Be wary of posts on Facebook claiming that you can sign up for a free ‘Movieflix” video streaming service that is ‘better than Netflix”.
The posts are geographically targeted to potential victims in a number of countries including Canada, Australia, the US, UAE, Bermuda, and Germany.
Often, the posts use the same promotional images, but simply swap one targetted country’s flag for another.
Clicking on the posts opens a scam website that has been designed to look like a news report about the “new” streaming service.
Links in the scam news report open a sign-up page for the streaming service, which is supposedly free. However, the site claims that you must provide a valid credit card number for “verification” before you can use the service.
And, despite the “free” claims, fine-print in the footer of the signup page states that, after a trial period of a few days, your credit card will be charged a monthly rate that is considerably more expensive than Netflix. The people who run these scam websites certainly should not be trusted with your credit card details or any other personal information.
In recent months, police and consumer protection agencies around the world have been warning consumers about the scam.
Many of the scam posts used the name “MovieFlix”, but some versions may use alternative names.
If one of these posts shows up on your News Feed, don’t be tempted to click on it. If you have already signed up on one of the scam streaming websites, you should contact your credit card provider as soon as possible and take steps to stop your card from being used fraudulently.
Examples:
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
