Scammers continue to target lawyers by posing as potential clients with attractive legal cases.  By now, most lawyers should have heard of the many publicized cases involving lawyers that have fell prey to sophisticated email scams.  The previous modus operandi for such scams was fairly simple.  Scammer client contacts the lawyer with a big collection case and hires lawyer sight unseen for any contingent fee the lawyer requests.  Amazingly, the lawyer will be contacted almost immediately by the alleged debtor who wants to make a large payment on the case.  Collected funds turn out to be no good but the lawyer does not discover this before he sends at least a partial payment back to the anxious scammer client.  There are many variations to this scam including the payment up front by the scammer of some nominal fees or costs just to gain the trust of the lawyer but in the end they all have the same result.

Just this week I received a new variation on this scam.  I received a letter addressed to my firm in a handwritten envelope.  Inside the envelope was a form letter addressed to me claiming to be from a prospective client seeking help with the collection of a divorce settlement.  The divorce settlement allegedly involves a "Collaborative Law Agreement", something I have seen numerous times in previous email scams.  What is different about this variation is that the scammer took the time to send a letter personally addressed to me rather than a generic email.  I have attached a copy of this scam letter as a link at the end of this article so everyone can see the latest example.  I imagine that there must be thousands of letters just like this in the mail right now.  Interestingly, the scammer claims to be located in Spain but the letter was mailed from Malaysia.  In any event, lawyers must remain vigilant and be on guard over such scams.  Again, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.  Other sure signs of trouble include misspellings, inconsistent use of names or places, obvious cut and paste tactics, and solicitations from foreign places.  Be careful out there!

Prospect Client Letter Scam to Lawyers

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/hide comments

Show/hide comment form