Fraud Prevention
Profile of an internal fraudster
According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners companies lose 5% of their annual revenues to fraud, with a median loss amount of $145,000. And law firms are not immune to this. The Lawyers Mutual of North Carolina blog has posted a “profile of a fraudster“, that can help firms learn to spot the red… Read More »
Categories: Fraud PreventionFraud report for February 2015
The pace of fraud emails and posts slowed somewhat in February compared to the previous month. We received 166 emails from lawyers (down from 187) and posted on 9 new fraud attempts (half the posts of January). The could partly be the result of a shortened month. 54% of the emails this month came from… Read More »
Categories: Fraud PreventionFour digital security risks at law firms
Joyce Brafford, a Law Practice Management Advisor, reminds lawyers in this LinkedIn article that keeping client information confidential “goes beyond just locked filing cabinets.” She lists four areas in which law firms may not be doing enough to ensure security: passwords, security programs, segregation of data, and encryption. The increased cybersecurity steps she recommends are… Read More »
Categories: Fraud PreventionThe 25 most popular (and least secure) passwords in 2014
Gizmodo has an article on the 25 most popular passwords of 2014, based on compiling millions of stolen passwords made public throughout the year. Many of them are the same unsecure passwords that appeared on the 2013 list. Clearly the public is still going for “easy to remember” rather than “safe and secure”. Here is… Read More »
Categories: Fraud Prevention, TechnologyRansomware warning for law firms from North Carolina insurance company
Lawyer’s Mutual of North Carolina has posted the following warning about law firms being targeted in “ransomware” scams. We’ve seen firms in Ontario fall victim to this type of cyber attack. You can read more about ransomware and other kinds of malware in this previous post. Put Your Hands in the Air and Give Me… Read More »
Categories: Fraud Prevention, Legal TechnologyLAWPRO Tales of Horror: A U.S. court decision on a a bank’s duties to a firm in a bad cheque scam
Lawyer Ethics Alert Blogs has a post describing an Illinois appeals court case in which the court ruled that a law firm had no recourse against its financial institution in a counterfeit cheque matter. While the laws dealing with financial institutions in the U.S. are different than here, the takeaway for Ontario lawyers is to… Read More »
Categories: Fraud PreventionWarning re: Claims exposure where private mortgage advance goes to third party
[The following is the text of a LAWPRO alert sent October 7, 2014. This post mirrors the alert, but includes samples of the new exemption clauses we have seen in claims files.] LAWPRO has become aware of a new exception to coverage in certain title insurance policies which could expose real estate practitioners to claims… Read More »
Categories: Fraud Prevention, Real Estate, The TitlePLUS Program & Title InsuranceCautionary tale of a lawyer targetted for fraud by a paralegal of the same cultural background
In his article “Manage Malpractice Risk by Recognizing Cultural Diversity“, Lorne Shelson (Litigation Director & Counsel in the Specialty Claims Department at LAWPRO) gives five ‘culturally-based’ claims scenarios loosely based on real LAWPRO claims. Here is one scenario: A lawyer was both a member of a racialized community and first licensed as a lawyer in… Read More »
Categories: Fraud Prevention