Scammers Lurve Them Lawyers

A friend who well knows my hobby of baiting email scammers, left me a column from what I think was the Wall Street Journal (silly me, I left it at work).  After reading it -- and laughing myself silly, which for me is never long or far -- I came away from the article with a great deal of satisfaction.

Oh yeah.

Seems that since '07, and accelerating in '09, overseas email scammers have been targetting lawyers and law firms hereabouts for their scams.  They use all the tactics that I've seen and have well documented on this blog.  The same tactics that haven't fooled me in going on 14 years.

But a growing number of law firms haven't been so attentive. 

Millions have been scammed from attorneys and law firms.  Two figures in the article I saw were close to $70 million overall, and $32 million more recently.

Bearing in mind that lawyers have high priced educations from the supposed top pillars of higher education, bill us ridiculous amounts for advising us on criminal and civil issues, have interns and other assistants to research and investigate things, draft and interpret laws that Congress votes on without reading, et al, I find this funny.

Here's thrice-concussed lil' ol' me and my pithy associate degree from a community college, better able to discern a scam, than a law practice full of folks with better academic pedigrees than I'll ever waste time and rest-of-my-life-to-pay-off student loans, to have.

Dear Lawyers:  next time your office gets correspondence from overseas, with an injury or inheritance claim and an enclosed check, just send it to me.  I'll confirm the validity for you, and at a fee that wouldn't even scratch your wallet.  I am waaaaaaay cheaper than any scammer.

And I promise not to tell lawyer jokes.  Like the one about Nigerian email scammer, the Russian bride scammer, the Benin dying widow scammer, and the New York lawyer at a bar...