I have received many emails claiming they are from either Netflix or PayPal, warning I will lose an account or there has been a charge to the account and requesting I should click a button or link in the email to correct any issues.
I believe thousands of people get these emails whether or not they have Netflix or Paypal accounts.
Why am I writing about this? – The main reason this issue is quite widespread and it is about personal Internet security.
These emails look legitimate, with official logos, but these emails are not from Netflix or PayPal, they are scams or phishing scams to get your credit card information and / or get your account logon information. You can read about this here.
What can you do about this? – especially if you are concerned about your account in these respective websites?
The answer is easy if you don’t have accounts in Netflix or Paypal, just delete the email and ignore it, and NEVER reply to it or click any links/buttons or images in the email. For those who do have Netflix and/or PayPal accounts, here is how you can safely handle this,
- Do NOT click any links in the email,
- Do NOT copy any links in the email,
- Do NOT forward the email to anyone, unless it is to a specific “abuse@”, or similar email that the recipent wants a copy.
- Do NOT open the browser by using anything in the body of the email.
- Open a browser like you would any other time, such as from your bottom taskbar, an icon on your desktop or in your start menu.
- Go to the respective website by using their well known domain name URL address. Use either a link from your favuoirtes or use Google search to locate the main page.
- Login to the legitmate website to access your account,
- Check for messages from the website itself. Netflix and PayPal do issue warnings inside your account. Any warnings, resolve them. No warnings, Great!
- If in doubt, contact the help link located “inside” your account pages.
- If you think your account may have been compromised because the email seems to contain information only the account has, then change your password immediately.
- Delete the scam email immediately, do NOT respond to it.
Both Netflix and PayPal provide messages inside the account to alert users something is wrong with their account status and this is the best place to confirm whether or not your account is having issues. If you find nothing wrong and all shows to be good, then the email was surely a scam.