Fraud Prevention
LAWPRO Magazine article: 15 Tips for Preventing Identity Theft and Online Fraud
Cyber criminals and identity thieves want to steal your personal information to commit fraud. They may try to get a credit card in your name or to access funds in your bank account. On top of directly losing money, your credit status can be damaged and it can take a great deal of time and… Read More »
Categories: Fraud Prevention, TechnologypracticePRO Resource: Creating strong passwords
The following is an excerpt from practicePRO’s Managing the Security and Privacy of Electronic Data in a Law Office booket. Creating “strong” passwords Create passwords that are harder to guess or figure out. These are called strong passwords and they are more difficult for password-cracking tools to determine. Password-cracking software uses one of three approaches:… Read More »
Categories: Fraud Prevention, Legal TechnologyCyber crime example of the importance of reconciling your trust accounts each month
This article appeared in the September 2013 issue of TitleNews. An escrow company holds real estate closing funds in trust in the same way a law firm in Ontario would. Cyber Criminals Steal More Than $1.5 million from California Escrow Company. California-based Efficient Services Escrow Group was shut down by the state after cyber criminals… Read More »
Categories: Fraud PreventionFraud warning from a U.S. title insurance company
This is a warning from a U.S. title insurance company, advising that fraudsters are impersonating the company in an attempt to get real estate lawyers to divulge bank account information. This is less of an issue for Canadian real estate lawyers who still handle the transfer of money themselves (rather than using title insurer software),… Read More »
Categories: Fraud PreventionFraud emails now referencing the “Lawyer Referral Service”
The Law Society of Upper Canada has advised us that at least one Ontario lawyer has been targeted with a traditional bad cheque scam that indicated that the fraudster found the lawyer through the “Lawyer Referral Service”. This may be a new tactic to convince Ontario lawyers that the emails are legitimate. This particular fraud… Read More »
Categories: Fraud PreventionLinkedIn password breach reported – change your LinkedIn password immediately [Updated]
A post on the TheNextWeb site indicates that a Norweigan IT webite, Dagens IT reported the breach. That site indicates that 6.5 million encrypted LinkedIn passwords have been posted to a Russian hacker site. LinkedIn has responded that they are looking into the breach. To be safe, LinkedIn users should change their passwords immediately. For… Read More »
Categories: Fraud Prevention, TechnologyToronto area lawyer contacted on a “We built a website for you” hacking attempt
An Oakville lawyer advised us of a new scam that appears to be a brazen attempt to gain access to a law firm’s computers. Someone identifying himself as Mason Saunders called the firm this morning and asked to speak directly to the lawyer by name. He indicated to the lawyer that he was calling further… Read More »
Categories: Fraud PreventionRe-fi fraud involving Scarborough property on Heaslip Terrace
A Toronto lawyer has advised us that he was retained last week on an attempted fraud involving a re-financing on a property on Heaslip Terrace in Scarborough. As the fraudsters are using the names of the real property owners, we are not disclosing the names being used or the address of the property. Early last… Read More »
Categories: Fraud Prevention