This column has previously discussed how lawyers can be the victims of scams, and how people can use threats of legal process to scam unsuspecting victims. I recently became aware that scammers sometimes present themselves as lawyers to commit scams. People can use available tools to verify the credentials of lawyers and make sure they are not dealing with scammers claiming to be legal professionals.
I recently encountered someone that was seeking to recover money that was allegedly frozen in a bank account. This person was approached by someone claiming to be a lawyer that specialized in asset recovery. This supposed lawyer told the victim that they could recover assets for the victim in exchange for a percentage of the money recovered.
The scam made money because the scammer told the victim that in order to release funds that were allegedly owed to the victim, the victim needed to pay the scammer sums for taxes, bank charges, and other fees. As the scammer told the victim more fees were due, the victim felt compelled to pay the fees since the victim had already paid significant sums to the scammer and did not want this money to go to waste. Eventually, the scammer told the victim that the bank account in which the money was stored had been frozen and that this was the reason why payment was not remitted.
The victim of this scam showed me the retainer agreement and other materials that had been provided by this fake lawyer. It was evident to me in 10 seconds that the retainer agreement was not legitimate. The agreement seemed AI-generated and included content that would not be in a retainer agreement generated by a law firm.
The victim also showed me an image from the fake law firm’s website. This website looked like any other law firm website, but the URL had nothing to do with the name of the fake firm. When I looked up the URL for the website in the ICANN registry, I discovered that it had only been registered a few days before the scammers contacted the victim for the first time — a significant red flag that this was a scam and not a real law firm.
In order to confirm whether the lawyers listed on the fake law firm website were real, I cross-checked the names against the attorney registry for the state in which the law firm was allegedly located. I discovered that the names of the fake lawyers did not appear in the attorney registry. Even if the names did indeed appear in the attorney registry, I would have seen if the contact information in the attorney registry matched the contact information the scammers were using to contact the victim since they could conceivably be using the names of real attorneys. From a quick Google search, I discovered that other people had been the victims of a scam perpetrated by people claiming to be from this fake law firm, which also supported my thesis that this was all a scam.
It was really hard for this victim to conclude that he was the victim of a scam, and it was difficult to hear how this would negatively impact his life. However, people can take steps to verify the legitimacy of lawyers. If there is ever a question about a lawyer’s credentials, members of the public can research attorney registries to see if contact information matches the information presented. Also, speaking with a contact who is a lawyer can help ascertain if a lawyer is legitimate or if scammers are pretending to be legal professionals.
Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothman.law.
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