The following is the text of an notice posted on the Department of Justice’s website by Laura E. Duffy, U.S. Attorney for Southern District of Arizon:
Justice Department Urges Public Not to Respond to Email
Please be advised that a bogus e-mail is being distributed alerting the recipients that they have been subpoenaed before the Grand Jury in the United States District in San Diego. These Subpoenas are not genuine and were not issued by this court. Please disregard them and do not open any links within the e-mail.
THESE EMAIL MESSAGES ARE A HOAX. DO NOT RESPOND.
The Department of Justice did not send these unsolicited email messages—and would not send such messages to the public via email. Similar hoaxes have been recently perpetrated in the names of various governmental entities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Internal Revenue Service.
Email users should be especially wary of unsolicited warning messages that purport to come from U.S. governmental agencies directing them to click on file attachments or to provide sensitive personal information.
These spam email messages are bogus and should be immediately deleted. Computers may be put at risk simply by an attempt to examine these messages for signs of fraud. It is possible that by “double-clicking” on attachments to these messages, recipients will cause malicious software – e.g., viruses, keystroke loggers, or other Trojan horse programs – to be launched on their computers.
Do not open any attachment to such messages. Delete the e-mail. Empty the deleted items folder.
For more on this story read “Hoax Email Claims US Attorney Laura Duffy Now Targeting Storefront Pharmacies.” and “US Attorney Calls Pharmacy Crackdown Letters A ‘Hoax’.”
