In a world where we see daily examples of cybersecurity fraud (and all manner of attempts), it probably comes as little surprise to learn that scammers have attempted to impersonate a leading law firm via WhatsApp. In what appears to be a first of its kind, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) recently revealed that scammers purporting to be from Linklaters had used the messaging app to contact individuals under false pretenses. Those behind the attack contacted individuals via WhatsApp regarding a foreign business transaction requiring specific action. At this point they hoped to dupe individuals by inviting them to contact somebody from the firm – actually a false phone number.

WhatsApp is ubiquitous. You’d have a hard time finding somebody who didn’t know what it was. As a text and voice messaging app, WhatsApp is used by people everywhere, for both personal and business use. It is used by millions of companies worldwide including many firms in the legal sector; how many Group chats does your firm boast? This last year saw strong levels of growth for the messaging service, no doubt fueled by COVID and the change to most people’s working patterns.