Scammers continue to target Netflix customers via bogus subscription notification messages.
The fake notifications, which are delivered via email and text message, urge you to follow a link to deal with a supposed problem with your Netflix subscription.
The bogus messages often claim that a recent payment has failed or that you need to verify your subscription details. The messages warn that your account will be cancelled or put on hold if you don’t quickly take action.
Clicking opens a website containing a fraudulent account update form. The form asks for your credit card numbers, name and contact details, and other sensitive personal information. The scam website uses the same colours, logos, and branding you expect on the real Netflix site.
Scammers can collect the information you enter and use it to commit credit card fraud and identity theft.
Be wary of any message claiming to be from Netflix that says you must click a link to fix a supposed account or billing problem.
The Netflix website includes information about recognising and reporting such phishing attempts
Screenshots of the scam messages:
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Enduring Urban Legend - The Exploding Cactus Full Of Spiders
Spiders tend to be a common theme of hoaxes and urban legends.
A long-circulated message warns that certain kinds of cacti can harbour large tarantula spiders that will be explosively released from the plants when they reach maturity.
The story has morphed through a number of versions. In fact, the tale predates the Internet, but email and social media have given it new life. The example reproduced below boasts an Australian setting, but others have been set in a variety of locations around the world.
In some versions, the cactus is a small potted specimen that is kept inside the house and does actually explode its load of spiders into the dwelling.
However, the event described in the message never took place. Most types of tarantula live in underground burrows, while a few live in trees. There is no record of them building nests inside cactus plants. Furthermore, even if spider eggs were laid inside a plant, it certainly would not explode when the eggs hatched.
Tarantulas are the giants of the spider world. Given their size and frightening appearance, it is not surprising that they play a starring role in this lovely old tale as well as numerous horror stories and Hollywood films. They are often portrayed as being extremely venomous.
Tarantula venom is not considered to be of medical importance to humans. Of the hundreds of reported cases of tarantula bites very few cause anything more serious than temporary local inflammation.
Although this hoax message is a work of fiction, it is still rather an entertaining tale.
An example of the message:
Subject True story – Australian Quarantine Inspection Service
A true story and its source was the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service in Adelaide.
A bloke and his family were on holidays in the United States and went to Mexico for a week. An avid cactus fan, the man bought a one-metre high, rare and expensive cactus there. On arrival back home Australian Customs said it must be quarantined for 3 months.
He finally got his cactus home. Planted it in his backyard, and over time it grew to about 2 metres. One evening while watering his garden after a warm spring day, he gave the cactus a light spray. He was amazed to see the plant shiver all over, he gave it another spray and it shivered again. He was puzzled so he rang the council who put him on to the state gardens people. After a few transfers he got the state’s foremost cactus expert who asked him many questions. How Tall is it? Has it flowered? etc.
Finally he asked the most disturbing question. “Is your family in the house?” The bloke answered yes. The cactus expert said get out of the house NOW, get on to the front nature strip and wait for me, I will be there in 20 minutes.
Fifteen minutes later, 2 fire trucks, 2 police cars and an ambulance came screaming around the corner. A fireman got out and asked “Are you the bloke with the cactus?” I am, he said. A guy jumped out of the fire truck wearing what looked like a space suit, a breathing cylinder and mask attached to what looked like a scuba backpack with a large hose attached. He headed for the backyard and turned a flame-thrower on the cactus spraying it up and down.
After a few minutes the flame-thrower man stopped, the cactus stood smoking and spitting, half the fence was burnt and parts of the gardens were well and truly scorched. Just then the cactus expert appeared and laid a calming hand on the bloke’s shoulder. “What the hell’s going on?” he says. “Let me show you” says the cactus man. He went over to the cactus and picked away a crusty bit, the cactus was almost entirely hollow and filled with tiger striped bird-eating tarantula spiders, each about the size of two hand spans.
The story was that this type of spider lays eggs in this type of cactus and they hatch and live in it as they grow to full size. When full size they release themselves. The cactus just explodes and about 150 dinner plate sized hairy spiders are flung from it, dispersing everywhere. They had been ready to pop. The aftermath was that the house and the adjoining houses had to be vacated and fumigated: police tape was put up outside the whole area and no one was allowed in for two weeks.
And here’s what one of the spiders looks like sitting on a full size dinner plate.
Criminals often use cryptocurrency Bitcoin to receive payments from victims. How do you report Bitcoin scammers, and does reporting do any good?
Ransomware usually demands payment in Bitcoin, as do fake blackmail sextortion scams.
Typically, scammers instruct you to buy Bitcoin and then send it to a specified Bitcoin address. A Bitcoin address is a unique string of letters and numbers that correspond to a Bitcoin payment source or destination.
While Bitcoin is not completely anonymous, Bitcoin transactions offer users greater anonymity than credit cards and other types of traditional financial transactions. Information on Bitcoin.org notes:
All Bitcoin transactions are stored publicly and permanently on the network, which means anyone can see the balance and transactions of any Bitcoin address. However, the identity of the user behind an address remains unknown until information is revealed during a purchase or in other circumstances.
This makes curtailing Bitcoin scammers challenging, especially since canny criminals will take steps to protect their privacy, such as changing Bitcoin addresses and laundering the stolen funds.
So, is it Worth Reporting Bitcoin Addresses?
Yes, it is!
Unfortunately, reporting a Bitcoin address won’t immediately identify criminals or stop their activities.
However, by reporting a Bitcoin address used in a scam, you are providing a permanent and publicly accessible record of the scam attempt.
Reporting addresses may help prevent others from becoming victims.
Thus, despite limitations, reporting Bitcoin scams is still a valid way of fighting back against online criminal activity.
My spam folder continues to receive variations of the long-running toll charge scam messages. The messages urge you to click a link to pay a toll and avoid extra charges.
People who have recently driven to unfamiliar locations may be especially vulnerable to these scams. They may think that the message is a genuine toll fee request that they need to attend to.
The links in these messages open fake websites that ask you to supply credit card details and other sensitive information. The sites include seemingly genuine branding and logos but have no connection to the targeted toll company.
Any information submitted on these fake sites will be harvested by criminals and used to commit credit card fraud and identity theft.
