By Eduardo Hapke

MIAMI, FL - July 14, 2022 - (NOTICAS NEWSWIRE) - It happens periodically, with increasing professionalism and even greater investment in execution, but once again the logo and trademark of a law firm is used to try to perpetrate a massive scam.

On this occasion, it happened to a prestigious criminal defense law firm Ospina Abogados, based in Madrid (Spain), who informed the authorities of the impersonation of their identity in a letter sent massively in the United States and the United Kingdom by means of which, falsely, they requested to contact citizens claiming fraudulent payments.

“From Ospina Abogados we publicly denounce, as we have done before the competent authorities, the fraudulent use of our name, logo and even the image of our lawyers to commit scams in a national and international campaign”, they denounced in a statement, indicating to all potential victims that the firm’s official contact channels are only those that can be found on its website ospina.es.

Modus Operandi

Although the appearance, tone and even format of the letter may confuse us, it is just another identity theft, like many others carried out on the Internet in order to perpetrate a scam with which to collect money improperly and fraudulently.

“In this case, they are more sophisticated, they have made greater investments and they send letters by post to give it a greater appearance of formality, but that doesn’t stop it from being a fraudulent action for illicit purposes”, explains criminal defense lawyer Juan Gonzalo Ospina, partner-director of Ospina Abogados, who in recent years has denounced how their social profiles were even cloned to try to swindle the unwary.

The Spanish law firm quickly detects every attempted usurpation given that “we have a communications department that monitors and collects any anomalies both in Spain and internationally”, but regrets that despite this it is impossible to anticipate events. For that reason, they ask people who receive news of any economic claim or request for data to always act with the utmost caution and to carry out the appropriate personal inquiries, such as contacting the complainant through their official channels and always using common sense. 

How to Act if We Are Victims of a Scam

Whether we are the victims of a scam or an online scam, we must think clearly, accept that we have been deceived and not be ashamed of it. Of course, don’t delete anything that might help clarify the situation and seek advice from a criminal defense lawyer with extensive experience in economic crimes, because they have clear protocols to deal with the significant upsurge in scams since the beginning of the pandemic.