Fake IOLTA notice potential phishing scheme

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Some lawyers received two email notices involving Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts this week. But, only the one sent from the state courts is legitimate. The other may be a phishing scheme.

The office of the clerk of the Indiana appellate courts sent out email notices to 1,655 attorneys Wednesday reminding them that their attorney registration fee and IOLTA certification are past due. Those funds were due Oct. 1 and must be paid by the end of the day Oct. 15 to avoid another delinquency fee.

“Chris Cisneros” from Dallas also sent out an email this week regarding IOLTA accounts, which several attorneys received, including an employee of the Indiana courts. It says that the recipient’s IOLTA account has insufficient funds to pay an outstanding check and has an attachment that allegedly contains more information. The assumption is this attachment is malware.

Given the timing of this potential phishing scam with the delivery of the email from the courts, Indiana Supreme Court public information officer Kathryn Dolan said the courts decided to tweet a warning to attorneys about other email.

Attorneys who are past due on their registration fees and IOLTA certification may use the clerk’s portal to pay the fees.
 

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