I refer you to one of the best things you will ever read on avoiding a check scam loss. It is suitable for forwarding to your clients and non-lawyer friends. Kudos to MaAfee & Taft lawyer Robert T. Luttrell III for his piece Check Scams That Target Lawyers in the March, 2010 Oklahoma Bar Journal.
This brief article covers what the bank representative is really telling you when you think you are hearing that the check is good, the sequence of three events to help you spot a check scam no matter which variation ot the scheme you see and the one sure-fire way you can avoid a loss on a particular item, even if it costs you a small fee.
The scams continue. Just today I learned of a Houston lawyer who lost $182,500. The Oklahoma Bar Association has now launched a special web page to provide information on avoiding scams at http://www.okbar.org/scams. This truly would be a good article to pass along to everyone you know.