The FBI is warning Lawyers that fraudsters may be using their name, credentials and other professional information to create websites to steal money and sensitive information from potential clients.  One lawyer out of Texas, who had not practiced in years,  discovered that someone was using her maiden name, the address of her previous law firm and credentials on a website offering legal services.  Don’t let this happen to you.  Here are a few simple tools you can use to monitor your professional identity.

1.  Google Alert – set up a Google alert using your name, the name of your law firm and any other professional identifying information.  You can set up multiple alerts such as – First Name Last Name and “First Name Last Name” City State.  Using quotation marks will yield different results than just using your name.  The Google Alerts can then me emailed to you as they are discovered or in a daily summary. 

2.  While Google Alerts are effective they are not 100% accurate.  Because of this you will need to search using other search engines.  I recommend you do this on a monthly basis. 

3.  There are paid services that will conduct daily, weekly or monthly searches for you.  When seeking one of these services use the terms “reputation management”.  Before you sign up for a service ask them how many search engines they use and if they search the deep web.  Most search engines only search the surface of the web, not the deep web. 

4.  Complaints filed with your state bar association.  If you are notified of a compliant do not dismiss it.   It could be the result of a fictitious website.

Once you have identified a fictitious website you must determine the owner/creator of the website.  For assistance on locating the owner of a website or gathering evidence from a fictitious website (live or inactive) contact our office at 239-435-9111.