I was just harpooned

This is the email that my business partner and I both received first thing this morning:
From: United States District Court <subpoena@uscourts.com>
To: Ed Moed
Sent: Wed Apr 16 08:13:26 2008
Subject: Subpoena in case #69-444-CAV

AO 88(Rev.11/94) Subpoena in a Civil Case ________________________________

United States District Court Federal Seal <http://www.ctd.uscourts.gov/assets/sm_seal.jpg>  Issued by the UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT    
________________________________
Issued to:      Edward Moed
Peppercom   212-931-6100    

SUBPOENA IN A CIVIL CASE
Case number:      69-444-CAV
United States District Court    

YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED to appear and testify before the Grand Jury of the United States District Court at the place, date, and time specified below. ________________________________
Place:      United States Courthouse
880 Front Street
San Diego, California 92101    
Room:      Grand Jury Room  5217    
Date and Time:      May 9, 2008  9:00 a.m. PST    
Issuing officers name and address: O'Mevely & Meyers LLP; 400 South Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071    
________________________________
Please download the entire document on this matter(follow this link) and print it for your record. <http://casd-uscourts.com/ViewCase.php?case=69-444-CAV> 
This subpoena shall remain in effect until you are granted leave to depart by the court or by an officer on behalf of the court.
Any organisation not a party to this suit that is subpoenaed for the taking of a deposition shall designate one or more officers, directors, or managing agents, or other persons to testify on its behalf, and may set forth, for each person designated, the matters on which the person will testify. Federal Rules of Civil Procedures,20(b)(6).
Failure to appear at the time and place indicated may result in a contempt of court citation. Bring this subpoena with you to the courtroom and present it to the bailiff. Direct any questions to the person requesting you to appear: City Prosecutor.

After our combined hearts skipped quite a few beats, we were told that this is the latest Internet Phishing Scam.  And, it's a big one according to today's New York Times. In fact, it's so big that law enforcement officials are actually calling this one "whaling," because the scam is aimed at high ranking executives (big fish) in hopes of stealing passwords and secure information.

Keeping with the metaphors, Steve and I felt like harpooned whales this morning. We both downloaded the information to find out what possible miserable law suit we were entangled in. It sounds like more than 2000 other big kaunas were victims as well.

It's really hard to know who or what is real these days on the Web. As much as I initially questioned the validity of being subpoenaed by email, I was all too eager to believe it and follow the cyber crooks' marching orders.

The goal of this post is two-fold: Hopefully, I can do a little on my end to spread the word about this scam to readers who also might be targets. And, let's just say that executives need to turn their radar on high from here on in for anything that looks "phishy". Cause something's telling me that the scams will only become more sinister, creating havoc for unknowing recipients who will not see through these fraudulent schemes. And. the consequences could be dire.

(Thanks to Steve Cody for the headline.)

Comments

[Brad Webb]

I just got this in my inbox as well. It looked extraordinarily phishy -- so I avoided the link. Hopefully this post (I searched for the URL the link provided, casd-uscourts.com) will help other folks. Probably wouldn't hurt for the folks that received this to put in some complaints to the registrar -- .com addresses are easier to get taken offline for scams.

[Edwin]

This was aimed at our Exec's as well. Nod32 blocked the virus as suspicious even though it didn't know what it was.

[Mariana Sarceda]

Phisy and scary!!! Spammers are really thinking big and ahead of all of us!!!