Scammers Impersonate Big UK Law

The UK’s Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) warned that scammers are impersonating a London law firm, Linklaters LLP, using phony job offers. The documents purport to come from the firm’s director of human resources, and contain the legitimate address of Linklaters’ New York office.

 

The contact’s name, email addresses, and phone number provided in the documents are fraudulent, however. One of the documents offers the recipient a job at Linklaters as a data entry professional. A second document, titled “Job Briefing and Interview Details,” tells the victim to transfer $1,500 to purchase “home equipment” before they can start working.

 

This is just one of many scams involving law firms the SRA has warned about in the past weeks. These scams use emails, letters, faxes, phone calls, and spoofed websites as social engineering tactics to trick their victims. An important aspect to note is that they mix legitimate and fraudulent information into the scams.

 

In this case, the “HR director” used a fake name, but many scammers impersonate real employees at companies. The SRA advises people to confirm the veracity of communications by contacting the law firm using contact information obtained from public records, such as the company’s website. New-school security awareness training can teach your employees where to find this information and how to determine if it’s legitimate. LegalWeek has the story: https://www.law.com/legal-week/2019/04/11/linklaters-is-latest-top-firm-to-be-impersonated-in-cyber-scam/