JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local scammer has been using the name of a local attorney to threaten people to pay money or be forced to go to jail.
The attorney notified the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Bar Association and when he did, he uncovered the problem is bigger than just the one with his name on it.
Nobody has actually made any payments yet, but when one local woman called local attorney Rick Block, she was ready to pay up.
“I'm only one lawyer in Jacksonville and I'm wondering how many other lawyers around the state of Florida are being used like this,” Block said.
The letter the victims received looked official, but it was on a fake letterhead even though it had the attorney’s real name.
“This lady called me wanting to know what arrangements needed to be made because my name’s at the top,” Block said. “So I imagine if I said, ‘send me some money lady’ she might've done it. Because she was scared.”’
According to the fake documents signed by a “Deputy Attorney Lisa Barton,” the victim is advised they owe money on a $300 loan, and in order to make things right they must pay $800 or be thrown in jail.
Block pointed out the flaws are in the fine print.
“On the last page it says if you want to make it right, we'll take it one time payment of $800 or three biweekly payments of $200 which is only $600 so it just doesn't make sense,” Block said.
So far two people have already received the scam letter and reached out to the attorney which made him contact the Florida Bar Association. Block, who has been a lawyer for 27 years, found out other attorneys were being targeted in the scam.
“The Florida Bar thought it was a very big deal and they said that they're having a lot of kinds of scams around Florida. So much so that these people are monitoring young lawyers, people just passing the bar exam,” Block said. “They're actually putting up fake websites and the name of the young lawyers never know about it and they're threatening lawsuits just to get people to pay money that they don't owe to keep out of court.”
When one of the victims was working with police and tried calling the number back to give them money, she never did receive a call back which the attorney finds rather odd.
Police recommend that if you ever think you're being scammed be sure to run the documents by the police department to see if the information and request are accurate and legitimate