Scammers Target U.K. Mid-Market as Four Firms Impersonated in One Week

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Four more U.K. law firms have been impersonated in fake emails in the past week as the most recent wave of scam emails batters the mid-market.

Top 50 U.K. firms Shoosmiths, Mills & Reeve and RPC and Top 100 firm Howard Kennedy have all been impersonated in email scams since last Tuesday (September 10), according to notices filed on the Soliticors Regulation Authority's (SRA) website.

The attacks follow a stream of email scams to have hit major U.K. firms in recent months, including Linklaters, which was hit by scam attacks on three separate occasions, and Clifford Chance, whose U.K. managing partner Michael Bates was impersonated by scammers.

A Northampton-based Shoosmiths conveyancing manager had been impersonated to one of the firm's clients, whose computer may have been compromised, according to the SRA. Emails were subsequently sent between the client and an unknown third party at the fraudulent email address, one of which provided alternative bank account details.

Mills & Reeve, meanwhile, was impersonated in emails relating to helping with the incorporation of a company in the U.K., which asked for bank details and requested a payment of £7,560 to an account that appears to be based in the U.S.

Emails claiming to be from an RPC insurance partner which related to an "abandoned investment" made by a deceased individual were also flagged as fake by the SRA.

An email impersonating a Howard Kennedy lawyer informed the recipient that the firm's bank account "is on hold" and that payment should be remitted into an alternative account, alongside an email attachment which uses an old logo for Howard Kennedy and provides details for a new bank account.

All firms confirmed to the SRA that neither they nor the solicitors being impersonated have any connection to the fraudulent email address referred to in the alerts.