Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Immigration lawyers are worried about a possible uptick in fraudsters exploiting vulnerable immigrants seeking legal advice.
- One immigrant in Utah, Wendy, was scammed by an attorney she found online who has also allegedly defrauded other immigrants in Florida as well.
- Lawyers urge immigrants to verify attorneys' credentials to avoid scams and protect their cases.
SALT LAKE CITY — Maybe the tipoff that something was awry should have been the instructions from the supposed lawyer to pay processing and application fees to U.S. immigration authorities through Western Union.
Wendy, however, wired the money, $300 and then $600, as instructed to a Dallas, Texas, office of the financial services company.
After a supposed online court hearing in her immigration case, though, the woman — an immigrant from Peru seeking asylum — figured out she had been duped. The supposed judge in the video hearing wasn't the judge she was accustomed to, and he spoke Spanish, which seemed unusual. She started digging, looked up her immigration case online, and found she had missed her actual immigration court appearance because she took part in what turned out to be a fake hearing with the Spanish-speaking man, posing as a judge.
"I looked into it, and I realized I had been defrauded," said Wendy. The woman, living in Utah, asked that only her first name be used given her uncertain migratory status and the ongoing crackdown by federal authorities on immigrants here illegally.
Apprehension and frayed nerves aren't the only issues for immigrants as they deal with the amplified efforts by immigration authorities under President Donald Trump to detain and deport immigrants here illegally. They also potentially have to contend with fraudsters posing as attorneys preying on their desperation for legal advice as they try to normalize their migratory status.
West Valley City attorney Ysabel Lonazco, who is now assisting Wendy, said cases like Wendy's need attention as a warning to other immigrants. Immigrants are already vulnerable, Lonazco said, and given the current climate, she worries about an uptick in such fraudulent behavior. "I could not believe this — somebody posing as an attorney," she said, and also creating a set resembling a courtroom for the fake online court hearing.
Mariah Schiff, a lawyer based in Plantation, Florida, represents two clients who were victims of the same scam artists as Wendy. Lonazco, Schiff and numerous other attorneys around the country discussed the matter via an email thread managed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "This is a crime. It can be considered to be impersonating a government official, wire fraud, practicing law without a license," Schiff said.
Schiff suspects the same people who duped her clients and Wendy — with a website and Facebook page that are still operational though they contain minimal information — are scamming more people. The representatives from the fake law firm reached out to her two clients amid worries of an uptick in immigration raids after Trump won reelection to the presidency last November. "I believe that we will see more scam artists like this that are taking advantage of people who are scared and desperate," said Schiff, in the process of reporting the fraud to authorities.
Moreover, both Lonazco and Schiff reiterated long-standing cautions from the legal community about seeking help with their U.S. immigration cases from "notarios."
"I also believe that notarios, or immigration document preparers, will also try to take advantage of people. I have seen a lot of people recently who have gone to notarios to fill out asylum applications, and they do not know what was put in the application," Schiff said.
According to the National Notary Association, "notarios publicos" in Latin American countries have extensive legal training and are able to prepare legal documents and provide expert advice. In the United States, though, notaries have much narrower duties, such as witnessing the signing of documents. "Many unethical individuals exploit the confusion over these different roles to take advantage of unsuspecting immigrants," according to the National Notary Association, a trade organization.
'See if it's a real lawyer'
Wendy found the phony attorney who tricked her via Facebook and communicated largely via WhatsApp, the messaging and calling app. The woman who helped her had a Venezuelan accent, Wendy said.
After seeking the fraudster's help, Wendy received numerous fake emails from the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service, or USCIS, asking her to pay fees via Western Union, though the agency, according to Lonazco, will never use electronic messages to request payment. Receipts for the $300 and $600 payments Wendy made were sent via WhatsApp.
The online hearing she attended was held via Webex, an online conferencing system Utah courts use, and afterward, she received a bill for $3,200 from the fake lawyer. The hearing seemed realistic, with a supposed judge in a black robe sitting on a raised platform. But something was off — proceedings were in Spanish, for one thing. "It seemed real weird," Wendy said.
That's when Wendy started digging, calling immigration court officials and learning that she was facing a deportation order for missing the actual hearing she was supposed to have attended. She conveyed the news to the fake attorney. "She said that was a lie. She was insisting that I pay the $3,200," Wendy said.
Lonazco is now assisting Wendy and says the woman's case is still salvageable given the obvious fraud she experienced. Still, the turn of events shook Wendy, and she, like Lonazco, advises those seeking legal help to do a little checking before accepting the help of a lawyer.
"First check to see if it's a real lawyer, if they have an office. Check the lawyer to make sure they're active in Utah," Wendy said. The Utah Bar Association recommends use of its online referral service, licensedlawyer.org, to make sure lawyers are licensed to work in the state.
Lonazco, for her part, worries about other unscrupulous actors trying to capitalize on the simmering fear in the immigrant community. "I think that because they are vulnerable, they are taking advantage of the panic of people just not knowing what to do," she said.
