Law Firms

Beware of E-Mail Bearing O’Melveny Name

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  • Print.

Thousands of CEOs have received spyware e-mails bearing the name of O’Melveny & Myers.

The e-mails contain attachments purporting to be grand jury subpoenas and are sent from a uscourts.com address, Legal Pad reports. But computer users who open the attachments could install spyware that logs their keystrokes.

The U.S. Courts website is warning that the subpoenas are bogus and should not be opened.

Above the Law broke the story. The blog’s David Lat investigated after wondering why O’Melveny turned up seventh on a Google list of the day’s trends. Lat spoke with Marty Metz, director of information technology for the firm, and learned that the spammers listed O’Melveny and some other law firms as well.

“They include a reference to a subpoena in a case that has been long since over, and [some] even misspell O’Melveny’s name,” Metz told Above the Law. “It’s an Internet hoax, a spam attack.”

Give us feedback, share a story tip or update, or report an error.