Netflix users: Be on guard for new scam

Phishing email seeks private information

If you subscribe to Netflix, there’s a new scam making the rounds that you need to have on the radar.

The scam is a phishing scam that tells users their accounts are going to be suspended, claiming their billing information needs to be updated for users to “restart their membership.”

The email includes a link to a fake Netflix website, which asks users to log in and enter personal information.

The scam looks like it could be a legitimate email from Netflix, reading in part, “We were unable to validate your billing information for the next billing cycle of your subscription therefore we’ll suspend your membership if we do not receive a response from you within 48hours.”

Now, a savvy grammarian might note that the paragraph is a bit of a run-on sentence, and “48hours” should have a space. But most people don’t read for errors of that sort. Instead, they react based on the message — which is understandable because the email looks fairly legitimate.

People might panic over the thought of losing Netflix, which in this day and age of cord cutting, can be a scary scenario.

There is an easy way to avoid getting caught in one of these scams, however. Instead of clicking on the provided link, go to the website directly yourself, using the main URL (in this case, www.Netflix.com), and log into your account from there. If information is missing or needed, you’ll know when you log in. And, you are logging into the account from the main URL, not from the link provided in the email, which helps protect you from phishing attempts.

It’s annoying that we have to be so cautionary, but in this day and age of scams and hoaxes, one has to be a healthy skeptic, especially when it comes to email. Don’t fall for the scammers’ tricks, Yuma. Avoid the emails, and log into your accounts from the home page when you get weird emails such as this one.

DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS OR NOT?