Spam + Scam Emails Targeting Law Firms

Spam emails targeting lawyers have affected firms even before the early days of SEO for law firms.  We work with a large number of law firms across the country. One interesting benefit to having such wide reach is that we see A TON of the same emails that target law firms. So we took the most common spam emails targeting law firms and put them together in this blog post for you.

There are two broad categories of spam emails that we typically see our clients receiving. The first category is from low-quality marketing agencies or consultants who try to solicit business from law firms by scraping contact email addresses and then blasting automated emails out. This is an extremely unethical and even shady practice, and working with agencies that engage in this should be avoided. If an agency does this, they either desperately need business or at the very least do not spend their time seeking out new clients effectively.

The second type of spam email is from people who disguise as potential clients in need of legal services for a collection or transactional representation. Often the goal here is a variation on the retainer check fraud scam.  The attorney is sent a fake check as a retainer and then asked to quickly send back the difference between the amount sent and the fees/time collected by the attorney via a foreign wire transfer. By the time the bank catches that the check is fake, the scammers have disappeared with the difference. These can sometimes be more difficult to spot, though there are often numerous red flags with these emails. Examples being frequent misspellings or grammar mistakes and an unusual request for personal details of the firm. These entries are also often submitted from email addresses with non-US domain extensions such as.jp or.ru, which is often the quickest way to spot a junk request.

One benefit of having so many clients in the legal space is that we get to see trends and test methods across a number of practice areas and geographies.  If something works, we adapt it client-base-wide.  An unintended side-effect is that we see the same fraudulent emails (typically within minutes of each other) come across to multiple clients all at once.  Recently, this scam seem most-often to target older (sorry) partners at commercial litigation firms.

The Real Risks of Scam Emails

The dangers here are many – even if you do not ultimately fall for the scam. First, even replying or engaging with these spammers can often put your email on a list of vulnerable and real email addresses. These lists are often sold or shared with other spammers. This will cause you to get a large amount of additional spam email as opposed to if you had not responded. See the example below where “details will be sent upon your reply”.

Relatedly, if these spammers are expressly using their client’s brand names as examples in these automated, spam marketing techniques – you have to ask whether they are 1.) good enough at the service they provide if their own inbound/social/SEO/content/paid search marketing techniques aren’t resulting in real leads for their own purposes; 2.) if they are willing to resort to spamming email addresses, what other automated techniques are they using or corners they are cutting as part of their clients’ campaigns; and 3.) if they are being this loose with throwing around their client’s brand names, what else are they doing with those brand names?

Finally, one of the other dangers that is often not realized is the physical act of marking these emails as ‘spam’. Often, these messages are submitted from your website’s contact form.  That contact form has an email address that it uses to send these emails on to you – often something like noreply@YOURDOMAIN.com. Some email clients will flag your website’s email address instead of the original sender or the email address the spammer listed.  If you flag enough of these emails as spam, every email (spam and legitimate) sent from your website’s contact form could hit your spam. To avoid this, put in place CAPTCHA, RECAPTCHA, or a spam honeypot on your website’s contact form.  When spam does get through, it is best to delete spam emails generating from your website’s contact form rather than marketing them as spam.

How to Tell if the Email Your Law Firm Received is a Scam

First, see if the email is from Massimo Marchetti or some variation of the name Nicholas Ferris.  If so, it’s probably a scam since we have seen dozens of the exact same email get spammed to multiple clients.

Second, see if any of the copy in the email matches this article or other articles on the internet.  If someone has experienced this exact email or verbatim lines from your email, it is most likely a scam.

Third, keep your antennae up for red flags.  If you receive a single (or multiple) emails asking for the drafting of a purchase agreement, then clearly this should be a red flag.  Furthermore, when a potential client submits an inquiry to you or your firm, they will typically elaborate into the work that needs to be done.  It is rare for someone to be very secretive with the details of a project right off the bat.  With the “kindly respond for more details,” you can see that they are attempting to bring you to them with initial information, not vice-versa, which is atypical on first contact with a potential client.

