You've had a Spotify account for years, your credit card is linked, and the expiry date is looming. Then an email arrives: "We encountered an issue while processing your recent payment." Click the button to "update payment method," it says. Simple, right? Wrong - that email is not from Spotify, and that button leads to a cloned scam site that steals your login, card details, address, and phone number before the criminals go on a shopping spree.

Barry* (name changed to protect the embarrassed) fell for it while multitasking - "I saw the email on my phone while I was having a conversation and watching the tennis so just tapped the link," he told the Guardian. He was immediately hit with a suspicious credit card check for 'Tm Connect' followed by a Ticketmaster transaction in US dollars for the equivalent of £469.22. Luckily, he used virtual credit cards, so he could cancel the card and change his password quickly. "I never thought I would be the kind of person to fall for a scam," he said, proving that schadenfreude has a short shelf life.

The fake emails are convincing replicas: Spotify's logo, the right colour scheme, the "MySpotify" name. But telltale signs include no subscription tier mentioned, all-lowercase subject lines, and - the big one - the email doesn't come from an @spotify.com address, and the link goes to a random domain, not spotify.com.

Spotify's spokesperson reminded everyone: "We will never ask for personal information via email, including payment details, passwords, or government-issued identification numbers." They also don't request payments through third-party services or ask you to download files from emails. So if an email asks for any of that, it's a scam.

If you get such an email, don't click links. Go directly to Spotify.com to update your info. Check email headers and URLs for the spotify.com domain. Report the scam to your email provider and forward it to spoof@spotify.com. If you already fell for it, reset your password, check for unauthorized changes, and contact your bank if payment details were compromised. Spotify also offers tools to recover accounts and lost playlists - just prove ownership with a receipt or bank statement.