Web User - UK (2019-12-11)

Need toKnow

8 11 -26December

What happened?

Thelastthingyouwanttoworry about

when yourelax infrontofyourTVis

hackers,but Netflixhas raisedconcerns

abouthow it stor es details of closed

accounts,while anew phishingscam

hascroppedupthatusesthe streaming

serviceasbait.

On thefirst front, BBCRadio 4

discoveredthatevenify ou cancel your

Netf lixsubscrip tion,youraccountlives

on –and hackershave figu redout away

to reactivate those accounts,sot hey

cansteal former users’ logi ndetails and

other privatedata.

This is made possiblebecau se Netflix

holdsontoyouruserprofile data,

includingbilling details,for as longas

months. Theidea is that if youdecide

youmissthe streaming service, it’s easy

to rejoinbecau se your details remain on

thesystem. However,thatmeansit’s

possible forhackers to crackopen those

dormantaccountstosteal thedata.

Clearly,ifh ackers cansteal datafrom

aclosed account, they canalso access

an active onebut,int hiscase, the

criminalsappeartobespecifically

targetingcancelledaccounts,

reactivating them andselling thedetails

on theblack market fo rmuchless than

thecostofareal Netflixsubscription.

Meanwhil e, another phishingscam has

been spottedmisusingthe Netflixbrand

to trick streaming viewers(bit.ly/

netflixscam490). In this latest example,

scam emails trytopanic recipients by

claimingtheir payments areoverdue

andtheir accounts susp ended.While

thephishingemailsare litteredwith

spelling mistak es,it’seasytobefooled

by thelogo.

Victimswho click thedodgy email’s

link to “restart”their Netflixservice are

takentoapagethatlookslike aNetflix

loginbutis, in fact,run by criminals.

Enter your us ernameand pass word,and

they nowhave alltheyneed to steal

your Netflixaccount. Continue by filling

in your billinginfoand they’llhave your

card details,too.The best advice to

avoid such scamsistoalwaystohead

directly to Netflix, rather than clicking

thelinkinthe email: follow that rule and

youwon’t be caughtout by this trick.

Howwill it affect you?

If you’ve spottedodd activityonyour

Netf lixaccount, always reportittothe

streamingservice.And if you’re

deactivating your subscription,first

dele te anybilling informationfromyour

account; Netflixsaysitwill deleteyour

whole accountfully if requested to do

so viaemail.

Thisincidenthighlight swhy it’s wise

to look overyourbank orcredit card

statements regularly, so youcan spot

suspicious charges,suchasanew

Netf lixsubscrip tion when you’ve quit

theservice.Ita lso highlight swhy it’s

best nottouse thesame or simila rlogin

details across di fferen tsites.Ifo ne is

breached,those details couldbe

floating aroundtheweb forsale to

hackers –and whil eyou maybevigil ant

enough to regularlychangelogindetails

foractiveaccounts,you mighteasily

overlook that Netflixaccountyou

deactivatedmonthsago.

With re gardstophishing,ifadeal

seemstoo good to be true,iti s. Andif

youaren’tsure, don’tclick alinkinan

email–instead,godirectlytothe

source.That’sgoodadvic eregar dless of

thebrand –Netflix or otherwise –being

misuse dbyphishing criminals.

What dowethink?

If acustomer asks foranaccounttobe

deactivated, then it should be. There’s

no reason foracompanyofany kind to

continue to hold ourdataafter we’ve

quit it sservices. If someonedecides

they miss theservice enough,they’ll

happilyretypetheir bi llingdetails to

regain access.Netflix should have

warned anyone leavingthe servicethat

it wouldbeholdingon to their data for

10 monthsunless specifically instructed

otherwise.

Of course,Netflix is far from theonly

companytodothis–just because you

delete your profileorend asubscription,

it doesn’ tmeanthe datacollection

stop s. Butits hould,and we’d like to see

companiesbeing morehones tabout

what happenstoour personal

informationoncewedepartaservice.

Hackersreactivateand steal

cancelled Netflixaccounts

Anew Netflixscamaskesyoutoenter
Cr carddetails to reactivate your account

ed

it:N

aked

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