Fourth, go to their website.  All of the websites in our examples are non-existent.  If there is a website, check the registration whois record and see if it matches the information in the email.  It is also not uncommon for scammers to use a real overseas company’s names and email domains, however.  If the website exists, look up that company’s attorney on record for a recent transaction.  Contact that attorney instead of who emailed you.

Last, take a look at the phone numbers.  Many emails claim to from the same organization (in the above examples called “stakcontractors”) yet they have different area codes.  This should be an immediate red flag.  And, as mentioned above, the way in which the message is asking you to respond should clue you in to this being a scam inquiry.

Once again, scam emails can be dangerous to the operation of your law firm.  Attorneys rely on protecting confidential and private information in order to run their practice.  Some general things to look out for in order to protect yourself:

• Scam emails typically ask for retainers and/or purchase or sale agreements.
• Scam emails will typically have broken up English.
• Scam emails will typically have typographical errors.
• Scam emails will typically be worded in a way that does not reflect accurate diction.
• Scam emails will may be from non-existent websites.

What if the Email is Not Obviously a Scam?

Since the differences between spam and legitimate client emails can sometimes be difficult to spot, here are some real examples of spam emails our clients received over the past year.

Purchase Agreement Emails

This is a common subject for spam emails since the details can be left extremely vague.

Name: william moore (name kept in because it is confirmed fraudulent)
Email: xxxxxxxx@stakcontractors.com
Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Message: We need a Purchase agreement and bill of sale drafted. Kindly respond for more details

Interpretation: This is a fairly classic purchase/sale agreement scam. This is asking the attorney to contact the “contract company” with a purchase agreement and bill of sale. This may look innocent enough, but contacting “william moore” (notice the lack of cap letters in the name, which is a sign of foreign influence on the scam email) with any sort of personal or private information could lead to an infiltration of your personal accounts, websites, or information. If they take this further, they will mail/wire a check or funds and then ask for a return of unused retainer before their payment clears.

Name: Maurice McNamara (name kept in because it is confirmed fraudulent)
Email: xxxxxxx@stakcontractors.com
Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Message: We need a Purchase agreement and bill of sale drafted. Kindly respond for more details.

Interpretation: In this example, we have a person claiming to be “Maurice McNamara.” Notice how the “stakcontractors” email is the same as in example 1.  At least this time, the person submitting the scam email was able to capitalize their own name.

Name: XXXX
Email: xxxxxxx@kawayaki.com
Phone: 8145670224
Message: Dear Attorney,
I will like to inquire if your firm handles Purchase transactions and agreements. A referral will be welcomed if this is not your area of practice and also provide me with your contact number and time of availability.

Regards,

Nicholas Ferris

Massimo Marchetti

Breach of Sale Contract

Purchase and Sale Agreement

Bill of Sale Agreement

Name: XXXXXC
Email: xxxx@GMAIL.COM
Phone: 3456568905
Message: Please respond if you have experience in drafting Bill of sales and purchase agreements.
XXXXX

Contract Preparation Through Closing

Interpretation: Someone went halfway down the path with these folks involving the purchase of a crane.  How many deals does Massimo have going at one time?  The global business climate waits for no man, Mr. Marchetti.

Purchase & Sale Transactions

Sale Agreement

Breach of Sale

Take on Sure Case

A Referral Will be Welcome

Full Spectrum of Purchase and Sale Agreements

Anticipation of Prompt Response

“I shall give you the details as soon as you reply to my request”

Again, this is an obvious red flag. Clients should not wait for you to respond to divulge information about their “case”.

Contract of Sale Emails

Collection Matter Emails

Spam Attorney Referral Services

Spam Emails from Marketing Agencies and SEO Consultants

josua w <josua.w@cotudigital.info>

Hi,

We’d like to run an ad campaign to send you people in and around your area who are looking to hire a lawyer to file a lawsuit for a car accident injury. Hi,

ZERO-DOWN SEO SERVICES

Not only is this a red flag due since the SEO sales pitch is coming in through an unprompted email, but a ‘zero down payment’ until page 1 rankings are achieved is a shady business practice for an SEO agency as they typically target very low competition keywords that often cannibalize actual phrases and queries that would be more likely to lead to new business.

Stay safe out there everyone.