Young lawyer here. I fell for an impersonation scam. Scammer pretended to be a very senior partner at my firm. I am mortified and embarrassed, as it’s not something I would normally fall for. I was in a rush and when I saw the partners name on the email my knee-jerk reaction was “if he says jump you ask how high”. I don’t care about the money I lost, I care far more about the opinions of others at my firm who now know about this (managing partner etc.). Is my credibility shot?

This happened to me about 5 months into my current job. It was so humiliating. I had a full on anxiety attack before going into my boss's office and explaining what I did while crying. I thought for sure that my credibility and career were over. I was wrong. My boss was so helpful, and got the firm to reimburse me for the money I stupidly spent. He knew it was embarrassing to me, and tried to not ever bring it up again. In fact, the only time he has ever brought it up was a year down the line when he jokingly said, "you do really great work... actually the only thing you have done wrong was when you bought me gift cards." If it happened again, it would be a different story for sure. But I learned my lesson the hard way, and luckily had support. It really does happen to smart people, all the time, especially when we work in an industry where we are supposed to do what we are told, quickly, and without question. I hope your firm is as supportive as mine, and that you can move on relatively unscathed. I have yo say though, I still cringe thinking about what I did, even 3 years later.

A couple of years ago, ten people across our firm fell for the same thing, including some higher ranking members and staff. No, your credibility isn’t shot. This is a good opportunity for your firm to evaluate these emails and how they are getting through. It will be okay.

I almost fell for a similar scam once. Literally the only reason I caught myself and did not was because our IT had recently sent out a reminder to be on the lookout—otherwise I would have taken the bait.

Idk if you’ve done this yet or not, but your best course of action would be to immediately disclose as A2 suggests. Apologize and take ownership, and that will do far more to help your credibility than a dumb slip-up will to hurt it.

I also almost fell for one of these, also when I was traveling. I was looking on my phone so it only showed the name, not the email address. Got a few emails in before I decided to call the managing partner to make sure it was actually him- he was very confused and I felt embarrassed for a little bit. I used to work in data privacy. It happens.

A colleague of mine bought 200 dollars worth of iTunes gift cards for an 80 year old partner who came into the office once a week. Handed him the gift cards and he asked what iTunes was...

It happens to the best of us as long as you didn’t buy anything you should be alright

For more context, the partner is in the midst of retiring and the scammer, posing as him, asked me to get gift cards for clients. I didn’t think twice because 1) partner is very important and no one questions what he says and 2) it seemed reasonable to me that partner would want to send some gift cards to long time clients as a parting gesture. I’ve also never met this partner in person (semi-retired, doesn’t bother with associates) so I have no clue what is typical of his writing or expectations.

I am so ashamed to have made this avoidable mistake. I just pray it doesn’t cost me my job, or worse, my reputation.

The firm has otherwise been happy with my work since I’ve joined. Firm hasn’t responded yet to my reporting of the incident.

I almost missed a flight once because of one of these scam emails - I was furious when I realized it was just a scam (fortunately for me, the English was poor in a follow-up email - otherwise I may have fallen for it too). I wouldn’t be too embarrassed. You’re certainly not alone. Junior associates are trained to do what they’re asked quickly, especially when there’s an “urgent” in the subject line.

I nearly fell for one of these scams. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Also almost happened to me. This is so common, don’t beat yourself up about it.

Yeah my guess the only damage will be to your ego. We get phishing emails like this fairly frequently where it seems like it is a partner but the email address is not from within the firm. Fortunately when it happened to me, the email was just asking if I was available (it was a sat) and I ignored it for an hour before and noticed it was from a sus email address so I reported it to IT as a way to avoid having to pick up an assignment LOL

There is a reason that the bad guys send these emails. They work. We are all human, and we can be tricked. It is hard keeping a high index of suspicion when you are working fast and focused on other things. Don’t beat yourself up, but do treat it as a lesson learned. And by sharing it, you have helped the rest of us be a bit more cautious. Thank you.

It happened to me less than a month into my new job! So try to have a little sympathy for yourself. It’s really easy to get caught up in it. They pretended to be one of the partners in my small regional office that I knew but didn’t work for. I responded because I wanted to make a good impression and felt like I had to. Lucky for me, our spam filter caught it after I responded to a couple emails and literally prevented me from having any further communication. But it happens to us all! I hope it brings some relief knowing you’re not alone and I hope everything turns out alright.

I’ve seen these work in my past two firms, it’s common. No need to beat yourself up too much, have a laugh about it.

On a related but lighter note—our firm sends out fake phishing emails once in a while to test us/keep us vigilant. If you fail and click the link it brings you a “you got phished” page with a warning and explanation of what you should have noticed about the email to see it was a fake.

I got an email with the subject “Dress Code Violation” that said “someone has reported you for inappropriate outfits bla bla bla click here to review our dress code policy.” I immediately was like WHAT THE and went into panic mode, clicked the link only to see that it was just a test. Meanwhile I don’t know anyone else at the firm who got a similar phish bait so feel as though IT was preying on my vanity. 😂

This happened to a 3rd year at my firm! It can happen to anyone!

I fell for one, once, though not the “buy gift cards” kind. Just responding to an email that turned out to be a phishing attempt. I was new, rushing, looking at my email on my phone where it only shows the senders name, and saw an email from an important partner (who had previously emailed me from her nonwork email when something was urgent). Immediately realized my mistake and sent it to IT.

It happens to the best of us. That’s why firms do these trainings.

Any update on how it went?

These gift card scams are such a huge thing that, when you buy gift cards at CVS (maybe other places, too) you are required to read and sign a notice stating that you don’t believe you are being scammed and that you really do want to purchase the gift cards.

With all that said, don’t panic. It may be embarrassing, but you didn’t do anything to harm the firm. You may get jokes about it, but a little humor takes the edge off!

The reason scams exist are because many people fall for them! They’re good at what they do. Don’t beat yourself up too bad especially if they haven’t.

I am surprised that highly trained and educated attorneys fall for these emails.