Nigerian letters, bogus invoices, data protection demands and prime bank investment fraud are just some of the traps out there for unwary solicitors. Jon Robins reports

‘You may be surprised to receive this letter from me since you do not know me personally. I am Mr Nelson Martins (junior), the first son of Mr John Martins, who was recently murdered in the land dispute in Zimbabwe,’ begins the intriguing correspondence.

This potential new client goes on to inform you that your details have been accessed through his research at the South African chambers of commerce, where he has been looking for ‘a responsible and a God-fearing person’ to help with a slightly awkward transaction. ‘When I got your contact, I prayed over it, then I decided to write you,’ he continues. ‘Before the death of my father, he deposited some of $12,000,000 in one of the private security companies in Johannesburg, as he foresaw the looming danger in Zimbabwe. The money is protected in a big metal box…’

Sadly, Mr Martins Jnr’s father was killed by Zimbabwean war veterans in the ensuing troubles and he is currently stranded in South Africa, with the tricky dilemma of getting his wealth out of Johannesburg without the attentions of the Zimbabwean government. ‘If you are really capable and willing to assist, I and my family has promised to give you 25% of the total money,’ he writes.

Tempted? It is a test of a solicitor’s credulity as to when the alarm bells start ringing. Of course, most practitioners would recognise the amateurish typeface, bogus names and the unsolicited approach as hallmarks of the infamous Nigerian ‘419’ scams – nicknamed after the relevant section of the country’s criminal code – and immediately consign it to the bin.

‘You would have to be fairly gullible to respond to someone writing to you from Nigeria saying “My name is Mr X and I have $50 million which I want to share with you”,’ reckons Des Collins, senior partner at Watford firm Collins. ‘In fact, you would have to be completely barking to fall for that line.’

While that may be true, at least one solicitor has done. Barrie Mayne, head of the fraud intelligence unit at the Law Society, reports how one hopeful practitioner jetted off to Lagos, Nigeria, with £200,000 of client money in his briefcase. ‘He was met in a chauffeur-driven car, taken to offices hired for the purpose and came back home without his clients’ money,’ he recalls. That happened four years ago and, according to Mr Mayne, the solicitor is ‘no longer practising’. But he adds: ‘The reason why the fraudsters do it, and have been doing it for so long, is because clearly there are victims out there who are losing substantial amounts of money.’

Late last year, the Office of Fair Trading joined forces with the Nigerian Financial Crime Squad to combat this spam fraud at source (see [2005] Gazette, 10 November, 9). The office also warned that new and innovative scenarios are always emerging and are often topical, such as a war reporter who has unearthed Saddam’s missing millions and needs to deposit them in the recipient’s account in return for a share; a young person orphaned by the tsunami disaster asking for help in moving their parents’ millions out of an overseas bank; while the latest versions mention Hurricane Katrina and the 7 July London bombings.

Earlier this month, the Bar Council warned about a new wave of scam e-mails that use names of barristers to hoodwink victims into handing over their personal details (see [2006] Gazette, 12 January, 5). The scammers send out e-mails claiming to be from barristers in which the fraudster pretends to be in need of a bank account in which to place a large amount of cash. ‘These are the usual scam e-mails purporting to give you lots of money in return for you providing your banking details, following which they empty rather than fill your account,’ a spokesman says.

According to Mr Mayne, the four main cons that are practised on lawyers are: the Nigerian letters; bogus invoices for bibles; data protection demands; and prime bank instrument fraud. There appears to be little let-up from the perpetrators of the Nigerian letter frauds, according to the Metropolitan Police, which receives notification of around 400 every day. ‘The fraudsters work on the law of averages, and they send out hundreds and hundreds of e-mails every day in the hope that they get one or two bites,’ comments DC Michael Hurst, of the Operation Sterling unit, which deals with fraud at the Met.

As he points out, they would not keep doing it unless people kept falling for it. ‘There are some people who will end up parting with £250,000,’ he says. According to the Met, law firms are targeted mainly through databases or directories that are accessible on the Internet. The typical scenario is that the sender has come across a huge amount of money, but needs a bank account overseas for safe keeping, and any solicitor kind enough to volunteer their own client account will be rewarded handsomely, usually 25% of the fortune.

