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FBI Office Cautions Utah Attorneys of Internet Scam

The Salt Lake City's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office has notified the Utah Attorneys about an e-mail scam, which claims of making quick money, as reported by the Republic on March 23, 2011.

FBI Special Agent-in-Charge (SAC) James McTighe stated that, con-artists are planning to keep attorneys over the web via e-mails to allegedly resolve a monetary dispute or serve as a facilitator in legal matters, which include divorce and debt collections, as reported by The Republic on March 23, 2011.

As per a press release by the FBI, an attorney is hired through e-mail and then after some time, the situation gets solved and the attorney gets a settlement check. The attorney retains their share and gave the remaining amount to the clients, who had hired them. However, the FBI claims that within almost 10 days the settlement check is returned by the bank as it is forged. The attorney must repay the bank full amount, however the "client" cannot be found, as reported by Kxlh March 23, 2011.

Moreover, McTighe claims that almost four attorneys in Utah, Idaho, and Montana have been attacked by the above mentioned scams. Many others have claimed to have getting the e-mails, as reported by The Republic on March 23, 2011.

The website- law.com- states that during January 2009, Martin Arbus, a lawyer in New Jersey were targeted by an international scam aimed at attorneys. The victim, Arbus heard from lawyers around the country about e-mails, appearing to be from him that asks them to help a Chinese company collect debt worth $700,000. The agreement wanted to be paid by check into the lawyer's trust account and for the lawyer to write a check to the "client" on the account. However, the deposited check got bounced.

As per the experts, this scam is similar to other e-mail frauds that cheat consumers into unknowingly cashing a fake check and wiring part of the money to an individual abroad. SAC McTighe claims that as with other e-mail scams, there are some of the red flags to look out in them viz. grammatical mistakes and sender residing in another country.

Related article: FBI’s ICCC Annual Report Discusses Fraudulent and Non-Fraudulent Complaints

» SPAMfighter News - 4/2/2011

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