This
column
has
previously
discussed
how
lawyers
can
be
the
victims
of
scams,
and
how
people
can
use
threats
of
legal
process
to
scam
unsuspecting
victims. I
recently
became
aware
that
scammers
sometimes
present
themselves
as
lawyers
to
commit
scams. People
can
use
available
tools
to
verify
the
credentials
of
lawyers
and
make
sure
they
are
not
dealing
with
scammers
claiming
to
be
legal
professionals.
I
recently
encountered
someone
that
was
seeking
to
recover
money
that
was
allegedly
frozen
in
a
bank
account. This
person
was
approached
by
someone
claiming
to
be
a
lawyer
that
specialized
in
asset
recovery. This
supposed
lawyer
told
the
victim
that
they
could
recover
assets
for
the
victim
in
exchange
for
a
percentage
of
the
money
recovered.
The
scam
made
money
because
the
scammer
told
the
victim
that
in
order
to
release
funds
that
were
allegedly
owed
to
the
victim,
the
victim
needed
to
pay
the
scammer
sums
for
taxes,
bank
charges,
and
other
fees. As
the
scammer
told
the
victim
more
fees
were
due,
the
victim
felt
compelled
to
pay
the
fees
since
the
victim
had
already
paid
significant
sums
to
the
scammer
and
did
not
want
this
money
to
go
to
waste.
Eventually,
the
scammer
told
the
victim
that
the
bank
account
in
which
the
money
was
stored
had
been
frozen
and
that
this
was
the
reason
why
payment
was
not
remitted.
The
victim
of
this
scam
showed
me
the
retainer
agreement
and
other
materials
that
had
been
provided
by
this
fake
lawyer. It
was
evident
to
me
in
10
seconds
that
the
retainer
agreement
was
not
legitimate. The
agreement
seemed
AI-generated
and
included
content
that
would
not
be
in
a
retainer
agreement
generated
by
a
law
firm.
The
victim
also
showed
me
an
image
from
the
fake
law
firm’s
website. This
website
looked
like
any
other
law
firm
website,
but
the
URL
had
nothing
to
do
with
the
name
of
the
fake
firm. When
I
looked
up
the
URL
for
the
website
in
the
ICANN
registry,
I
discovered
that
it
had
only
been
registered
a
few
days
before
the
scammers
contacted
the
victim
for
the
first
time
—
a
significant
red
flag
that
this
was
a
scam
and
not
a
real
law
firm.
In
order
to
confirm
whether
the
lawyers
listed
on
the
fake
law
firm
website
were
real,
I
cross-checked
the
names
against
the
attorney
registry
for
the
state
in
which
the
law
firm
was
allegedly
located. I
discovered
that
the
names
of
the
fake
lawyers
did
not
appear
in
the
attorney
registry. Even
if
the
names
did
indeed
appear
in
the
attorney
registry,
I
would
have
seen
if
the
contact
information
in
the
attorney
registry
matched
the
contact
information
the
scammers
were
using
to
contact
the
victim
since
they
could
conceivably
be
using
the
names
of
real
attorneys. From
a
quick
Google
search,
I
discovered
that
other
people
had
been
the
victims
of
a
scam
perpetrated
by
people
claiming
to
be
from
this
fake
law
firm,
which
also
supported
my
thesis
that
this
was
all
a
scam.
It
was
really
hard
for
this
victim
to
conclude
that
he
was
the
victim
of
a
scam,
and
it
was
difficult
to
hear
how
this
would
negatively
impact
his
life. However,
people
can
take
steps
to
verify
the
legitimacy
of
lawyers.
If
there
is
ever
a
question
about
a
lawyer’s
credentials,
members
of
the
public
can
research
attorney
registries
to
see
if
contact
information
matches
the
information
presented. Also,
speaking
with
a
contact
who
is
a
lawyer
can
help
ascertain
if
a
lawyer
is
legitimate
or
if
scammers
are
pretending
to
be
legal
professionals.
Jordan
Rothman
is
a
partner
of The
Rothman
Law
Firm,
a
full-service
New
York
and
New
Jersey
law
firm.
He
is
also
the
founder
of Student
Debt
Diaries,
a
website
discussing
how
he
paid
off
his
student
loans.
You
can
reach
Jordan
through
email
at jordan@rothman.law.