IAS Officers Receive Emails Faking SC ID; Supreme Court Registry Cautions Public About Fake Sites Impersonating Official Website

The Supreme Court of India has issued a public notice warning public against fake websites impersonating as the official website of the Court. As the attackers are seeking personal details, it has been cautioned that public persons should not share confidential/financial information at the sites, as the Supreme Court never asks for such information.

Reportedly, the Registry of the Court has taken note of the phishing attack and flagged the same to law enforcement agencies to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The fake websites are stated to be operating via the following uniform source locators (URLs):

(i) www.scigoin.com,

(ii) www.scicbiovven.com

(iii) www.scigoinvon.com

(iv) www.judiciarycheck.in

(v) www.scis.scigovss.net

(vi) www.slcmain.in

(vii) www.judicialsearchinia.com

(viii) www.sclm.in

(ix) www.scin.in

(x) www.scibovven.com

(xi) www.cbisciingov.com

(xii) www.govt.judicialauthority.com

(xiii) www.thescoi.com

(xiv) www.sclcase.com

(xv) www.lx-yindu.top

"Any visitor on the above URLs is strongly advised not to share and divulge any personal and confidential information, as the same shall enable the perpetrators to steal the information" says the notice issued by HS Jaggi, Registrar(Technology) of the Supreme Court. It further informs that the Supreme Court is the registered user of domain name www.sci.gov.in and before clicking on any URL, people should hover over it to verify the same.

In the event of someone becoming a victim of the aforementioned attack, the Court has advised that the victim change their passwords for all online accounts and also contact their bank, credit card company, to report any unauthorized access.

It is worthwhile to mention that on January 6, during the hearing of a PIL, Uttar Pradesh Senior AAG Garima Prashad pointed out to a bench led by Justice Hrishikesh Roy that about 10 IAS officers in the state were sent links via email to join the court proceedings (even though notice had not been issued). This PIL was filed against "illicit felling of 454 sacred trees, destruction of protected wildlife habitats, unlawful financial transactions exceeding Rs.500 crores conducted through unregistered kachi parchi and fraudulent land dealings". It was dismissed by the bench, noting that the petitioner had approached the National Green Tribunal (where the matter was pending) but not disclosed this in his pleadings.

Hearing Prashad's submission that the emails appeared to have been sent by the Supreme Court, Justice Roy asked the Court Master about the same. Subsequently, the judge posed to the petitioner-in-person, "Can you tell us how this mail, not from the official Supreme Court address, has gone to the respondents in this case when we are yet to issue notice?"

When the petitioner categorically denied knowledge of anything in the above regard, the judge said, "Email from a particular Supreme Court address has gone which is not correct, which is not the official one. Somebody has told the respondents to participate in this proceeding. You see the information that has gone from the so-called Supreme Court of India, it says in the end 'thanks and regards'! When summons are issued by the Supreme Court, they don't say 'thanks and regards'...!"

Without passing any order, Justice Roy orally instructed the court staff to bring the issue to the notice of the Registrar.