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How to Know if You Got a Netflix Scam Email?

Today, when people are spending much more time at home than before due to Covid-19, watching streaming movies has become the favorite way to pass time for most. Unfortunately, as more people are doing this, scammers have also become more active and that’s why you need how to recognize and deal with a Netflix scam email.

What are the Most Common Types of Netflix Phishing Scam Email?

Netflix users have to deal with a variety of email scams and scammers are always finding new and inventive ways to create more believable (and thus more dangerous) scams.

One such Netflix scam email was reported by Armoblox in their “Blox Tales” in July this year. What was so dangerous about this particular scam was that it was able to bypass most email security filters and convince some users that it came from Netflix Support so the scammers were able to obtain their credit card information.

The scammers did this by creating a CAPTCHA page with Netflix branding that they gave to the user to fill out. Once the user filled out the CAPTCHA, he would be sent to a phishing website that looked like Netflix homepage, where the scammers could steal their Netflix account information, billing address details, credit card information and more.

The problem was also that the fake Netflix pages were hosted on legitimate web domains,  making the phishing sites even more difficult to detect to the naked eye. The only lead (but a good one nevertheless) that the user had was that the domains had nothing to do with Netflix.

For instance, one domain to a Netflix lookalike website belonged to an oil & gas company from Texas.

Armoblox detailed the Netflix phishing scam email in detail on their blog, so we recommend checking it out to learn how it works.

Here’s a summary of it:

Another Netflix account scam email was reported in August (over 2,000 reports) to the UK national fraud and cyber center, Action Fraud.

On their Twitter page, Action Fraud tweeted the following post:

How to Recognize a Fake Netflix Email?

As we already saw, Netflix scam emails are looking more and more genuine so it’s becoming difficult for users to detect the scam. 

Still, there are some tell-tale signs and red flags that you should keep an eye out for.

As an example, we’ll use a Netflix phishing scam email that some users got in January this year.

The email had the subject line “Your Netflix Membership is on hold !!” and came from support.netflix@emailer.com 

The email “warned” people that they failed to validate their payment information and now must verify their billing and payment details. Failing to do that, according to the message would “result in a suspension of your netflix membership.

To “verify” users were given a link to a fake Netflix Sign In page, where scammers were able to get their credentials and other personal and financial information.

If that wasn’t enough, the user would then be sent to another page, “Update Your Billing Information”. This page, which carried the “Secure Server” icon to seem legitimate, asked people to give their social security number and date of birth.

Here’s what this (and for the most part many other) Netflix scam email looked like:

Here are a few signs that it’s fake:

  1. The email address

The support.netflix@emailer.com is a fake email address. Netflix customer service doesn’t even have an email address and therefore won’t send you any emails. You can only reach it via phone (888-638-3549) and live chat.  

Furthermore, if you go to www.emailer.com, you’ll see that it’s a non-existent domain, which further proves that the email is fake.

  1. The email body

Another couple of signs that this email is fake are scattered throughout the body of the message itself. We are, of course, talking about spelling and grammar errors that the message is full of.

For instance, in the second paragraph, below the link, Netflix is written with a small “n”.

The next paragraph has a strange break between “minutes” and “and”, which a professional company like Netflix simply wouldn’t allow itself.

Finally, in the paragraph written in smaller letters, below the “Netflix Support Team”, you can see that they wrote “uniterrupted” instead of “uninterrupted.

In fact, as far as scam emails go, this Netflix scam email has a surprisingly low number of  grammar and spelling mistakes compared to most you’ll see.

  1. The “verification” link

If, despite the previous two signs, you still click on the verification link (a lot of people might do this if they fail to read the whole email), you will be taken to a fake Netflix lookalike sign-in page.

Although the page will look pretty much like you would expect a Netflix sign-in page to look, it still has the wrong URL and image to give it away to a discerning eye.

  1. Netflix will never ask you for this kind of information

Finally, even if we ignore the three warning signs above, you should always remember that Netflix will never ask you for this kind of information. So if you get an email to “verify your account information”, don’t do it because it’s a scam.

Where to Report Netflix Email Scam?

If you ever receive an email like this, you can simply delete it and be done with it, but you can also help others by reporting the scam. Not everyone might notice the scam like you just did.

So, to report the phishing email, forward the entire email to phishing@netflix.com. Netflix will then check the email and if it is indeed fake, block it.

Also, you should avoid clicking on any links, download any attachments in the email or reply to it. 

Conclusion

According to Statista, in Q3 2020, Netflix had 195.15 million paid subscribers, while in the same period last year it had 158.33 million. That’s more than 30 million new subscribers in 12 months. 

It’s no wonder why scammers are so eager to send out fake Netflix emails and they will keep on doing that, especially now when Covid-19 has us sitting at home more.

That’s why you need to be ready for them and we hope that this article will help you with that.

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