Law firm's being targeted with international fraud schemes.

Earlier this year, one of Nashville's largest law firms fell victim to an international fraud scheme and wired more than $400,000 to criminals in Thailand.
The firm, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, said in June that it recovered the funds after quick reaction from the FBI, but the case highlights a growing problem of Internet and wire fraud here and nationally.
Threats range from elaborate schemes to pass off bad checks to high-tech trickery to swipe consumers' debit card data and go on shopping sprees. Others use malicious software secretly downloaded onto personal computers to dip into victims' bank accounts. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, wire fraud increased 10 percent last year from 2007 levels, while credit card and ATM fraud rose 20 percent statewide.
The Tennessee Bar Association warns that similar scammers have been going after other law firms, posing as a potential client that wants to collect on a debt from a legitimate U.S. company. The law firm collects the debt from the supposed debtor, deposits a bad check, subtracts its own attorneys' fees and then wires the remaining money back to the client. Once the money is wired to the criminals, the law firm is liable for the bad check.
"You'd be surprised how many people fall for stuff like that,'' said Webb, calling it a "Nigerian" scam, after a nation that has become well known as a source of complex get-rich-quick schemes.

Link: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090814/BUSINESS01/908140336/Scams+are+up++and+even+trickier+with+technology