U.S. Courts’ Notice: Invalid Subpoenas

The U.S. Courts’ website (www.uscourts.gov) has the following alert:

Reports have been received of bogus e-mail grand jury subpoenas, purportedly sent by a United States District Court.  The e-mails are not a valid communication from a federal court and may contain harmful links.  Recipients are warned not to open any links or download any information relating to this e-mail notice.  The federal Judiciary’s email address is uscourts.gov.  The e-mails in question appear to be sent from a similar address that is not owned and operated by the federal courts.  Law enforcement authorities have been notified.

More information about the e-mail scam may be found in this New Jersey Law Journal article by Mary Pat Gallagher, "Businesses Hit With E-Mail Blast of Virus-Carrying Pseudo-Subpoenas," an excerpt from which follows:

Thousands of executives received e-mails on Monday purporting to be federal court subpoenas but which appear to be part of a "phishing" scam to capture sensitive data.

The pseudo-subpoenas bear the seal of the U.S. District Court and docket numbers from real cases, though apparently closed ones, without party names.  They command an appearance on May 7 before a grand jury in a particular room at the U.S. courthouse in San Diego.

They identify the originating e-mail address as "subpoena@uscourts.com" and contain a link with an instruction to "download the entire document on this matter … and print it for you record.". . .   

View the full article here (free registration required) or here on law.com.