You might wanna read this http://blog.malwarebytes.org/fraud-scam/2014/02/netflix-phis...

Edit:You might wanna scroll up a bit becasue the site header is blocking the comment.

I seem to recall that when I called my US bank, they would ask me for the last three or four digits of my SSN to confirm I am who I am. My bank in Canada always asks me for my birthdate.

Yes, companies you do business with do ask for your personal information. While you definitely shouldn't give out your personal information to someone who calls you, it's common-place to have to give your personal information to a business that you have called.

In this case, the person received an email saying "please call this number". Legitimate businesses do this as well (I got one from my bank: http://canspice.org/2013/06/06/cibc-credit-card-fraud-depart...).

From the author's comment on the original article[1]

"This link could very well have been sent as spam or through a rogue ad. That’s not how I discovered it though. The phone number used in this scam matched one that I had tracked previously. It’s only after (by going to the root of that domain which was not protected) that I discovered that there was also a phishing scam in there."

[1].http://blog.malwarebytes.org/fraud-scam/2014/02/netflix-phis... You might wanna scroll up a bit becasue the site header is blocking the comment.

Seems like it was a site phishing prompting him to call the number when (obviously) unable to log in.