Bogus law firms used to defraud the public

There were 549 cases last year of bogus law firms being used to attempt to defraud the public in the UK last year, according to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA).

The SRA reports hundreds of cases in 2013 where bogus law firms attempted to defraud the public. Mark Carrel

A report from the SRA, Spiders in the Web, states that the number reported to the regulatory body rose by 57 per cent in 2013. A common approach by the criminals is to steal the identity of a real firm and to assume that identity in an online advertisement. The report also reveals that a group of activists called Anti-sec hacked into the servers of a Washington law firm which was acting on behalf of a US solder who had been tried and convicted on war crime charges in Iraq. A statement from Anti-sec threatened to repeat the exercise - which involved posting up emails stored by the firm - 'if law firms stick their necks out in defence of notoriously corrupt corporations'. Source: Legal Futures

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