image of the rather convincing email where the recipient field failed to name the receiver, instead putting in a placeholder.

When users click on the “restart membership” button, they are taken to a bogus website that uses Netflix imagery, including a still from Netflix show The Crown.

The scam has targeted Netflix’s 110 million subscribers. The company posted a statement saying they take “the security of our members’ accounts seriously and 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.”

 

 

Report published on http://www.independent.co.uk