Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: fake court letters in the UK, Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov on HMCTS warnings, claims and Report Fraud

Fake court letters and summons

English version for the United Kingdom.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov explains a scam that HMCTS now lists on its own guidance page: emails claiming to be from UK Courts, fake enforcement notices and calls asking you to press 1 about unpaid fines. Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov, a digital security consultant, sets out the UK checks. Which email domains HMCTS has flagged as fake, how a genuine money claim reaches you and how long you have to respond, what a county court judgment really means, how jury summonses arrive, where to look up a court and published judgments, and how to report a fake letter to Report Fraud and the NCSC. Scottish reporting routes are covered where they differ.

Reference / Blog

Published: 23 October 2026 · 15 min read · Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov

01Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: fake court emails reaching UK inboxes

HM Courts and Tribunals Service keeps a guidance page on suspicious calls, emails and texts, last updated on 17 September 2026. It records scam emails claiming to be from UK Courts, written to look like formal notices.

The usual pattern is a hearing notice, a claim or an enforcement letter with a link to view documents or pay. Some carry an attachment described as the court bundle. The aim is either a card payment on a fake page or software on your computer.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reads these emails as a test of speed. They push for a reply the same day, while a real claim or hearing comes with a date and a stated way to respond, and the court can be contacted independently.

People who are genuinely in a dispute are the easiest target. A mass mailing about a debt claim will match someone's real circumstances, so a believable email deserves exactly the same scrutiny as an obviously odd one.

The emails are also written to keep you from asking anyone else. Words such as confidential, final notice or do not ignore are there to keep the reader alone with the message, and showing it to a colleague or relative breaks that pressure at once.

02What HMCTS says about domains and enforcement notices

The HMCTS page names email domains it does not use, such as hmctribunalsservice.com and legislation.org.uk. Both sound official enough to pass a quick glance, which is why they were chosen. A single changed word or an extra letter in a domain is easy to miss on a phone screen.

HMCTS also reports fake Notice of Enforcement documents sent in its name, and a domain, jacobsbailiffs.com, that has no connection with Jacobs Enforcement. A notice that looks right on screen can still come from a sender who has nothing to do with the courts or an enforcement company. Treat such a notice as unverified until the court or the company confirms it.

The guidance gives one rule for doubt: contact the court or tribunal directly, using the Find a court or tribunal service on GOV.UK for contact details. A phone number or reply address inside the message is not a substitute.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests saving the GOV.UK court finder as a bookmark. When a letter turns up, the court's real number is two clicks away, and there is no temptation to use the one printed in the email.

The list of domains on the HMCTS page grows as new scams appear, and the latest update added one used in fake enforcement emails. A sender that is not on the list yet still has to pass the court finder check.

03Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: the 'press 1' call about unpaid fines

HMCTS describes automated calls inviting you to press 1 to speak to an adviser about unpaid fines, made with spoofed numbers. It says it will never call asking for payment from 0300 0132 088, which is an inbound only number, and does not use automated messages to contact you.

Calls from people posing as county court bailiffs, High Court enforcement officers or certificated agents are on the same list. HMCTS states that genuine officers will never phone to ask for your bank details or for a transfer using your sort code and account number.

If a call feels wrong, hang up and dial 159. The service connects you to your own bank, so you can check whether the call was genuine without using any number the caller gave you. You can also end the call and ring the court through the official finder.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov notes that many letters and calls are two halves of one scheme. The short video below follows it in six scenes: the email, the fake domain, the press 1 call, a genuine claim, the check through the court finder and the main piece of advice.

Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov adds that spoofed numbers are the reason caller ID cannot settle the question. A number that looks like a court or a bank on screen still has to be checked by ringing back on a number you found yourself.

04A real money claim: letter or email, and a date to respond

GOV.UK explains that you get a letter or email if someone claims you owe them money. You must respond by the date on that letter or email, and you should respond in the same way the claim was made. The instructions for responding are in the claim itself.

