Imposter scams are particularly dangerous because, at first glance, the message appears to be from a company you do business with – from Amazon to the U.S. Postal Service. One of the latest scams to show up on the ConsumerAffairs-Trend Micro Threat Alert targets Paramount TV customers.

It’s not exactly clear if the email is sent at random to millions of people or specifically targets Paramount subscribers. But an email that is showing up in many inboxes looks legit at first glance.

Your membership plan ParamountTV will be paid and activated shortly! After that you will be able to sign in to your ParamountTV account with an email adress that you have mentioned throughout the registration process, and get an access to the most popular movies and shows. Also right now, Paramount television is available in the Panasonic TV App Store for download. Users can follow the on-screen prompts to sign in through the mobile or web experience.

Your Paramount+ subscription is going to be automatically prolonged with the same payment information that has been used to sign up for free trial every next month.

We are thankful you decided to continue with Paramount TV.

In the invoice below you will be able to find all the details regarding your subscription and our customer care phone number. Please call us anytime, we will be happy to help you with your subscription.

Use ParamountTV on any number of devices. However, you are limited to the number of simultaneous streams at any time.

Sincerely,

Paramount team

But the email is not legit. By clicking on the “invoice,” any number of bad things could happen. Most likely, it would unleash malware on your device.

Southwest Airlines survey scam

Also this week, Trend Micro's research team identified scammers inviting email receivers to participate in a short survey to get $100 gift card.  Trend Micro detected 918 logs on October 7, 2023. 

Jon Clay, vice president of Threat Intelligence at Trend Micro, says the goal is to steal personal information from victims.

“The incentive is typically a monetary reward for participation in the survey, but there is usually a requirement to share your information in order to receive the reward,” Clay told ConsumerAffairs.   

In a recent scam, Clay says scammers were exploiting the Southwest Airlines brand in an attempt to lend legitimacy to their survey, offering a $100 gift card as an incentive.   

“Consumers should exercise caution with unsolicited messages offering financial rewards for completing surveys,” Clay said. “If a reputable brand is mentioned, we advise that you verify the offer by visiting the business’s official website and navigating to the survey from there.”

Another scam that showed up this week is a Coinbase phishing scam. Trend Micro researchers found scammers impersonating Coinbase, informing users of receiving funds to their wallet and asking the victims to verify their recovery phrase on a fake log-in page.