Phishing scams are a real pain for people that use the internet on a regular basis because of the fact that they can lead to you losing your login details, personal data and even suffering from some serious financial losses if you’re not careful. The way they work is that you will get a link that you are supposed to click on and log in to one of your accounts, and when you click on this link and log in your details would be stolen and someone would end up hacking into your account.
Now, you might think that there is no way you would end up clicking on something like this but the fact of the matter is that scammers tend to mask these links quite effectively and make them seem legitimate. A good example of this is the latest scam that is going around that involves your Netflix account, namely the payments you are making for it which generally tend to go out rather regularly but can often be prevented from going through because of some small problem that needs to be dealt with.
According to Sophos, the way this scam works is that you will get an email that has the official Netflix logo on it which would say that your payment for the month was not able to go through because of some problem with your bank. The email would then go on to say that if you don’t log in and check your payment details you could potentially end up losing access to your account. Needless to say, when you click the link and log in you will end up giving your account details away to someone that would use them for malicious purposes.
The truly sinister thing about this scam is that it is so subtle. Payment problems occur all the time, and whenever you see an email like this you might be inclined to believe that it is actually true. This is why some users may fall for this scam, and this is why you should be wary of any email you get that has content like this within it.
One of the information that could potentially help you figure out that the email is a scam, is poor grammar within the email. An official email will not have typos or grammatical errors. If you get a seemingly official email that has errors in it like this, there is a good chance that it is a phishing attempt.
It is crucial that you try to take your safety on the internet into your own hands because bad things often end up happening when you fail to protect yourself.
Read next: How Spam Turned From Stressful To Serious Security Problem (infographic)
Now, you might think that there is no way you would end up clicking on something like this but the fact of the matter is that scammers tend to mask these links quite effectively and make them seem legitimate. A good example of this is the latest scam that is going around that involves your Netflix account, namely the payments you are making for it which generally tend to go out rather regularly but can often be prevented from going through because of some small problem that needs to be dealt with.
According to Sophos, the way this scam works is that you will get an email that has the official Netflix logo on it which would say that your payment for the month was not able to go through because of some problem with your bank. The email would then go on to say that if you don’t log in and check your payment details you could potentially end up losing access to your account. Needless to say, when you click the link and log in you will end up giving your account details away to someone that would use them for malicious purposes.
The truly sinister thing about this scam is that it is so subtle. Payment problems occur all the time, and whenever you see an email like this you might be inclined to believe that it is actually true. This is why some users may fall for this scam, and this is why you should be wary of any email you get that has content like this within it.
One of the information that could potentially help you figure out that the email is a scam, is poor grammar within the email. An official email will not have typos or grammatical errors. If you get a seemingly official email that has errors in it like this, there is a good chance that it is a phishing attempt.
It is crucial that you try to take your safety on the internet into your own hands because bad things often end up happening when you fail to protect yourself.
Read next: How Spam Turned From Stressful To Serious Security Problem (infographic)
