You have received an email from a real law firm that deals with a warning, fines, payments and the like? This is most likely a scam designed to steal your data and your money. The allegations in the lawyer's emails are often related to illegal downloads - for example Photoshop CS 6 - or illegal sharing of music and films on the Internet. "No way to pay! Fake warning wave rolls over Germany" headlines in this context, among other things, the online focus. Here I have summarized details and tips against phishing scams for you.
A lawyer or a law firm has sent you a warning by e-mail with a request to pay a fine? Don't panic, this is likely a phishing scam that you can safely ignore.
Warnings with paragraphs and judgments are intended to intimidate
"Your internet connection was used for the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted works of our client“- this can be the introduction to the fake warning. An intimidating appearance is also built up by an official and real existing name of a law firm.
It is reinforced by the firm's logo and by citing paragraphs and judgments of precedents. The whole thing is to ensure that recipients who receive such an email in their inbox transfer the amount stated in the email as quickly as possible and without many questions. Don't get carried away with it!
Tip: Just call the law firm
Don't worry about such an email. Because if you should really get a warning because of a real suspicion, it will be sent by letter anyway and not (only) by email. In addition, you should simply look for the phone number of the specified law firm (e.g. per Ecosia search engine instead of Google) and call there.
So you ask directly on site whether a warning has really been sought against you and whether the law firm actually represents the named client (s). In the same breath you can offer to forward the received mail to the law firm so that they can take legal action against the fraudsters. So in the end everyone helped;)
Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He appears as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with problems of a technical nature. In his free time he drives electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with his iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions for current bugs.
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4 Responses to “Email warning from the lawyer? This could be phishing!”
Nico Alberts
Since the Internet has existed, there have been repeated phishing emails, in which one is shown that one would have to pay an incredible amount of money for a product. And mostly without ever having signed or bought anything. Fortunately, it goes without saying that a reputable lawyer doesn't do that.
I got a phishing email a week ago and almost fell for it. You can quickly enter your data on the Internet and misuse it in the wrong hands. Since I honestly have some concerns, I would like to contact a general lawyer in order to be better prepared in the future, at least in the area of data protection.
Good to know that a warning is never just sent by email. I imagine it would be quite difficult to work in this area of law, after all there are always new phenomena. My aunt, on the other hand, runs a law firm specializing in family law. She especially likes to help children.
I can well imagine hackers trying to intimidate the recipients of such phishing emails by quoting paragraphs. That's why I think it's a good tip to simply call your divorce attorney, for example, to ask whether this e-mail actually came from him. Incidentally, I also gave this tip to my grandparents to prevent them from falling for the so-called grandchild trick.
Sir Apfelot newsreel week 23, 2023
Since the Internet has existed, there have been repeated phishing emails, in which one is shown that one would have to pay an incredible amount of money for a product. And mostly without ever having signed or bought anything. Fortunately, it goes without saying that a reputable lawyer doesn't do that.
I got a phishing email a week ago and almost fell for it. You can quickly enter your data on the Internet and misuse it in the wrong hands. Since I honestly have some concerns, I would like to contact a general lawyer in order to be better prepared in the future, at least in the area of data protection.
Good to know that a warning is never just sent by email. I imagine it would be quite difficult to work in this area of law, after all there are always new phenomena. My aunt, on the other hand, runs a law firm specializing in family law. She especially likes to help children.
I can well imagine hackers trying to intimidate the recipients of such phishing emails by quoting paragraphs. That's why I think it's a good tip to simply call your divorce attorney, for example, to ask whether this e-mail actually came from him. Incidentally, I also gave this tip to my grandparents to prevent them from falling for the so-called grandchild trick.