A suspicious email posing as a judicial notification has been received by the Spanish Eye, matching a scam flagged by a respected legal firm.

The message arrives under the sender name ‘Notificacion judicial’ and claims to contain a court notification in an attached PDF.

Recipients are given a four-digit password and instructed to use it to open the document.

It is signed by a supposed ‘Pablo Alvarez’, described as an ‘Asistente de Juez’ at the ‘Tribunal de Justicia de Madrid’.

However, the email received by The Spanish Eye came from an unrelated address with a Sevilla-based domain.

It contained no case number, named judge or explanation of what the supposed proceedings concerned.

It also addressed the recipient by their email address rather than their name. Gmail had placed it in the spam folder.

A Policia Nacional source said: ‘This is a typical tactic used by so-called phishing scams.

‘The fake court notice is designed to frighten you into opening the attachment.’

They warned that opening the document could cause malware to be installed on your device.

Alternatively, you could be asked to pay a fine or asked to enter sensitive information.

Legal firm MNClegal Servicios Juridicos recently issued a warning after receiving an almost identical message.

Its screenshot shows the same signature and instructions to open a password-protected PDF, although the sender address and password differ.

The firm warned that fraudsters were impersonating justice professionals and urged recipients to delete the message without opening the attachment.

The Spanish Eye did not open the document and has not established what it contains.

Anyone receiving a similar email should avoid opening attachments or following links, and report it as phishing through their email provider.

If you are expecting a genuine judicial notification, check with your lawyer or contact the relevant court using independently sourced details.