News Post

Several Alabama lawyers have contacted the Alabama Law Foundation regarding an email phishing scam. The lawyers all received email messages from an individual calling himself Chris Cisneros of National Bankruptcy Services, LLC and stating that each had send out a check, drawn on his or her IOLTA account, which couldn’t be paid due to insufficient funds. The messages contained an attachment which, ostensibly, detailed more information about the insufficient check but which, when opened, likely downloaded malware onto the recipient’s computer.

By now most lawyers should be aware of this type of scam, however, when you’re busy and you think something may be amiss with your IOLTA trust account it’s easy to click on a link or attachment before thinking. And that’s exactly what the scammers are hoping for.

If you’d like more information about scams targeting lawyers, and particularly their trust accounts, check out the AvoidAClaim blog hosted by LawPRO. This blog serves as a clearinghouse for scams aimed at attorneys and will allow you to quickly determine whether a potential new client or other person contacting you by email is really a scammer. And if you receive this or a similar message, be sure to delete it without opening any attachments or links contained in it. If you think you may have already fallen prey to a scam targeting lawyers, please make a confidential report of it to the Office of General Counsel at (334) 269-1515 to help protect your fellow lawyers.