Fake lawyers and law firms: warning signs to avoid falling for the scam

Trust is the most valuable asset in the relationship between a client and their lawyer. And precisely because those who turn to a lawyer do so at a moment of vulnerability, fraudsters have found in the impersonation of lawyers and law firms a particularly fertile ground for their deceptions. These scams are more frequent than people think, and the financial harm can be very high.

The impersonation of legal services is especially pernicious for several reasons. The victim makes contact in a state of maximum vulnerability, with a legal problem that worries them and in need of urgent help, which makes them less critical. The legal context has a natural opacity that fraudsters exploit, creating urgency and mentioning imminent deadlines. And lawyers can charge significant fees without that seeming suspicious.

The most frequent forms are several. The phantom lawyer who recruits clients online creates a professional website for a non-existent firm or impersonates that of a real one, charges fees in advance and disappears. The phantom proceedings scam consists of charging periodic fees and sending false reports or documents about proceedings that in reality have never been initiated. The scam of a pending inheritance or prize informs the victim that they are the beneficiary of a sum they can only collect after paying certain advance costs that never return anything. The impersonation of a real firm uses an email address almost identical to that of the genuine firm. And the fake lawyer in situations of a family member’s arrest demands urgent money claiming that a relative has been detained.

There are warning signs that should never be ignored: that they contact you without you having sought them out; that they request payments in cash, in cryptocurrencies or to third-party accounts; that they create artificial urgency; that they do not provide a verifiable bar registration number; that the email address does not exactly match the firm’s domain; that they have no verifiable professional address; that the documents contain errors unbefitting a professional firm; or that they ask you not to discuss the matter with anyone.

The most reliable way to verify whether a lawyer is genuine is to check their registration with the Bar Association: all practising lawyers in Spain must be members of a bar, and the General Council of Spanish Lawyers maintains a searchable register. It is also advisable to verify the real existence of the firm, its physical address and that the email domain matches the official website.

If you have been a victim, call your bank immediately to try to block or reverse the transfer; file a complaint with the police, with units specialising in economic crime; check whether the real lawyer who was impersonated is aware of the situation; and consider claiming against the bank. Scams committed under the appearance of legal services may give rise to an offence of fraud, the usurpation of civil status and the unlawful practice of the profession.

It is worth remembering that verifying a lawyer’s bar membership takes only a few minutes and can save considerable financial harm. And that if the lawyer who committed the fraud was really a bar member, there are additional avenues: disciplinary liability before the Bar Association and the professional civil liability insurance, which is mandatory for practising lawyers.