If you are not paying the full amount, you can ask for another 14 days to respond. Missing the deadline can mean paying more or getting a county court judgment. That extra time is a good moment to check the claim with the court and to take advice.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov points out what is missing from this process: a link to pay a stranger, a call from a solicitor offering a discount for paying today, or a demand to reply within hours. A genuine claim tells you how to respond, and that route leads back to the court.

If a claim names a company you do business with, call that company on a number from your contract or its official website. A fake claim often borrows a real company name precisely because people recognise it.

A genuine claim also names the court dealing with it. That name is the starting point for your own check, and the court's contact details should come from GOV.UK, whatever the letter itself suggests.

05Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: why a CCJ threat works so well

A county court judgment means a court has formally decided that a person owes money. GOV.UK says records of such judgments stay for 6 years unless the debt is paid in full within a month.

Scammers know that people fear the effect on their credit file, so a fake email promises that the judgment will be removed if you pay now. The threat is real enough in general terms to make the offer sound like a lifeline. Fear of a damaged credit file is the lever being pulled.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov advises checking whether there is any claim or judgment before thinking about money at all. The court named in the email can confirm it, and a real claim would already have reached you by letter or email with a response date.

Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov adds that a genuine judgment cannot be cleared by paying a stranger through a link. Anything to do with a real judgment goes through the court that made it.

If you are worried about a judgment you never knew about, ask the court named in the letter, using contact details from GOV.UK. The answer settles whether there is anything to deal with at all.

06Jury summonses arrive in the post

GOV.UK says that if you get a jury summons in the post, you must respond within 7 days and confirm whether you can attend. The summons itself comes by post.

That gives a simple filter for jury themed messages. An email or text claiming you missed jury service and must pay a penalty online did not start the way a real summons does. Anything that asks for payment before you have seen a summons deserves a call to the court.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests handling such a message like any other court letter. Do not reply, find the court through the official finder and ask the court directly whether there is anything in your name.

Older relatives are often the ones who receive these calls during the day. A printed note by the phone saying that jury summonses come by post and courts do not take payment by phone does more than any warning read once online.

If you are genuinely due to serve, the summons in the post is the document to rely on. Compare the court named on it with the details on GOV.UK before ringing anyone about it.

07Checking a court and a case before you reply

Start with the court. The Find a court or tribunal service on GOV.UK lists contact details, and HMCTS points people there whenever they are unsure about a call, email or text. Use it for every court letter, even one that looks entirely ordinary.

Published judgments can be searched on Find Case Law, run by The National Archives. It publishes judgments from courts and tribunals in England and Wales and UK wide cases from the Supreme Court and the Privy Council, mostly from the early 2000s onwards.

The same service warns that many lower court judgments are given orally and never written down. An empty search therefore proves little on its own, and the call to the court remains the deciding step.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov recommends asking the court three questions: is there a claim or hearing in my name, what is the reference, and how was I supposed to be notified. A real case produces clear answers to all three.

Write the answers down with the date, the time and the name of the person you spoke to. If the letter later turns out to be part of a wider scam, those notes help both Report Fraud and your bank.

08Attachments, links and look-alike sites

A fake court email often contains an archive of so called court papers, a document that asks you to enable editing, or a link to a secure portal. Each of these is a way to get software onto your device or your card number into a form.

Opening the file to see what it says is the step the sender wants. If you have done it, disconnect the device from the network, run a security scan and change important passwords from a different device. Start with email, because access to your inbox lets a scammer reset almost everything else.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov recommends forwarding suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk, where the NCSC reviews them, and suspicious texts free of charge to 7726. Both help take the sending addresses and sites down faster.

At work, a simple rule protects the whole office: court letters go to whoever deals with legal matters, and nobody opens attachments from them until the court has been contacted.

Mobile phones need the same care. A text with a link to view court papers or pay a fine is handled exactly like an email: no tap, a forward to 7726 and a check with the court.

09Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: a ten minute UK check

First, do not click, pay or call back. Keep the email or text with the sender details and time, and take a screenshot. If the letter came by post, keep the envelope as well.

