Law firm scam alert Hong Kong: check a firm before you pay

The Law Society of Hong Kong keeps a Scam Alert page because it receives reports, from time to time, of scam websites, emails and other communications using bogus law firms, or solicitors and foreign lawyers on fake law firm letterheads with false contact details. If someone claiming to be a Hong Kong lawyer asks you for money, documents or personal details, check them on the Law Society’s Law List first, then contact the firm using the details on that list.

What these scams look like

The reports on the Scam Alert page include:

• unauthorised use of a real law firm’s identity, and impersonation of real solicitors;
• emails claiming to come from a genuine firm or its partners, sent from Gmail accounts;
• websites falsely claiming to be Hong Kong law firms; and
• WhatsApp messages from people impersonating lawyers.

The common thread is false contact details. The name may be real, but the phone number, email address or website leads to the scammer.

What the Law Society advises

When you engage a law firm, solicitor or foreign lawyer, the Law Society says you can check whether they are genuine by verifying their practice through the Find Legal Services section of its website. It also asks you to do your own due diligence by contacting the firm or lawyer directly, by reliable means, using the details in the Law List. The steps below put that advice into practice.

How to check a firm or lawyer

1. Search the firm. Use the Law List’s Hong Kong law firms section. For a foreign firm or lawyer, use the foreign law firms and foreign lawyers sections.
2. Search the person. Check the named solicitor under Members with Practising Certificate. Our Law List guide explains each section.
3. Compare the details. Put the address, phone number, email domain and website in the message side by side with the Law List entry.
4. Contact the firm yourself. Use the details in the Law List entry, not the phone number, email or link in the message you received.
5. Check the Scam Alert page. Search it for the firm’s name and the email addresses or websites you were sent.
6. Check the bank account before any transfer. The Police encourage the public to use Scameter on the CyberDefender website, or the Scameter+ app, to check whether a recipient account is linked to reported scams.

For a barrister, use the Bar List. Barristers are normally instructed through a solicitor, so a “barrister” contacting you directly for payment is worth checking twice.

Warning signs

• A free webmail address instead of the firm’s own domain.
• Contact details that differ from the Law List entry.
• Pressure to pay quickly, or to keep the matter secret.
• A request to pay into a personal account or an account in a different name from the firm.
• First contact through WhatsApp or social media from someone you never instructed.

If you think you have been targeted

1. Stop. Do not send money, documents or identity details.
2. Call the Police Anti-Scam Helpline on 18222, run by the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre, for immediate advice.
3. If you think you have lost money, report the case at the nearest police station, as the Police advise.
4. Tell the genuine firm, using the contact details on the Law List.
5. Consider telling the Law Society, which receives reports like these and lists them on its Scam Alert page.

The limits of any list

The Scam Alert page reflects reports the Society has received, so a firm’s absence from it is not proof that a message is genuine. The Law Society also says that, while it takes all reasonable steps to keep the Law List accurate, it accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions. Use both lists, then confirm through a contact route you trust.

ranked.hk is not the Law Society or the Police. Our law directory is written from each firm’s own website and is not proof that a message comes from that firm. If you have a complaint about a genuine solicitor, see how to complain to the Law Society.