New Phishing Scam Aimed at Lawyers

From the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania:

Lawyers in several states have received emails purporting to be from disciplinary authorities, advising lawyers that they are under disciplinary investigation and providing links or attachments for them to receive notice and respond to charges. It is suspected that lawyers who respond to such emails may be tricked into revealing personal and confidential information.

Such efforts are known as “phishing” scams. The emails are tailored to appear as though they are from the disciplinary counsel for the recipient’s state. The email instructs the lawyer to click on a link or attachment to view the complaint. Doing so opens a path into the recipient’s computer through which the scammers may extract information or plant malware. In some cases victim’s computers were locked up, and could only be unlocked upon payment of a “ransom.”

You can read more here.

Lawyers should realize that disciplinary boards are not going to contact them about serious matters via email.

(ljs)