Fake Pre-Settlement Emails Used to Scam Money Out of File Sharers

Scammers are posing as law firms and are sending fake copyright infringement notification emails to Internet users in an attempt to scare them into paying settlement fees.

According to TorrentFreak, which reported this new type of scam, the fake emails bear a subject of "Investigation Against You" and purport to be sent by a legit German law firm called Rechtsanwalt Florian Giese.

The from field is spoofed and the sender email address can vary. Some of the addresses observed so far are: giese@ra-giese.info, zahlung@ra-giese.info, giese@lawyer-giese.info and zahlung@rechtsanwalt-giese.info.

The messages claim that the law firm is acting on behalf of Videorama GmbH, a German film production and distribution company dating back to 1993.

"The subject of our assignment is that your Internet connection was used on a so-called peer-to-peer network and committed copyright infringement on works held by our clients," the scammers claim in the fake emails.

They go on to list the IP address allegedly used by the recipient when committing the offense and the number of files involved.

The emails also cite German laws and mention a real case when a German court imposed a significant penalty against a man for illegaly downloading music.

"As you may have already noticed from the media, today copyright infringement cases in court usually lead to a large fine and court costs," the scammers write, in an attempt to scare users.

Eventually, people are told that everything can be settled out of court if they agree to send 100 euros via Ukash or Paysafecard.

Unfortunately, such scam emails have a high chance of success, because the sending of copyright infringement pre-settlement letters is common in many countries.

"Rechtsanwalt Florian Giese is not responsible for the fraudulent e-mails with the subject ‘investigation against you’. These are spam emails from fraudsters," a spokesperson for the law firm told TorrentFreak.