Scam emails

Scam emails & letters

We have been made aware that members of the public may occasionally be sent fraudulent emails, phone communications (such as calls, texts or WhatsApp messages) and letters purporting to come from Clyde & Co or from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, a former practice with which Clyde & Co merged in 2011. These scam attempts can take a variety of forms, and often tend to relay imaginative factual circumstances with a view to inducing the recipient to provide the sender with personal information, money or both.

Please exercise caution if you believe that you may have received a fraudulent communication and note that Clyde & Co has a dedicated email inbox for you to report scams and other suspicious emails to: [email protected]. Once your query has been sent to this inbox, it will be addressed by the Firm's Information Security and Risk teams who will advise you on next steps.

For a non-exhaustive list of common scam attempts that we have been made aware of, please see below. If you receive an email of this nature, you should carry out the checks outlined above. If the email is not genuine, we recommend that you report it to Action Fraud (0300 123 2040), or, if you are not based in the UK, to your local law enforcement agency.

“419 Scam” (known to the Metropolitan Police and NCA):

“419 Scams” are emails and letters that may suggest that the recipient is due a large sum of money (for example, inheritance, unclaimed bank funds, lottery wins or loans) and request the recipient to pay a smaller sum, sometimes termed a transaction fee or brokerage cost, in order to claim it. Neither Clyde & Co nor Barlow Lyde & Gilbert has any involvement with these emails and letters. Recipients of such emails and letters should not respond to them.

Correspondence purporting to be from genuine Clyde & Co personnel:

We have been made aware of scams in which unsolicited emails or other communications are being circulated that purport to be from genuine Partners or personnel working for Clyde & Co, including Emma Ager, Rosehana Amin, Austin Barham, Lee Bacon, Owen Carragher, Richard Elks, Norman Fraser, Patricia Orr, John Pearce, and Andrew Nicholas. Please note that if you are not expecting such an email, then this may be a scam attempt.

We have also been made aware of a scam being circulated via WhatsApp messages from an account misusing the name and image of Emma Ager. Please note that Clyde & Co will not seek payment via unsolicited WhatsApp messages and any such messages may be scam attempts.

We have also been made aware of emails purporting to be from Carl Bowen at Clyde & Co. Carl Bowen is in fact an employee of Clyde & Co within our Finance team in Guildford, however the scammer is impersonating him using the following email addresses: ‘[email protected]’ or ‘[email protected]’. Carl Bowen’s genuine email address is [email protected].

We have further been made aware of emails purporting to be from Adnan Raja at Clyde & Co. Adnan Raja is the Head of Finance for our MEA region, however the scammer is impersonating him using the following email address: ‘[email protected]’. This is not a genuine email address and recipients of emails from this address should not respond to them.

We have also been made aware of emails purporting to be from Tara Smith at Clyde & Co. Tara Smith is a Partner at Clyde & Co in London, however the scammer is impersonating her using the following email addresses: ‘[email protected]’ or ‘[email protected]’. Tara Smith’s genuine email address is [email protected].

We have been made aware of a scam being circulated via WhatsApp messages which impersonates one of our lawyers, Ghalya Rashid Ali. Please note that Clyde & Co will not seek payment via unsolicited WhatsApp messages and any such messages may be scam attempts.

Emails purporting to be from Clyde & Co personnel who do not work for our firm:

We have also learned of scam emails which reference Clyde & Co personnel to appear more legitimate, however these named individuals do not actually work for our firm. Examples of these names include Sean Ledbetter, Karen Page, Michael Evans, Sean Sullivan, Diane Trow and Katrina Walker. The scam emails use domain names similar to our genuine domain name, such as ‘clydescofirm.com’ and ‘clydescolawfirm.com’.

We have been made aware of scam emails which reference Trident (Claims and Recoveries) LLP or similarly named “Trident” entities in an attempt to appear more legitimate.  They may also refer to personnel, such as “Leslie Wright” and use domain names such as “tridentllp.com”.