Don’t Be A Victim Of Cyber Fraud

Knowing how to safely handle and store personal information about clients and others is more important than ever in this rapidly growing electronic economy.

All legal practitioners in NSW have a duty not to disclose any information that is confidential to a client otherwise as permitted by the Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules. (the Conduct Rules – rule 9 of the Conduct Rules).

Communication between Solicitors and clients is increasingly susceptible to tampering by cyber criminals. The most common cyber fraud that poses significant risk to law practices and their clients include business email compromise (BEC) and voice cloning scams.

Business email compromise involves the scammer using technology to intercept communications between a solicitor and client and providing their own bank account details to either party. This then leads to funds being transferred to the scammers account.

Scammers are also using Voice cloning technology to replicate someone’s voice and using the cloned voice to ask for payment of funds from someone known to the person whose voice has been cloned.

Steps to protect yourself against Business email compromise and voice cloning scams.

• When your Solicitor emails payment instructions to you we highly recommend you contact the practice, confirming the account details prior to transferring any funds.
• When calling your Solicitor to confirm any details always use the phone number you have listed for the practice, never use a different phone number contained in an email.
• Be vigilant of potentially suspicious emails. If you are at all concerned or suspicious of an email received, call you Solicitor to check whether the email is legitimate. We would never advise you of changes to the practice bank account details or telephone number via email.

The contents of this article are general in nature. For advice specific to your circumstances, please contact your legal practitioner.

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