Covid-19 Hasn’t Sent Cyber Criminals In To Hibernation
Whilst many of us have been getting to grips with the various phases of the government’s plans to lockdown and subsequently return the country to normal, it’s safe to say that cyber criminals haven’t been resting on their laurels. It has become apparent since lockdown that there has been a rise in law firms falling […]
Legal Assistant Banned For Dishonesty
A legal assistant has been banned from working in the legal profession, after it emerged he lied about passing his exams. Benjamin Lewis Clark wanted his law firm to pay for the course fees due to having financial problems. But when his dishonesty was discovered, Mr Clark agreed with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to […]
Five-Fold Increase In The Cost Of Cyber Incidents
The annual Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report has been released with an update on progress in the cyber security arena for UK businesses. The headlines from the report, now in its 4th year, include A near doubling of cyber preparedness across UK business A significant increase in spend on cyber security A drop in the number […]
Law Firms ‘Performing Admirably’ In The Face Of Constant Cyber Attacks
The legal sector has been described as close to the financial and energy sectors in terms of the risk of cyber attacks. reports cyber security firm BlueVoyant following an assessment of almost 2,000 law firms globally, with 20 firms having a detailed analysis. Despite law firms being described as ‘performing admirably’ in the current conditions […]
Cyber Criminals Hack Into Leading US Law Firm
A New York based law firm, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, who are predominantly used by the world’s rich and famous, have suffered a substantial cyber attack. The cyber criminals claim to have access to over 756 gigabytes of the law firm’s and its client’s personal data, including legal contracts, personal email accounts and email […]
Inheritance Tax Bill Scam Cost Executor £120,000
A married couple from Northfleet in Kent tricked an executor out of an inheritance tax bill. Lee Finch was conned by email into paying an inheritance tax bill totalling £120,000 into the fraudsters account. The judge heard that in the summer of 2017, Mr Finch had emailed a solicitor’s firm in order to settle an […]
Home Title And ID Fraud
Gaining a foothold on the property ladder has been no mean feat throughout the past decade. Eligibility regulations and lending criteria tightened considerably following the financial crisis in 2008, property prices increased by 40% whilst the average wage increases were modest at best. When homeowners sacrifice and fight to own a property to call their […]
Protecting Yourself Against Probate Fraud
Did you know that probate fraud costs in the region of £150m a year? That’s the figure provided by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). It’s no surprise that this type of fraud can be committed both by members of the family, but also by organised criminals who use various methods to divert […]
What Is The Dark Web And Why Should My Law Firm Care?
‘Dark web’ is a term that is widely used to conjure up images of a second mysterious yet murky layer of the internet where criminal gangs operate. The dark web – a set of web pages that aren’t indexed so don’t appear in your search engine – is used by organised crime gangs (OCGs) to trade […]
Man Starved To Death For Carers To Benefit From Will
A couple and their associates are on trial for fraud and murder after allegations they had starved a man, in their care, to death, and forged his will to benefit from his £3.5 million estate. Wayne Rickard and his wife Lynda are currently on trial at Reading Crown Court for the murder of their landlord […]
Could You Spot A Fake Or Modified Email?
Register for our upcoming webinar: OnDMARC: The questions law firms want answering Email redirection fraud was a lucrative tool in the criminal underworld accruing £123.7 million from UK account holders in 2018 alone, according to a UK Finance report. Of the 7,544 malicious redirection scams completed, over 9,000 payments were made with an average individual loss of […]
The Challenges Of Verifying Identity When The Client Is Abroad
“As fraud becomes increasingly sophisticated, digital identity checks can play a vital role in protecting both conveyancing firms and clients from identity theft and related scams” – The Council of Licensed Conveyancers ‘CLC Conveyancing Tech Guide’ Verifying a client’s identity is time-consuming and adds significant cost to the bottom line, but what are the challenges […]
SRA Warn Probate Sector About Impersonation Fraud Attempts
The Solicitors Regulation Authority have published two scam alerts In the past week. The legal sector lost £731,250 in the opening half of 2019 to speculative and sophisticated fraudsters. Even outside the legal sector, Action Fraud found that £208 million was stolen through push payment fraud where criminals use social engineering techniques to convince the […]
The Rise Of Fake ID Documents
It is estimated that property fraud has cost the UK Land Registry more than £73million over the past 18 years, with an average pay-out to a victim costing upwards of £100,000. Property fraud and the rise of fake ID documents is on the rise, with more onus being put on solicitors involved in property transactions […]
Leading Wills & Probate Firms Exposed To Fraud And Cyber Crime
The majority of 200 leading law firms are completely unprepared and susceptible to cyber attacks, according to a 2019 report on fraud and cyber crime vulnerabilities in the legal sector. Crowe, KYND and University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies commenced research in spring this year to reveal how vulnerable the legal sector is […]
75% Of Law Firms Have Had Their Passwords Compromised
Law firms are failing in their efforts to tackle the rising risk of cyber crime. Even with £millions continuing to be fraudulently redirected, with the associated reputational impact and knock on effect on professional indemnity insurance premiums, most law firms have not implemented even the most basic cyber security measures. The research has been undertaken […]
Webinar: Funds Transfer Fraud…Think It Couldn’t Happen To You?
The national news continues to report on cases where law firms are infiltrated, bank details are altered, and funds are redirected to criminal bank accounts. This happens when law firms transfer funds between each other, and increasingly when remitting funds to clients. The most common threats to law firms identified in the recent Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Risk Outlook […]
Shielding Firms And Clients From The Digital Threat: SRA Risk Outlook 2019/20
In the opening six months of 2019, law firms reported that £731,250 worth of client money was lost to cyber crime, prompting the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to deem cyber crime to be one of the greatest threats a law firm will face in 2019/20. Cyber security and information security is now deemed a more severe threat than last year, moving […]
Non-Solicitors Banned From Working In Legal Profession
There have been several instances recently of non-solicitors being made subject to orders under Section 43 of the Solicitors Act 1974. This means that the persons subject to Section 43 cannot work for law firms regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) without its permission. Sameena Usmani was as administrative assistant at a firm in Buckinghamshire. She […]
Criminally Incompetent Will Writer Handed Two-Year Conditional Discharge
A Will writing director has been handed a two-year conditional discharge for ‘criminal incompetence.’ James Usher, company director of Wills and Trusts Warehouse Ltd in Warrington, was found guilty of taking client money to complete various estate management services only to fail in completing the work. Usher agreed to complete a range of important and time […]
