State and federal courts are sounding an alarm about phishing attempts using an email that purports to be from the federal court system.
A warning on the website for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina alerted lawyers to the threat. The post made Wednesday says that an email about notices of electronic filing is being sent to lawyers from the email address that ends with the domain @uscourts.gov.ecf.digital.
Says the post: “These fake NEFs are phishing attempts to convince recipients to respond to the emails. Once a recipient replies to the email, the recipient is sent a follow-up email containing a link to access a document that leads the user to a malicious website.”
A check of the WhoIs website hosting database shows the domain’s registrant contact is Privacy Protect LLC, and that the identifying information for its owner is redacted.
Though it has received no reports of the scam targeting users of the state’s e-filing system, the South Carolina Judicial Branch echoed the warning in a post made Thursday.
“[W]e take this opportunity to remind you that NEFs generated by our system do not contain hyperlinks of any kind. If you receive a purported NEF from the SCJB E-filing system containing hyperlinks, do not click on them,” the branch’s post says.
It also asks any recipients of such a message to report it to the branch’s e-filing help desk at 855-235-2500.