A company of cyber thieves is purporting to sell stolen Netflix accounts for as little as $0.25 per account – access is granted to the purchaser, who is able to use the account without the rightful owner ever knowing about it.
According to NBC, the online security company Symantec reportedly discovered a series of advertisements showing Netflix log-in information for sale. Symantec will now disclose the names of the sites or forums where these ads were spotted.
The ads claim each account sold to be “freshly cracked,” ie recently stolen. Account information can be obtained by outside parties in any number of ways, including phishing, which involves getting a user to divulge account information under false pretense – in a fake email, for example.
Not only that, but the ads warn users not to change any passwords or billing information, so as not to alert the account’s owner that someone else might be using their accounts.
What these ads are claiming to sell is illegal – but incredibly difficult to detect and rectify. This is a result of Netflix having somewhat of a lax attitude toward sharing accounts, as well as toward simultaneous use by multiple users.
In order to figure out if someone else might have gotten ahold of your Netflix account, it might help to check your list of recently watched shows. If everything seems familiar and all is in order, then no problem. However, if there are unidentified shows and stuff you don’t recognize, there could be a problem.