The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has released figures that show how reports of fake law firms have more than doubled during the last two years.
As a professional body for the industry, the SRA regulates solicitors in England and Wales, but the findings reveal that an ever-increasing number of criminals are falsely representing themselves as qualified legal professionals to defraud clients.
Some of the cases being reported are sophisticated scams in which criminals pose as solicitors to gain from business transactions worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mr Paul Philip, chief executive of the SRA, said: “When we receive an allegation there is a bogus firm out there we will put out alerts and warnings.
“Given that we are raising awareness, it is not completely surprising that we are getting more reports.”
In 2013, Mr Mohamed Imran Noorgat and wife Aishah were in the process of purchasing a London flat, but while the conveyancer they used was genuine the solicitor acting on the other side was a fraudster.
The conman who took their money used the name of a genuine Wirral-based solicitor called Noel Gareth Edwards, who is registered with the SRA, but the couple were only aware of there being a problem when all their cash had been handed over to the impostor.
Numerous companies offer additional checks to help people avoid being tricked into having their money stolen, and the Law Society will also be launching a new system aimed at the conveyancing sector in the near future, to help put an end to the problem.