Daily Diary

Phishers reel in A&O

Posted 5/05/2008 by The Daily Diary

Those social-networkers who know their ‘pokes’ from their ‘status updates’ may remember the controversial Facebook ban briefly imposed by Allen & Overy last year – to such uproar in the ranks that the red-faced firm soon performed a Gordon Brown-style U-turn.

Now the firm has been hit by another technological terror, becoming the latest City outfit to fall victim to the curse of the ‘phishers’ – including unscrupulous cyber-squatters who hijack respectable email addresses for their own illicit purposes.

It happened to Nabarro a while back and has now spread to Spitalfields, meaning unsuspecting inboxes have been bombarded with emails purporting to come from A&O partners – including senior partner David Morley – requesting cash for services rendered.

Rest assured, however, that despite the credit crunch A&O is not quite that hard up just yet, so – tempting as it may be – try to resist the urge to wing over a few quid for that telling banking advice you didn’t actually get.

Whether A&O client Research In Motion received any suspect emails on the collective BlackBerry located in its famously deep pockets is not yet known…