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If you recently received an email alert concerning your Netflix account that asks you to click on a link and update your membership information, think twice before signing in.
Earlier this week, FireEye Labs announced it has discovered a phishing campaign aimed at collecting Netflix customers’ personal and financial information. Attackers used various technical methods of advanced malware and encryption to evade phishing filters.
Phishing is a scam by which an email user is duped into revealing personal or confidential information which the scammer can use illicitly.
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Although FireEye Labs blogger Mohammed Mohsin Dalla said in his Jan. 9 posting “the phishing websites we observed were no longer active,” he issued a detailed explanation of what to look for in “the attack flow” for these latest and unnervingly authentic-looking phishing emails.
The Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office in Maine released FireEye’s warning in an easy-to-read summation Wednesday, urging customers in the U.S. to use caution when viewing emails related to their Netflix accounts.
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Netflix isn’t the only website recently targeted by hackers. In December, thousands of Amazon customers received fake, yet realistic-looking emails claiming their was a problem with their order, asking them to click on a link and then re-enter personal information.
Netflix claims it will email customers from time-to-time, encouraging them to change their account passwords “as a precautionary measure due to security risks not associated with Netflix.” Phishing schemes, like this one, will often trigger the prompt.
However, like most online banking institutions and companies, Netflix claims they will never ask customers for any personal information in an email.
The video streaming company encourages users to protect their account by using a password unique to Netflix and changing it periodically, logging onto the site using the official URL, keeping computers safe with security programs specializing in “anti-malware, anti-adware or anti-virus” software, and learning how to detect possible phishing schemes.
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Familiarize yourself with phishing methods. Plenty of websites offer practical steps to gaining control over your accounts. Many provide user-friendly lists, like Inc., which shows users “how to foil phishing scams.”
Simple measures may prevent heartache.