Lawyers are increasingly receiving emails from alleged potential clients who supply legitimate looking but bogus checks and then develop reasons why some or all of the money has to be wire transferred to institutions or individuals who are usually in foreign countries. We expect these fraudulent activities to continue and we want to help our policyholders avoid these situations. While the checks are transmitted in a way that appears to be legitimate, they routinely turn out to be bogus.
The same scenario is common with each of these scams. The law firm receives what appears to be a cashier’s check drawn on a legitimate domestic or foreign bank from a prospective client for a legitimate sounding business purpose. The law firm deposits the check in their client trust account. Almost immediately, the firm is besieged by the prospective client with urgent requests to wire transfer some or all of the proceeds of the check to banks or other recipients usually in foreign countries for legitimate sounding emergency needs. The original check turns out to be bogus.