Disney Plus Scam — What to Watch Out For

This article is from Trend Micro.

With over 100 million subscribers, it’s no wonder that Disney+ is a prime target for cybercriminals. They employ the same common phishing scam tactics, but with a special Disney twist. Read on to learn how this scam works!

How Disney Plus phishing scams work

Disney Plus phishing scams mostly happen via email. The scammers will send out a massive number of emails to potential victims to try to see if any will take the bait — this is where the term phishing comes from.

One example of a Disney+ phishing scam. Source: Reddit

The emails will appear to come from Disney Plus and they will most often say that there is some kind of problem with the person’s Disney Plus account and that they need to log in to resolve it. Some common lies scammers will use in phishing email scams:

• You’ve been locked out of your account.
• There is a problem with your payment details.
• Somebody has hacked into your account.
• Your account is going to be deleted.

The above examples are by no means an exhaustive list. The scammers are always coming up with new ways to try to trick people.

Whichever lie they use in their emails the scammers’ goal is always the same: to try to trick you into clicking on the embedded phishing link. There will always be a malicious link included in the scammers’ emails, but instead of taking you to the Disney Plus website, it will take you to a malicious copycat version of the site.

The copycat site will be completely controlled by the scammer. This means that they will be able to access every piece of information you enter on the site. Your email address, password, phone number, credit card information — whatever it is, if you enter it onto the malicious copycat site, it will end up in the scammers’ hands.

The scammers' end goal is to either use your personal information to commit identity theft or sell it on an underground forum or the dark web.

Signs of a Disney Plus phishing scam

The scammers are always getting craftier in their approach, but phishing scams will commonly exhibit some telltale signs.

• Typos — The scammers are clever, but they are often not the best at spelling. Carefully read the suspicious emails and look out for spelling mistakes.
• Urgent language — They use words that are intended to scare you into making a rash decision and giving up your personal information.
• A strange, non-official-looking email address — Obviously the scammers don’t actually work for the companies they pretend to work for, so their email addresses won’t be official ones. And they're often full of lots of random letters and numbers, too.

How to stay safe from Disney Plus scams

If you think you’ve received a suspicious email, it could very well be a phishing scam. By far the best thing to do in this situation, and in any other situation where there is a problem with your Disney Plus account, is to contact their support team directly via theDisney+ Help Center. Don’t trust suspicious, unsolicited emails, and don’t enter your personal details onto dubious-looking websites.

Looking for more examples of phishing scams? (Some of them are super creative!)

If so, check out these posts below:

Airline phishing scams

Bank of America phishing scams

At&T phishing scams