Watch Out For This Scam That Looks Like a Totally Legit Email From Netflix

If you're a Netflix subscriber and you got an email saying that your account was about to be suspended, don't open it, and definitely don't give away any personal details.

During the first week of November, more than 110 million Netflix users were targeted in a massive email scam, one that for all intents and purposes looks like a legit email from the streaming giant. But instead of directing you to the actual Netflix website, clicking the "Restart Membership" button on the email leads you to a fake website (that again, looks legit thanks to recent press photos and images) and ultimately provides your credit card details straight to the scammer.

According to the Mailguard Blog, there is an easy way to spot the scam: for whatever reason, while the email addresses of Netflix users were successfully acquired by the scammers, the first names of the users were not. As a result, the greeting on the email reads "Hi, #name#," a dead giveaway that the email didn't come straight from Netflix. So if you see this in the first line of an email that looks real, it's a pretty safe bet that it actually isn't, and you can just immediately delete.

While this is a great way to protect yourself from this specific credit card fraud attempt, you should always make sure to double check that any email you receive that asks for sensitive personal information is what it claims to be. For more tips on how to do this, Mailguard is full of ideas — and for starters, as they suggest, "Always hover your mouse over links within emails and check the domain they're pointing to. If they look suspicious or unfamiliar don't open them."

As usual: the more you know, the better off you are.