Houston attorney Roy Elizondo has been living a nightmare for the past five years, ever since he fell victim to a fraudulent check scam that has been hitting lawyers all over the nation.

He remembers the exact moment the stressful ordeal started. He and two lawyer friends were preparing to play a round of golf back in September 2014, when an employee from Elizondo’s bank called to say a $496,850 cashier’s check from a client, which he had deposited into his Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account, or IOLTA, had a problem with its signature authorization. After Elizondo called the bank that issued the cashier’s check, he learned the document was counterfeit.