9 December 2024

We are aware of a significant increase in lawyers receiving calls, emails or messages from scammers impersonating a representative of the lawyer’s bank. They claim to be investigating fraud or an inconsistency in the law practice’s accounts.

The goal of the scam is to get enough information from the lawyer to steal money from the law practice’s trust accounts.

And we know scammers are using technology to make their communications look more convincing. They’re making it appear as if their calls are coming from the bank’s phone number, and they’re sending messages that looks like they came from the same conversation thread as genuine bank messages.

How to spot the scam

You may get a call, text message or email from a scammer claiming to be from the bank – for example, investigating a hacked account, suspicious transaction or online banking outage. The scammer may tell you there is a problem with your account and ask:

• for personal information (like online banking passwords)
• for financial information (like account numbers)
• for the one-time phone security code (or PINs or tokens)
• to transfer funds to a safe account while they investigate.

What you can do to stay protected

Your bank will never ask you over the phone for online banking passwords, one-time security codes, PINs or tokens. If this happens to you, there are steps you can take to protect yourself.

Stop

• Don’t rely on the phone numbers in a text message or email.
• Don’t give information like passwords, financial information, bank numbers, security codes, PINS, tokens etc. to anyone over the phone or via text or email.
• Don’t click on any links in text messages or emails if you’re unsure.
• Hang up if you receive a call from someone claiming to be from the bank asking you to transfer money.

Check

• Verify who you are talking to and ask for a reference number.
• Contact your bank separately using your banking app or a phone number you have sourced from your banking app, bank website, bank statement or bank card.

Protect

• Act quickly if you have transferred funds and/or given a scammer information or access to your account.
• Immediately report the cyber incident to the security team of any involved banks, and to the VLSB+C via our lawyer enquiry form (including near misses).
• Then follow the VLSB+C’s steps on what else you need to do if you experience a cyberattack.