No, Netflix is not joining the many streaming sites that are extending free trials to help those who are housebound during the COVID-19 quarantine period; we just saw news of CBS All Access' one-month trial deal, which is actually is an attack

Graham Cluley (an independent security consultant) blogs about this attack at Bitdefender, but I didn't need to read his post to know about this situation One of our staff writers received an email from a malicious scammer who was trying to get a hold of the email

The message, delivered via SMS email or WhatsApp message, suggested that Netflix was offering free access to its premium tier (with 4K streaming, usually $1599/month) Cluley published a screenshot and said that the scammers were "trying to get you to pay for the service urged users to act quickly The message reads: "It'll be over soon, run the site!"

A large red

A big red flag? The URL in this text has no Netflixcom Instead, it uses the domain name "netflix-usa[dot]net"; the scam email sent to Tom's Guide staff uses an even stranger domain name, "flix2years33[dot]xyz"

How fraudulent? When you visit the site, a ticker displays the number of free accounts and asks you to share the link with 10 friends (the pyramid scheme will never go out of business)

As for what happens next, we didn't click through But we wouldn't be shocked to hear that they will ask you to share important personal information or download applications that are likely to be laced with something harmful on your device

Right now, it is very easy to keep these malicious individuals off your back Just don't open the URLs in these emails; Netflix will never contact you via text, and you shouldn't trust anyone who tries to send you free Netflix information

Also, do not trust text links, even if the URL does not look suspicious It's easy to imagine a trickier-looking link that uses a capital i instead of a lowercase L and writes netfIixcom Seems close enough, doesn't it? Especially to an unsuspecting target

The scam also has a Spanish variant, which appears to be sent as a push notification

Next, report the emailer to WhatsApp or block them on your phone: tap the scammer's name at the top of the WhatsApp message screen, scroll down and tap "Report Contact"; for iPhone SMS, tap the icon bubble at the top of the screen then tap Info, tap the contact's row, scroll down, and tap Block; on Android, click the three-dot button in the upper right corner of the message window, select People and Options, and tap Block twice

Trying to find something to watch without paying? Check out PlutoTV, a fine free streaming service that has tons of (ad-supported) content, including major movies and current TV shows (it had the premiere of Star Trek: Picard!)