The U.S. Department of Justice is warning that some spam e-mails purporting themselves to be from the agency and telling recipients to click on an attachment are a hoax and possibly an attempt to install malicious software on people’s computers.
The messages, which begin “Dear Citizen,” claim that that the recipients or their businesses have been the subject of complaints filed with Justice Department and forwarded to the Internal Revenue Service, the agency said.
The e-mails also contained a Justice Department logo and an attachment recipients were instructed to open to get contact information to respond.
“The Department of Justice did not send these unsolicited email messages — and would not send such messages to the public via e-mail,” the agency said in a statement. “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.”
The agency said that opening the attachment may result in the installation of malicious software on the recipient’s computer.
“Do not open any attachment to such messages,” said the agency’s statement. “Delete the e-mail. Empty the deleted items folder.”
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