BATON ROUGE, La. (Legal Newsline) - Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell warned consumers on Thursday about an email scam instructing recipients to appear in court.
The fraudulent emails include the subject line "Notice of Appearance in Court" and is sent from a scammer claiming to be a court clerk telling recipients they need to appear in court for illegal software usage. The emails are impersonating the domain name of multiple well-known law firms. The law firms mentioned in the emails confirmed the emails did not come from them.
The emails contain an attachment that appears to be a copy of the court notice. The attachment may actually link to a computer virus.
The emails request that the recipient bring an identification document on a certain court date.
Sam Pleasant, the head of Caldwell's Public Protection Division, said her office received approximately 20 emails and calls from consumers regarding the fake message. Pleasant said to ignore and delete the emails, as they are not official court notices and recipients do not need to appear in court.
Consumers can contact Caldwell's office if they receive the scam email to file a complaint.
In addition to mediating and looking into consumer complaints and inquiries, Caldwell's Consumer Protection Section also conducts workshops, training and eduction seminars on important consumer issues.
La. AG says scam instructs targets to appear in court, impersonates well-known law firms
ORGANIZATIONS IN THIS STORY