But first solicitors have to pay an arrangement fee. Unsurprisingly, the fraudsters not only scarper with the fee but also empty the solicitors’ account if they manage to get hold of the firm’s letterhead, a sample signature, and account details.

Mr Mayne’s advice is to never respond, even in the negative, and do not forward e-mails to the Law Society, the police or the National Criminal Intelligence Service, which have all now stopped logging such letters. The Met has more advice on its Web site: www.met.police.uk/ fraudalert.

‘The police have been reasonably successful in interrupting the flow of letters, and they have undertaken a number of investigations which have resulted in convictions before the courts in this country,’ reports Mr Mayne. ‘But as fast as they make the arrests and take out one cell, they are replaced and the fraud continues.’ But, as he points out, they are ‘fairly easy to identify’.

‘I can’t believe anyone is stupid enough to fall for them, except I know that people have,’ says Michael Barrow, chairman of the Solicitors Sole Practitioners Group. ‘I would be concerned that anyone practising as a solicitor would fall for it because it displays an attitude of greed and indifference to honesty, as well as inability to recognise reality.’ Mr Collins reckons that the biggest threat comes from the direct approach of money launderers rather than unknown third parties randomly e-mailing firms.

Mr Barrow considers that the most effective scam, from a fraudsters’ point of view, has been the data protection ruse. Typically, a notice arrives on official-looking headed paper, claiming that a firm has yet to submit its data protection notification details. However, there is no need to panic because the position can be rectified by completing the attached form and sending £95. In fact, solicitors should notify the Information Comm-issioner directly at a cost of £35, and its Web site lists a frighteningly long list of bogus agencies.

According to Mr Mayne, the Law Society has not seen evidence of this fraud for the past few months, and it seems that the high point of last year has now passed. On a similar theme, in October 2004 police arrested two people in Crewe, in relation to letters asking for £75 per employee for registration and a training pack under the anti-money laundering legislation. No money was lost because the police intercepted all mail; however, they warned of ‘copycat schemes’.

The Christian Book Club con involved bogus letters sent to solicitors, claiming that a recently deceased client had ordered bibles worth £24.98. There is such a club, which is entirely reputable; however, it appears that fraudsters were using their name to send out the letters. One tell-tale sign was that the letters came from France. The scam relied on the plausibility of those with a short time to live wanting bibles, plus the amount requested being too small for busy lawyers to query with the families of the recently deceased. Again, the Law Society has received no reports in the past few months. A similar scam targets firms directly with invoices for a small amount of stationery, which aim to be so low as not to ring any alarm bells.

The bank instrument fraud is a much more sophisticated enterprise in which investors are induced to pay money into the client account of a nominated solicitor as part of the purchase of an investment. The Law Society warns solicitors that ‘prime bank guarantees’, ‘prime bank letters of credit’, and ‘zero coupon letters of credit’ are not issued by the legitimate banking community. According to the Society, investors are often persuaded that these types of investment ‘can be bought and sold by investing, say, $8.8 million to purchase a prime bank instrument with a face value of $10 million issued by a prime bank which will mature in one year and one day, or can be traded in a second-tier bond market for an immediate 7% profit’.

The fraudster will often claim that these instruments are so special that the banks are keeping them secret and therefore will not discuss them with the public. ‘These tend to involve very well-drawn contracts and agreements that are full of jargon,’ comments Mr Mayne. ‘They have become more sophisticated and as investigators have determined the type of fraud involved, the fraudster tends to alter their methodology and adopt different approaches.’ He adds that the Law Society intervenes on behalf of ‘a very large number of firms’ in connection with their involvement in inadvertently facilitating this type of fraud. The rules on the use of solicitors’ client accounts have recently been tightened.

As for how to best avoid such cons, Mr Barrow recalls the advice that was given to him by his principal when he was undertaking his articles in the 1970s. At the time, a client had inadvertently become involved in a scam, purporting to be a ‘get rich quick’ scheme involving commodity dealings. ‘Cocoa prices went down and our client was given the choice of writing a cheque for £12,000 or taking delivery of 40 tons of cocoa in his second-floor flat,’ he recalls. ‘My principal told me the time: “If something looks too good to be true, then it probably is.”’

Jon Robins is a freelance journalist