Canadian Law Blog Hall of Fame

2015 Canadian Law Blog Finalist

2014 Canadian Law Blog Finalist

2013 Canadian Law Blog Awards Winner

2011 Canadian Law Blog Finalist

2010 Canadian Law Blog Finalist

2009 Canadian Law Blog Awards Winner

2008 Canadian Law Blog Awards Winner

2007 Canadian Law Blog Awards Winner

2008 InnovAction Awards



  • Categories
  • Archives
    February 26th, 2010

    ♫ The time is right to do it now
    The greatest rock’n’roll swindle
    The time is right to do it now…♫

    Music and Lyrics by Steve Jones, paul Cook, Julien Temple, recorded by the Sex Pistols.

    The ABA Journal reported on Feb. 22, 2010 that an email scam was targeted at 6 law firms in Honolulu and two of them fell for the scam, losing a total of $500,000.00.

    In this case the clients, who only contacted the firm via electronic communications, “overpaid” the retainer by way of a cashier’s cheque. When informed about the ‘overpayment’, the clients requested a wire-transfer refund.

    By the time the law firm realized the cashier’s cheque was counterfeit, the wire transfers were long gone…

    The ABA Journal states:

    “Law firms and other professional service providers are cautioned to be on high alert when dealing with clients who come forth via the Internet,” the FBI warns. Also, when dealing with wire transfers, firms should be sure the initial payment has fully cleared before issuing refunds.

    Law firms should be instituting policies regarding ‘know your client’ as well as policies regarding ensuring that funds deposited to their trust accounts have fully cleared before forwarding these funds along. The swindlers are counting on the fact that there are lawyers out there who have not yet taken steps to follow these precautions; in which case the swindlers are saying….the time is right to do it now…

    This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 9:36 am and is filed under Firm Governance, Fraud and theft, Issues facing Law Firms, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    2 Responses to “The Scams Continue..”
    1. Fred Abramson Says:

      I am happy that you brought the issue to the attention of others. Like you, I get nearly a dozen spam emails a day from con artists trying to swindle lawyers like myself. But what exactly can be done about this?
      I really wish spam filters worked better.

    2. christopher kohler Says:

      I am glad you chose to blog on this issue. I have been emailed by bothe nigerian scam as well as the chinese scam. In both cases, although I wanted it to be a legitimate opportunity, my gut awas telling me otherwise. The more content that gets published exposing this scam, the better! Thank you.

    Leave a Reply