Hackers can create credible security threats for as little as $5 in this world of AI-powered everything, and that’s why we are seeing major brands such as YouTube, and Gmail being targeted recently. Now, according to a new warning from the Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 threat intelligence experts, it’s the turn of Netflix. Here’s what you need to know and what, most definitely, not to do.
The Costly Netflix Survey Scam Exposed
Phishing remains the single most dangerous threat that the vast majority of us are exposed to on a daily basis. Brand impersonation, despite the best efforts of technology giants such as Gmail to prevent these attackers, is the favored tactic for most of these scam and malware campaigns. After all, we trust the names we know, and if Netflix is sending you a survey with an attractive prize on offer for completing it, then what could be the harm in that, apart from maybe some additional marketing material heading your way? The harm, dear reader, is that it isn’t Netflix sending you a survey at all, but rather a criminal hacker, fraudster, cybercriminal, call them what you like, but the intended outcome is the same: to relieve you of your credit card details and defraud you.
Four security researchers working at the Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 threat intelligence center, Zeyu You, Jingwei Fan, Ritesh Nanda and Wei Wang, have warned consumers to be alert to a new scam campaign utilizing fake Netflix surveys to trick people into giving up their credit card details. The warning revealed how attackers are asking users to complete a Netflix survey which, once finished, “leads to a fake payment page asking potential victims to enter their credit card details.”
Doing this then redirects the browser being used by the victim to a supposed winners page which then redirects them to another scam attack page where the process can begin again with a different brand being leveraged. Threat intelligence has shown that the two domains being used for the attack have had activity peaks in both December and January.
Mitigating The Netflix Survey Attack Risk
I have reached out to Netflix for a statement, but in the meantime, here is what Netflix advised customers to do to prevent being conned by similar phishing scams.
- Don’t click any links in the messages or reply to the scammers.
- Forward the message to [email protected] with the steps above.
- Send a copy of the link to the website or app pretending to be from Netflix in an email to [email protected].
“We’ll never ask you to share your personal information in a text or email,” Netflix said, including credit or debit card numbers, bank account details or Netflix passwords.
