Beware the email calling you to a “district court appearance”
Did you receive the same scam email about a “district court appearance” that I received last week? Hopefully you didn’t open the attachment. Snopes.com, the reference source for Internet rumors, cons and misinformation, says if you did you likely uploaded malicious code onto your computer.
This particular fraud, Snopes says, originated in December of 2013 and has since reappeared in inboxes across the globe numerous times. The scammers generate fake urgent notices, sometimes varying the content from court hearings to eviction notices to warrants to appear, and they slot in a variety of cities, dates, times and names of the purported official signatory.
Here’s the text of mine:
From: Max.love@vriagrocity.com.
Subject line: Notice of appearance in Court #00405778
June 18, 2015
Notice to Appear,
You have to appear in the Court on the June 25. Please, do not forget to bring all the documents related to the case. Note: The case will be heard by the judge in your absence if you do not come.
You can find the Court Notice is in the attachment.
Kind regards,
Max Love,
Court Secretary.
I did not open the attachment, and now you won’t either (most of us have highly-sensitive antennae for such things these days), but all of us are guilty of being caught off guard at times while multi-tasking. You may also wish, as I did, to alert your parents and children, who may be more susceptible to the ploy. Non-internet-savvy elders and college-age kids (who may fear they have in fact earned themselves a court appearance) may be most likely to open the attachment.
