What is the Summon To Court For Pedophilia email scam?

The Summon To Court For Pedophilia email falls into the scam category. The email is made to look like it’s sent by law enforcement and claims that the recipient is about to be charged with serious crimes, including possessing child pornography, sexual assault, and pedophilia. The email instructs the recipient to reply to the email with their justifications. It’s likely that if users engage with this scam email, they will eventually be asked to pay from several hundred to thousands of dollars. However, the contents of these emails are completely false.

 

 

Law enforcement scams have been around for many years but they’re becoming increasingly rarer, replaced by sextortion scams. However, some campaigns do appear once in a while. Such as this Summon To Court For Pedophilia email scam. There are several versions of this particular email, including one in French, Dutch, Lithuanian, and English. They all more or less say the same thing but are personalized to each specific country.

These Summon To Court For Pedophilia email scams contain law enforcement logos, which differ depending on which country’s users it’s targeting. The sender claims to be from either Europol or the local law enforcement agency and explains that the recipient has been named a suspect in several severe crimes, including pedophilia, sexual assault, trafficking, and possession of child pornography. The emails claim that seized communications and collected materials have incriminated the recipient, and a formal indictment has been established. The recipient is requested to respond within 72 hours with their justifications via email. If communication is not established, an arrest warrant will supposedly be issued and the recipient will be reported to all European law enforcement agencies. The email also mentions that the recipient will be registered in the European registry of sexual offenders. What’s more, their picture and details will also be sent to the mass media.

It’s difficult to say what the exact goal of this email scam is because, besides a request to make contact, it does not contain any other instructions. However, it’s likely that if a user makes contact, they would be instructed to pay a “fine”, from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. The scam could also be trying to get users’ personal information.

While the contents of such emails may seem alarming, they are completely false. The email makes very little sense but scammers count on users being alarmed enough to not pay close attention. Besides the email being riddled with grammar and spelling mistakes (no matter which language it’s written in), it also makes very little sense logically. The recipient is accused of incredibly severe crimes, if they were truly suspected of having done those things, they would not be contacted via email to explain themselves. They would have been arrested immediately.

The English version of the Summon To Court For Pedophilia email scam is below:

EUROPOL

OFFICE EUROPEEN DE POLICE (EUROPOL)
Creation 1er juillet 1999
Siege Eisenhoweriaan 73
Drapeau : Pays-Bas La Haye
Coordonnees 52 ” 05″ 34″ N, 4″ 16′ 53″ E
Employes 1065 (decembre 2016)1
Budget annuel € 116.4 millions (2017)2
Ministre responsable Drapeau de la France Jean-Philippe Lecouffe (Directeur Executif Adjoint)
Eisenhoweriaan 73 Drapeau : Pays-Bas La Haye

CYBERCRIME COMPLAINT

I am Mr. Jean-Philippe LECOUFFE, Executive Director of the European Police Office (Europol) and Director of the European Cybercrime Centre. I am contacting you due to a computer seizure of CYBER INFILTRATION, which is authorized in a particular in the fields of:

– CYBERPORNOGRAPHY
– CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
– PEDOPHILIA
– EXHIBITIONISM
– INDECENT ASSAULT, SEXUAL ASSAULT, SEXUAL ABUSE AND TRAFFICKING
– CONSULTATION OF PORNOGRAPHIC SITES INVOLVING MINORS

We have intercepted communications and collected material elements incriminating you.

A formal indictment file for the above-mentioned serious facts has been established.

This is a summons to which you must respond immediately by e-mail:

jean-philippe.lecoufe@etik.com

You are requested to contact us with your justifications in writing so that it can be examined and verified in order to assess the sanctions, within 72 hours of receiving this message.

After this period, we will be obliged to obtain an arrest warrant from the Public Prosecutor with immediate effect and to report you to all European law enforcement agencies. You will also be registered in the European Registered of Sexual Offenders, and your details and photography will be sent to associations and child protection organizations as well as to the mass media (press, radio, television …) for wide dissemination as provided for by the legislation in force.

You are now warned.
Sincerely.
Jean-Philippe LECOUFFE
MR JEAN-PHILIPPE LECOUFFE DIRECTEUR ADJOINT DEUROPOL OFFICE. CHEF DE BRIGADE DE PROTECTION DES MINEURS

Users may be wondering why they received these Summon To Court For Pedophilia scam emails. It’s certainly not because they’re suspects and about to be arrested. It’s usually because their email addresses have been leaked. If a service has poor security and gets targeted in a cyberattack, users’ information could be stolen. Some services also leak information by accident. Whatever the case may be, this information ends up on hacker forums, where it’s sold to cybercriminals. Users can check haveibeenpwned whether their email addresses have been leaked.