Fraudsters Attack California Residents with Scam E-Mail

Officials of the Department of Pima County Sheriff, California, are cautioning local inhabitants about a phishing e-mail that is making the rounds in the state.

The officials state that the scam involves distribution of e-mails to people about a fake grand jury subpoena that includes number of a court case and the courtroom, a court stamp and the case's federal code, all of which make the fraudulent e-mail appear authentic.

Furthermore, the recipients of the fake e-mail are directed to appear before the jury to testify and it instructs them to click an embedded link, says the Department of the Pima County Sheriff, as reported by azstarnet on September 30, 2008.

The Department further elaborated that once the e-mail's recipients click on the given link, a vicious code starts downloading and gets installed onto their PCs, allowing the fraudster to gain access to the infected systems.

The authorities further disclosed that the message in the e-mail threatens the users with legal charges if they do not send the reply.

Security specialists state that the e-mail is part of a dangerous scam that could create problems for the end-users with vicious malware.

Moreover, the Sheriff's Department indicates that this scam began in California. Although no report has come in of any incident from the Tuscon region, it wanted to alert the residents that a 'phishing' scam was running, as reported by Fox11az on September 29, 2008.

However, the Department informs the inhabitants that courts would never send a formal request via e-mail.

Furthermore, it suggests the California people that any time they receive such e-mail, they immediately inform about it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov.

According to the security specialists, incidents involving such kind of fraudulent e-mails have not been hit inboxes for the first time in California. In late August, another scam attacking the State's taxpayers circulated as it sought personal information to commit identity theft. The scam utilized the names of the US Tax Court and Internal Revenue Service to give the e-mail an authentic look.

Related article: Fraudster Acquiesce To Online Bank Theft

» SPAMfighter News - 10/7/2008