Are you sitting comfortably – then I’ll begin!

 

I was sitting at my desk this morning and received the following email from my co director, headed “ARE YOU AT YOUR DESK”.

 

Hi ,

I need you to do something for me .

Kindly email.

Regards,

David Meathrel

 

There are a number of things that are strange about this.

 

Firstly, my co director sits only a few seats away from me, and so could see that I was, indeed, at my desk.

 

Secondly, we never email each other when we are both in the office.

 

Thirdly, the setup of the email was all wrong.

 

And finally, (and perhaps most importantly) if you looked closely at the email address, it wasn’t from him but was from infomail@pmgt.co.uk.

 

Fortunately for all of these reasons, and many others, I immediately knew it was a scam, the type of which we are all familiar with these days.  Unfortunately, I currently have several cases going on where clients (or more importantly their staff) were not sufficiently familiar with what to look for, and thousands of pounds have been lost.

 

We are all at risk from scams of this type, but how many of us have put policies and procedures in place to reduce the risk of it happening to us, and how many of us would know what to do if it did happen?

 

The biggest threat appears to me to be not what you do/don’t do, but what your staff do/don’t do.  If your staff have access to your bank account but are not properly trained on the risks and procedures, you might as well pay all your hard earned money to that Nigerian lawyer who told you about your long lost relative that left his entire estate to you, and all you need to do is pay the legal fees to have the millions released to you!

 

If this is something that worries you, or perhaps it’s something that’s happened to you, I’ve got a free fact sheet on what to do and how to reduce your risk.  Let me know if you’d like a copy or you’d like to meet up for a coffee (or something stronger!) and a chat to discuss Nigerian lawyers, scammers and emails.

 

If this isn’t something that worries you, but you still fancy the coffee or the drink, I’d still be delighted to catch up with you – drop me a line.  I’m at my desk!

 

Kleyman & Co Solicitors.  The full service law firm.  Sitting pretty.