Fraudulent/Unauthorized Communications Using the Blakes Name
Fraudulent Communications and Impersonations
We have learned that several people have received fraudulent emails and phone calls that appear to come from individuals at Blakes, including:
Fraudulent emails from someone who claims to be a Blakes partner using the email address [email protected]. This scam requests payment of legal fees and may provide a fraudulent receipt displaying the Blakes name and logo. It may also seek to obtain payment through phone calls that impersonate the recipient’s family members by cloning their voices.
- Fraudulent phone calls from someone who claims to be Mark Morrison, a Blakes Partner, requesting funds in the form of Bitcoin.
- Fraudulent phone calls from someone who claims to be Brad Berg, a Blakes Partner, requesting funds in connection with criminal proceedings.
Messages from email accounts using the names Nadia Hopkins and Michael Braxton. These messages, some of which are sent from misleading email addresses ending with @blakese.com (not @blakes.com), claim that the recipient owes payment on an overdue invoice or that they may be entitled to an inheritance.
These messages do not come from Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP or anyone authorized to act on behalf of our Firm.
If you received an email or phone call of this kind, we suggest that you do not respond, click on any links or open attachments to the email, or engage with the sender or caller. We have reported these matters to law enforcement. If you have actually lost any money as a result of this communication, please report the crime to your local police.
We have also become aware of a website for the “Louis Forry Law Firm” that fraudulently refers to “Blakes Attorneys & Associates” and cites our Toronto Office address. We are not associated with the Louis Forry Law Firm in any way and anyone who receives correspondence from them should be aware that it may be fraudulent.
Canadian residents, you may report the attempted fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/index-eng.htm.
U.S. residents, you may report the attempted fraud to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Centre: https://complaint.ic3.gov.
U.K. residents, you may report the attempted fraud to Action Fraud: actionfraud.police.uk.
False Claims of Association With Blakes by Clearway Law
A website named Clearway Law suggests that it can facilitate introductions to our lawyers. Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP has no association with Clearway Law and has not approved the inclusion of our lawyers’ names on its website. If you wish to communicate with a Blakes lawyer, please contact them directly through the Firm Directory on our website.