Email scam?

Plex Media Server
1

Recently got an email from a suspicious email address telling about action required to update PMS on Linux systems. Here’s what the email said:

Action Required to Update Plex Media Server on Linux Systems

Dear Plex User,

You are receiving this email because our records show you are running Plex Media Server on a Linux distribution that uses Redhat or Debian based package managers, this includes Ubuntu, Raspbian, Linux Mint, and other popular distros. If you’re running Plex Media Server in Docker or NAS Devices you can ignore this email.

We have recently made changes to our build systems that will require you to update how your Plex Media Server is configured in order to continue receiving versions updates via your package manager.

This support article documents the instructions for migrating to the new repository. You can either execute a single line command that will complete the process automatically or follow the steps to complete the updates yourself. You will not be able to update Plex Media Server via your package manager until you complete this migration.

If you have trouble completing this migration, please reply to this forum post and we’ll help you get this addressed. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Your Friends at Plex

Did not find anything about this on here, so must be a scam, right?

I was surprised to not find anything about scam emails on the forums. Thought I’d share this just in case anybody else was getting the same message.

If this does not belong here, please move it somewhere more suitable. I’m just a concerned user and wanted to point this out. It’s almost 6 am and I didn’t want to forget to do this.

2

The support article on here seems legit?

https://support.plex.tv/articles/235974187-enable-repository-updating-for-supported-linux-server-distributions/

3

There is no scam going on, the links in the email lead to the support article about these changes.

However, the instructions on how to do it manually, at least on debian based systems is wrong and will end up with a “access denied” when trying to add the new key.

I applaud you being cautious though, always better to ask than be sorry.

If it’s 6am, and you haven’t slept, go to bed and deal with this later, there is no immediate rush…

4

I received the same email and was wondering the same as the OP. Can someone from Plex confirm that this is legit and if it is, confirm/refute the “access denied” issue that body_bedna pointed out.

riseof1, I agree it looks legit, but spoofing an individual page is just so dang easy. I am not trying to dismiss your comment, but would like to see Plex providing multiple notifications on something like this, not just a simple email.

5

It’s legit, there’s just a typo in the linux commands. No spam/scam email is going to have a link to a legitimate article found on this forum. The email address doesn’t really look sketchy, it came from plex[.]tv not a random gmail account.

As others have said, its good to be cautious - but I didn’t bat an eye at this when I saw it this morning.

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1 Like
7

After looking around on other forums and reddit and finding out others were suspicious too, I no longer feel like an over-cautious idiot. :grin:

Right now my Plex server is running in a Debian-based LXC in Proxmox, so I’ll start working on updating that. Next on the list will be another server running on my main PC running EOS.

Thanks all for the replies.