Scam hitting Hawaii attorneys-very sophisticated so BEWARE!
We are all familiar with the Nigerian scams, and can usually spot a scam however our office was recently “probed” by a very sophisticated scam.
First of all, the email correspondence was well written, no typos, bad grammar, etc. It came from an Asian company with a link to their website in the email. The company really existed. They wanted us to collect debt from a Hawaii company that really exists and the connection between the two companies made sense (one manufactures an item that the local company installs) The BIG hook was that they used the NAME OF AN ATTORNEY FORMERLY ASSOCIATED WITH OUR FIRM AS A REFERRAL!! Unfortunately, this attorney received a cold call and was asked for the name of a Hawaii law firm that could help them and he did indeed give them our name.
The scammers hook the attorney into an attorney/client relationship (thus barring you from reporting them), then request funds to be sent immediately upon receipt of funds from the local company. (you get a check from the local company for “amounts due”, you deposit it, then wire the funds out before making sure the local check has cleared) Attorneys on the mainland have had hundreds of thousands stolen from their IOLTA accounts.
Things that should set off alarm bells:
- The urgency of acting quickly. You must do due diligence.
- Client wanting funds before checks deposited have cleared your IOLTA account;
- When a logical referral name is used, check with the referral source about the legitimacy of the referral.
- They make excuses that they cannot find a convenient time to talk on the phone, they strictly stick to email correspondence.
- The email is different from the company email.
Make sure your attorneys do not make referrals to cold callers, let the HSBA referral line do that.
We have had a staff meeting regarding this latest development so everyone in the firm is aware. I have attached some info to supplement any staff meeting you wish to have.
