That email you just received about your Netflix account? Look closely, it may be a clever fake. Internet crooks know that almost everyone has a Netflix account by now. So scamming people with the Netflix name and logo probably seems like easy money to them. Here’s what to know and watch out for with Netflix phishing:

Fake Netflix Emails

Most of these fake Netflix messages arrive over email. Some are obvious and laughable fakes, while others are fairly convincing. Here’s an example of one of their better attempts.

netflix phishing

This fake email has a lot going for it: the From-email address looks legit, the grammar and spelling is believable and the overall tone resembles legitimate Netflix communications.

But notice that Gmail has put a question mark next to the sender. If you float over that question mark, Google will pop up and warn you that this message couldn’t be verified and may be from a sketchy sender. Also, the missing Netflix logo graphic is a tiny tip-off. But the clincher is when you hover the cursor over the link to “update your account”. Hovering over that usually allows your browser to tell you where that will take you. In this case, it isn’t going to any URL ending in Netflix.com!

Potential Dangers

You should not click weird link in sus emails. But I did, and I’ll show you what comes next. After clicking to “update my account”, I arrived at a cute captcha:

This is just here to groom its victims. It’s easy and familiar to do, and it preps you for cooperation on the next page:

I’m impressed. The only thing here to clue you in to the fakery is the URL. Many people would miss that it says “realcaptcha.com” instead of “netflix.com”.

Anyone tricked into filling in these fields would give their Netflix credentials to cybercriminals. I filled in some junk info, to see what comes next:

Of course, a payment screen that looks just like the real thing! But I found it telling that this sham would not allow me to put in a made-up credit card number. This site checks numbers in real-time and rejects incorrect entries. That means this is tied to a payment processing company, and I’ll bet that anyone fooled by this page will end up with fraudulent charges on their bank card!

Dos and Don’ts

If you’ve been fooled by this sort of phishing campaign, change your Netflix password ASAP. And then contact your bank and talk to them about how your account may have been compromised. They’ll take steps to secure your financial accounts.

If you receive this message, via email or text, feel free to forward it to phishing@netflix.com because the real Netflix folks are interested in tracking and preventing these things.

Also, feel free to use your email’s Report Spam function on the message. But do not use Block Sender. Since many of these messages use spoofing, the sender’s address may have been falsified to show a real Netflix address. If you block that phishing email, then you might stop receiving emails from the real Netflix!

Lastly, if you receive a Netflix email and can’t figure out its legitimacy, just put it aside. Open a new browser tab and go to www.netflix.com and sign in there. Once you’re inside the real Netflix site, you can look around and try to verify what was emailed to you.