--- title: "If You Received an Email from the Supreme Court Would You be Suspicious? | DuoCircle" description: "I hope to never receive an email from the United States Supreme Court. It couldn’t possibly be good news. I would be very suspicious." image: "https://www.duocircle.com/images/og-default.png" canonical: "https://www.duocircle.com/blog/phishing-protection/if-you-received-an-email-from-the-supreme-court-would-you-be-suspicious/" --- Quick Answer A 2020 phishing campaign targeted C-suite executives with emails impersonating the US Supreme Court, using subject lines like "This email is a writ issued by the Supreme Court" to pressure executives into clicking a credential-harvest page. The attack succeeded by combining zero-day phishing pages (not yet on URL blacklists), newly-registered domains (slipping past Microsoft filters), CAPTCHAs (defeating automated URL crawlers), and multi-step redirects to obscure the final destination. Defend with: real-time link-click protection that re-evaluates URLs at click-time rather than only at delivery, DMARC at p=reject to block spoofed sender domains, MFA on every executive account so a phished password alone is not enough, and ongoing awareness training emphasizing skepticism toward unexpected mail regardless of how official it looks. Share [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fif-you-received-an-email-from-the-supreme-court-would-you-be-suspicious%2F "Share on LinkedIn") [ ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=If%20You%20Received%20an%20Email%20from%20the%20Supreme%20Court%20Would%20You%20be%20Suspicious%3F&url=undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fif-you-received-an-email-from-the-supreme-court-would-you-be-suspicious%2F "Share on X/Twitter") [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fif-you-received-an-email-from-the-supreme-court-would-you-be-suspicious%2F "Share on Facebook") [ ](https://reddit.com/submit?url=undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fif-you-received-an-email-from-the-supreme-court-would-you-be-suspicious%2F&title=If%20You%20Received%20an%20Email%20from%20the%20Supreme%20Court%20Would%20You%20be%20Suspicious%3F "Share on Reddit") [ ](mailto:?subject=If%20You%20Received%20an%20Email%20from%20the%20Supreme%20Court%20Would%20You%20be%20Suspicious%3F&body=Check out this article: undefined%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fif-you-received-an-email-from-the-supreme-court-would-you-be-suspicious%2F "Share via Email") ![Email from the Supreme Court](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/05/smtp-service-6736.jpg) _I hope to never receive an email from the United States Supreme Court. It couldn’t possibly be good news_. I would be very suspicious. But there is one small group of people who, if they received such an email, might not be suspicious: C-suite executives. And that’s exactly what some hackers thought as they targeted such individuals with a zero-day credential **phishing attack** impersonating the Supreme Court. According to an [article](https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/phishing/zero-day-credential-phishing-attack-aimed-at-c-suite-execs-impersonates-u-s-supreme-court/) in SC Magazine, “Users received an email with a subject header that read ‘_This email is a writ issued by the Supreme Court’, to compel you to attend the below hearing_. The attackers were mainly trying to use fraudulent emails to **steal credentials** so they could launch other, more destructive attacks.” [![zero-day credential phishing page](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/05/sendgrid-alternative-5637.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/05/sendgrid-alternative-5637.jpg) _The secret to making this attack successful was ensuring it was a zero-day attack_. In other words, it used phishing pages which were brand new and hadn’t shown up in some of the blacklists yet. _Creating a new domain also allowed the emails to slip by Microsoft filters_. From the article, “This attack in the United States has been **tougher to detect** than other such cases around the world because it avoids known malware and instead opts for a zero-day credential phishing page.” The hackers weren’t satisfied with simply creating a new phishing page though. _They employed a series of techniques to avoid detection and to increase the appearance of legitimacy_. According to [HackRead](https://www.hackread.com/fake-supreme-court-subpoena-phishing-scam-office-365-credentials/), “the emails themselves contain a ‘**zero-day link**‘ that redirects the user through a series of steps in a bid to increase the apparent legitimacy of the message. This first involves going through a typical captcha. _The inclusion of CAPTCHA also makes it harder for security technologies relying just on URL redirection abilities to follow the URL to its final destination_.” [![phishing protection software](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/05/hosted-email-server-9237.