Notice of Subpoena from Google?

Anyone else get a weird email like this....

[heyday]

A cousin of mine got a weird email claiming to be from Google Legal Support about some civel subpoena they have received in some case involving two companies....they say the subpoean is asking for information related to his account...and that if he doesn't inform them that he wants to quash the supoena they may give out the information.

Has anybody else seen an email like this recently.... he forwarded it to me and it looks real.

My cousin did some Adwords stuff a year ago......

This makes no sense......are other people getting this?

heyday

[poster_boy]

Reeks of fraud. I'd notify Google and introduce these spammers to the real Google Legal Support.

[Bewenched]

yup .. I smell something fishy about that as well.

[RhinoFish]

i got something like this once, was a merchant i had applied for (as an affiliate) and I had setup a keyword campaign but never ran it. the merchant went under and got sued, lawyers subpoened G for anyone with certain keywords and destination urls in their account to find all people who had been promoting the guy's program. they were looking for financials partners of his that may also be liable for the debts i guess. details aren't important here, just that entities can subpoena data from G and G's telling you they're going to comply and provide the data and that data includes something in your account. so since you're involved, G's giving you a heads up that if you want to legally prevent G from providing your data (when they comply with the subpoena), now is the time for your lawyer to interrupt that process and have the court tell G your data isn't to be released, if that's your goal and the court so agrees.

if you do nothing, G's saying they will release your data per the subpoena. unless you act, they really have no other alternative.

contacting G in this is pointless as well, they are not arbritrating any dispute, just complying with a legally binding subpoena. they can't change the subpoena. you'll get a standard reply if you contact them. if you want something else to happen, you need to consult an attorney.

i'm not a lawyer.

[edited by: RhinoFish at 2:14 pm (utc) on July 3, 2007]

[poster_boy]

contacting G in this is pointless as well

Google can, at least, confirm that this correspondence is legitimate. If it is confirmed as legit, your advice seems sound, Rhinofish. But, if it is confirmed as being illegitimate (it sounds like several phishing emails I've received that all looked real), you can save the time it would take to retain a lawyer - and provide Google with the appropriate evidence to pursue the criminals.

[leadegroot]

Checking the email headers would certainly seem to be the first step, at any rate.

[heyday]

Looks like it is legit.....he contacted the attorney who is doing the subpeona.....looks like they are in the discovery phase right now.... they are trying to get information on anyone that bid on a certain keyword. My cousin got a copy of the subpeona...

Now his is wondering if he should go through the effort to squash it or just ignore it.....

heyday

[irish_john]

Ask google Legal for a copy of the subpoena. They should do that at least for you.