Second, compare the sender with what HMCTS has flagged and look at the domain itself, letter by letter. Third, find the court through the official court finder and note its phone number and email address.

Fourth, contact the court and ask whether a claim, hearing or enforcement notice exists in your name. Fifth, if the court confirms it, respond the way the genuine documents tell you and consider free advice before paying anything.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov finds that fake letters rarely get past the third step. A genuine case is visible to the court staff you reach yourself, a fake one only to the person who wrote it.

For small firms the order is the same, with one addition: decide in advance who may answer legal letters and pay legal bills. A fake claim that reaches someone without that authority stops there.

10Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: money or details already handed over

If you paid by card or bank transfer, call your bank at once, using 159 or the number on the back of your card. The sooner the bank knows, the better the chance of stopping or tracing the payment. Tell the bank plainly that you paid someone posing as a court.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, report the fraud to Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, contact Police Scotland on 101. Keep the email, the link and the bank statement for both reports, and write down the crime reference number you are given.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov warns that the next call may come from someone offering to recover your money or posing as a fraud team. That call gets the same treatment: hang up and ring an official number you found yourself.

If you sent a copy of your passport or driving licence in reply, assume those details are exposed. Watch bank alerts and letters about credit you did not apply for, and change passwords for email and online banking.

Keep a simple timeline of what happened: when the email or call came, what you paid and how, and who you have spoken to since. Report Fraud, the bank and any adviser will all ask for the same facts.

11Small firms and shared inboxes

Small businesses receive a large share of these emails because their addresses are public. A claim from a supplier, a threat of court action or an order attached as a file reaches whoever opens the shared inbox first. The sender often knows the firm's name and its director's name, both easy to find online.

A short written rule helps: legal letters go to the owner or the person who handles legal matters, attachments stay closed until the court has been contacted, and nobody pays a claim because of an email.

When the message names a real customer or supplier, ring that business on the number from your contract or invoice. Sender addresses can be spoofed, and one call settles what a week of emails cannot.

If the claim proves genuine, the response route is the one stated in the claim itself. Advice from a solicitor or Citizens Advice before paying is worth the short delay.

Staff who handle payments should treat any legal demand to pay into an account named only in an email as unverified until the court confirms it, however urgent the wording.

12Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov's checklist for UK households and small firms

A real money claim arrives by letter or email with a date to respond. Jury summonses come by post. HMCTS does not call asking for payment from 0300 0132 088 and does not ask for bank details by phone.

Court contact details come from the Find a court or tribunal service. Suspicious emails go to report@phishing.gov.uk, texts to 7726, and fraud reports to Report Fraud.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests one household rule: any letter about a court, a claim or bailiffs is shown to a second adult and checked with the court before anyone pays. Small firms can write the same rule into their office procedures.

Keep the court finder, 159, 7726 and the Report Fraud number in one place at home and in the office, so nobody needs to search for them under pressure.

Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov keeps the final advice short: the court you find yourself is the only one whose answer counts, and a letter that cannot survive that call was never from a court.

13Questions and answers

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: how do I check an email from UK Courts?

Do not click or open attachments. Compare the sender domain with the HMCTS warnings, find the court through Find a court or tribunal on GOV.UK and contact it directly.

Does HMCTS phone about unpaid fines?

HMCTS says it will never call asking for payment from 0300 0132 088 and does not use automated messages. Hang up and call 159 or the court directly.

How does a real money claim reach me?

By letter or email. GOV.UK says you must respond by the date on it, in the same way the claim was made, and can ask for another 14 days if not paying in full.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: can I be fined by email for missing jury service?

Jury summonses come in the post and must be answered within 7 days. A payment demand by email or text should be checked with the court before you do anything.

Where do I forward a fake court email?

Forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk for the NCSC and send suspicious texts free to 7726.

I paid a fake court fine. What now?

Call your bank at once, then report to Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040, or to Police Scotland on 101.

Reference updated: 4 September 2026