Not saying it can't happen or won't happen, but a criminal has to be seriously determined and ready to risk a long prison sentence to fake a warrant.
But then, even if they're not overtly breaking the law with a simple request for information, debt collectors and car warranty salesman are notorious for sending letters that will imply they are your financial institution, the letter was sent by your account manager, etc. IRS impersonators will tell people that jail time is imminent. I can imagine someone could create something that looks to a non-lawyer (who's afraid and not paying attention) like it's basically warrant signed by someone who's basically a judge, but just doesn't outright say that. You'd still need to verify - hey is this person actually a judge, and did this person actually sign that as a warrant?
The problem here is that companies have a policy of trusting some government email address for little one-off, no warrant needed requests. Don't have that policy.
The problem is that it might not be easy to verify a real warrant, but that’s not grounds for noncompliance.
Ok. Now how do I verify one, assuming the information in this article is accurate?
You should not rely on any information on the document you want to verify - look it up yourself.
“Forged court orders, usually involving copy-and-pasted signatures of judges, have been used to authorize illegal wiretaps and fraudulently take down legitimate reviews and websites by those seeking to conceal negative information and past crimes,” the lawmakers said in a statement introducing their bill.
The Digital Authenticity for Court Orders Act would require federal, state and tribal courts to use a digital signature for orders authorizing surveillance, domain seizures and removal of online content.
So yes, people are faking court documents.
Do people honestly think that's a deterrent for people already committing felonies?