Perth Law Firm Protected Itself From Phishing Scam

An international hacker has tried to cheat a Perth (Australia) law company of thousands of dollars, leading to a police warning to the sector.

According to the reports, the firm received an e-mail in May 2010 from a China-based export firm asking for representation to chase a $900,000 debt from an Australian firm. The Police stated that the law company had accepted the offer and preliminary documents had been exchanged.

After sometime, the hacker informed the law company that the so-called debtor willing to make payment the debt due to the fear of lawsuit and would send the cheque to the lawyers.

However, the company suspected the activities when it got a cheque of $400,000 through courier with the debtor listed as the "remitter". The cheque, which later on proved to phony, arrived with a request that the amount should be transferred to the scam company's trust account.

The law firm complained the matter to the Police. As per the Major Fraud Squad investigations, both - the cheque and letter - were forward to the law company from a Canada address. After the arrival of the cheque, the law firm did not have any contact with the hacker.

Bernie Iriks, Detective Sergeant, said that this case was the first of its kind which involved a law company in WA, as per the news by smh on July 5, 2010.

Iriks added that the law firm might have asked the hacker to draw money against the cheque and send money to him. This would result in the financial loss to the firm as the cheque was ultimately dishonored, as per the reports by perth on July 5, 2010.

He further said that hacker initially focused their attention on a specific industry prior diverting their attention to the next scam. Hence, the industry needs to be very alert. He also added if any proposal looks very good to be true, it definitely be a scam.

Moreover, the reports mention that Western Australian Police is now working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police anti-fraud squad to detect the hackers.

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» SPAMfighter News - 7/15/2010