Practice Management

More on Lawyers as Fraud Victims . . . With a Twist

It’s getting harder to keep track of the many frauds which are impacting lawyer practices.   You certainly have to remain vigilant.  I’ve just been informed of a new scheme.

 This fraud alert is just in from Oregon. It seems a fraudster has appropriated an attorney’s name, firm name, phone number, and address and then has debited 3 different bank accounts of individuals in different states with $10 debits purportedly from her.

 The FTC advised the attorney that the $10 charges are test charges to see if the bank account holder is alert. The fraudster then would clean out the bank account of anyone not paying attention. The attorney found out about the charges when she was called by the individuals wanting to know what her debit was for. 

 Since the attorney is not herself a victim of theft, she was told nothing can be done on an official basis to protect herself.  Likewise, the local police cannot assist because the financial victims are out of state.   Of course, the attorney is concerned about damage to her reputation, and the time and expense of dealing with all the issues which may crop up until her identity can be secured once again.

 It seems that taking all the necessary steps to further protect herself from this identity theft is about the only avenue to pursue for this lawyer.  At least thus far.  For some excellent information on how to deal with identity theft, check out the information on the web site of the FTC.

==========

To return to the main page of the blog, click here.  To return to the blog  Index, click here.

Full post as published by Law Practice Management on March 20, 2010 (boomark / email).