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Warning over fake police emails

James Savage
James Savage - [email protected]
Warning over fake police emails

Sweden’s police are warning the public to be alert for fake emails - purporting to come from the police themselves.

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The emails, written in Swedish, tell the recipients that they are suspected of breaking copyright laws. Police say those sending the messages ‘have tried to make them appear official, but they contain a number of faults.’

The messages start: ‘You are hereby informed that you are on probable grounds suspected of crimes under the Copyright Act, chapter 8.'

The email purports to be the result of cooperation between the police and Antipiratbyrån (the Swedish Anti-Pirate Office). The email tells the recipients that they have been identified as members of a file-sharing network and will be called in for questioning.

Police are so far not sure who has been sending the emails or what their purpose is.

“We don’t have any idea who is sending them or why. We have made some inquiries, but have not found any malicious code,” Anders Ahlqvist of the National Criminal Investigation Department’s IT crime section told The Local.

The recipients seem to have been chosen randomly.

“We haven’t found any pattern when it comes to receivers,” he said.

Ahlqvist said that the most likely motive for sending the emails is political.

“All we can think right now is that someone is trying to make his voice heard.”

People who receive the emails are advised by police to delete them and not to call the police.

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