Yahoo Finance Westpac customer’s warning after duped by 'Netflix email'
Laura said the phishing email looked “so convincing” and is hoping others won’t fall for the scam trick.
A Melbourne woman is warning Netflix users to be on alert for this email, after scammers stole her details and attempted to cash in on bitcoin.
Westpac customer Laura Stroud received a fake Netflix email claiming her payment details needed to be updated and that her account had been put “on hold”.
The 65-year-old had recently got a new bank card, so thought she had simply forgotten to update her details.
Have you fallen victim to a scam? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com
“I didn’t think anything was wrong with it at the time,” Laura told Yahoo Finance. “I just clicked on it straight away because it looked so legit. It went straight to a normal-[looking] update page. Nothing looked untoward or out of place.”
Laura entered her personal information and credit card details to the fake Netflix page and, within minutes, scammers attempted to steal money from her Westpac account.
Luckily, Laura said Westpac was able to contact her immediately, sending her a text message notifying her of “suspicious” activity on her account and calling her minutes later to alert her of the transaction.
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The scammers had been trying to make a $187 purchase of bitcoin using Laura’s account, with Westpac saying they were located overseas in a European country.
“Fortunately for me, something had triggered and they had not allowed that money to go through,” Laura said.
Laura managed to avoid losing all but 17 cents out of the $187 transaction, which Westpac told her was used to register the bitcoin purchase.
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Fake Netflix scams circulating
The National Anti-Scam Centre’s Scamwatch issued an alert this week warning Netflix customers to be on alert for scam emails.
“Watch out for scam emails impersonating Netflix asking you to tap a link to verify your account details,” Scamwatch said.
Netflix has also warned customers about phishing emails and text messages that ask customers for their account email, phone number, password or payment method.
The streaming giant said it would “never ask you to share your personal information in a text or email”, including credit or debit card numbers, bank account details or Netflix passwords.
Australians lost more than $25.8 million to phishing scams last year, according to Scamwatch data, with text messages and emails the most common form of attack for scammers.
Second time being scammed: ‘So convincing’
Laura said she felt “very fortunate” the transaction was able to be stopped, having previously fallen victim to a fake PayPal scam.
Like the Netflix email, Laura had received a phishing email impersonating PayPal, claiming her account had been locked and she needed to confirm her details. She ended up losing more than $200 to the scam and wasn’t able to get any money back.
Laura is now hoping to warn others about the Netflix scam, which she said was “so convincing”, with the only red flag being the email address it came from which appeared to be from Weebly.
“Be aware. Don’t trust emails and look at the email address from where it has come from,” she said. “If you are told to update your personal information or told there has been access to your account, ring the company directly and don’t do it by email.”
