Thousands of company executives received e-mails mid-April that purported to be federal court subpoenas but instead appear to be part of a "phishing" scam to capture sensitive data. The invalid subpoenas: (a) bear the seal of the U.S. district court and docket numbers from real cases; (b) command an appearance before a grand jury; (c) identify the originating e-mail address as subpoena@uscourts.com; and (d) contain a link with an instruction to "download the entire document on this matter ... and print it for your record."

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts posted an alert on its web site that can be found at www.uscourts.gov. The alert is captioned "Notice: Invalid Subpoena" and states that e-mails containing grand jury subpoenas "are not a valid communication from a federal court and may contain harmful links." It reminds that the judiciary's address ends in ".gov" (not ".com") and states that law enforcement authorities have been notified.

Duane Morris LLP hopes that you and your company have not been affected by this scam. If you have received a subpoena or other suspicious documents via e-mail, you should consult legal counsel to review the authenticity of the subpoena and other documents. Further, there are potential criminal and civil liability actions that may arise from this event.

In order to protect your company's computer system from such scams, computer users should review — before opening e-mails — their e-mail messages carefully for: (a) misspellings; (b) the proper spelling of the originating e-mail address; (c) whether such a document is usually sent via e-mail; and (d) other indicia of impropriety or fraud.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Sheila Raftery Wiggins of the Trial Practice Group or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

This article is for general information and does not include full legal analysis of the matters presented. It should not be construed or relied upon as legal advice or legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. The description of the results of any specific case or transaction contained herein does not mean or suggest that similar results can or could be obtained in any other matter. Each legal matter should be considered to be unique and subject to varying results. The invitation to contact the authors or attorneys in our firm is not a solicitation to provide professional services and should not be construed as a statement as to any availability to perform legal services in any jurisdiction in which such attorney is not permitted to practice.

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