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/05/hosted-email-server-9237.jpg) So, how should you protect yourself from these clever, **zero-day phishing attacks**? First, you need to be vigilant. You should be permanently suspicious of any email you weren’t expecting. Second, you should deploy real-time [phishing protection software](/email/phishing-protection) like that available from DuoCircle. _Phishing Protection from DuoCircle is real-time_. That means one second after the first phishing email is discovered, you’re protected. _There’s no waiting 24 hours to check an updated blacklist_. And Phishing Protection is fast to deploy and incredibly affordable, _only pennies per user per month_. Even if you don’t inhabit the C-suite, you and everyone in your company should be protected from the next **zero-day phishing attack** by deploying Phishing Protection from [DuoCircle](/). You can try it **free for 60 days**. ![Brad Slavin](https://media.mailhop.org/dmarcreport/images/team/brad-slavin.jpg) Brad Slavin General Manager General Manager at DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across the email security portfolio. ## Secure your email infrastructure Protect, authenticate, and deliver. Contact our team to find the right solution. [Contact Sales](/contact/) [Explore Products](/products/) Share this article [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.duocircle.com%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fif-you-received-an-email-from-the-supreme-court-would-you-be-suspicious%2F) [ ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=If%20You%20Received%20an%20Email%20from%20the%20Supreme%20Court%20Would%20You%20be%20Suspicious%3F&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.duocircle.com%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fif-you-received-an-email-from-the-supreme-court-would-you-be-suspicious%2F) [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.duocircle.com%2Fblog%2Fphishing-protection%2Fif-you-received-an-email-from-the-supreme-court-would-you-be-suspicious%2F) Copy Related Articles - [ ![AI-Generated Phishing](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2026/04/spf-record-4522.jpg) AI-Generated Phishing Has Eliminated the Typo: Why Traditional Email Filters Are No Longer Enough Phishing ](/blog/ai-generated-phishing-eliminates-typos-making-traditional-email-filters-ineffective/) - [ ![spf-permerror-4555](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2023/05/spf-permerror-4555.jpg) 10 Applications of ChatGPT that Hackers Are Already Exploiting Phishing ](/blog/phishing-protection/10-applications-of-chatgpt-that-hackers-are-already-exploiting/) - [ ![Email-Based Cyber-Attacks](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2016/03/spf-record-tester-4455.jpg) 65% of Global Businesses Ill-Equipped to Defend Against Email-Based Cyber-Attacks Phishing ](/blog/phishing-protection/65-global-businesses-ill-equipped-defend-email-based-cyber-attacks/) - [ ![Email-based Ransomware Attacks](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2018/02/email-smtp-service-7834.jpg) 7 Ways to Protect Your Organization from Email-based Ransomware Attacks Phishing ](/blog/phishing-protection/7-ways-protect-organization-email-based-ransomware-attacks/) ## Related Articles [ Phishing 11m AI-Generated Phishing Has Eliminated the Typo: Why Traditional Email Filters Are No Longer Enough Apr 28, 2026 ](/blog/ai-generated-phishing-eliminates-typos-making-traditional-email-filters-ineffective/)[ Phishing 5m 10 Applications of ChatGPT that Hackers Are Already Exploiting May 3, 2023 ](/blog/phishing-protection/10-applications-of-chatgpt-that-hackers-are-already-exploiting/)[ Phishing 4m 65% of Global Businesses Ill-Equipped to Defend Against Email-Based Cyber-Attacks Mar 29, 2016 ](/blog/phishing-protection/65-global-businesses-ill-equipped-defend-email-based-cyber-attacks/)[ Phishing 9m 7 Ways to Protect Your Organization from Email-based Ransomware Attacks Feb 11, 2018 ](/blog/phishing-protection/7-ways-protect-organization-email-based-ransomware-attacks/) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/images/duocircle-logo.png"},"description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. 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