I am sure a lot of you have come across emails from Netflix, Amazon, and other subscription based sites telling you that your subscription has expired, or that your payment did not go through.
Most of these emails will include a “click here to resolve” button. DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT click on these email links. These are 99% of the time a phishing scam email. These have been fading in and out of regularity over the past years. With the current world situation subscription services like Netflix and Amazon Prime are great targets to phish for due to them being many people’s primary entertainment format.
How these scams work is they take a snippet of an email, or they’ll screen shot a post and put that into an email format. They will then change their email display name to look similar to a support email. Once a user clicks on the link to resolve the issue, the user is prompted to input their information. Some of these sites are fairly obvious that they are fake, while others are very convincing. Once you put in the information and submit it, that is it, they have your information. Sometimes that is all they want, others will try to get more.
But there is a very easy and simple step that will protect you from any and all of these types of scams. If you receive an email saying that your payment information is wrong, or that your subscription is expired due to nonpayment, simply go to that site normally. Most people have there most commonly used sites set as bookmarks, so this one little step can save you quite a lot of grief. Check your settings, and if you do have a missed payment, or your subscription is about to expire it will tell you on your account page. While you are there go ahead and change your password if you have not done so in 6 months or so.
Phishing scams and cold call scams are some of the most common out there right now. We receive so many clients that have unfortunately fallen victim to these scams. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do for them due to the client willingly giving the information. There was no virus that stole the information, or a remote tool that needs to be removed. Simply a scam email and website that took advantage of the naivety of people that do not know what to look for. There are additional items to look for in these scam emails, but this one step above will make that information unsubstantial unless you are just curious.
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