New Netflix phishing scam

The following phishing scam from hackers crossed my screen the other day, below is a screenshot:

This offer does not take you to a page where you can lock in your rate but instead is a link to malware that infects your system.

Of course, this is not a real Netflix offer.  With all the hoopla generated over the past couple of weeks in response to Netflix raising its rates by 60%, and the backlash of user anger over it, it only makes sense that spammers would take advantage of this social phenomenon.

What makes this work is the emotional response to money and revenge.  People want to save money on their subscription and clicking the special offer to lock in their rates is a way of getting back at Netflix for raising them. Spammers know this and are crafting their spam campaigns to play on people’s emotions.

Don’t click this.  It’s not real, it’s spam.  Netflix isn’t that generous.

Oh yes, one more thing – the above phishing scam is not a real phishing scam.  I made it up.  But I bet it looked like a real phish, didn’t it?  When spammers eventually do start doing it, you’ll know that I saw it ahead of time first.  You’ll also know that spammers read this blog.