A&O boss Morley falls victim to email scam

Allen & Overy's (A&O) new senior partner David Morley and several other A&O partners have been targeted by email scammers looking to extract money from unwitting victims.

A&O's website now carries disclaimers on the profile pages of Morley and half a dozen other partners to alert any punters who might get sucked in by emails, which claim to be from A&O.

Morley told The Lawyer that he had already received several emails from confused people telling him about the scam.

A spokesperson for the firm said: "It is kind of like the old Nigerian scam email: my former uncle was a colonel in the army, I have lots of gems, send me your bank account details and I'll transfer a billion pounds and we'll give you such and such percent of it."

But the scams using A&O's name are a more sophisticated variation on the old method. He explained: "They send emails from allenoverychambers@yahoo.com or something to people saying, you've been named in a will to Joe Bloggs, give us your bank account details."

Whenever the firm realises that a scam email has been sent it has put a disclaimer on the partner profiles on its website. The firm has reported all instances to the police and to internet service providers in an attempt to shut down the scammers' email addresses.

Morley's profile page now states in bold text: "Please note that Allen & Overy LLP has become aware that the name and photograph of David Morley is being used in connection with certain fraudulent scam emails. These fraudulent emails have nothing to do with Allen & Overy LLP or David Morley. The matters have been reported by Allen & Overy LLP to the police."