Beware of Scammers Posing as Employees of Legal Aid of Western Ohio

If someone claiming to be an employee of LAWO asks you to send them your personal or financial information by email—don't do it! A real LAWO employee will never ask you to send financial information by email.

Here are a few precautions you can take to make sure you are talking with a real LAWO employee:

• Call them through our phone system: How do you know if the phone number someone gave you is a real LAWO number? Visit our Contact & Locations page to find the real phone numbers for all our offices. If a person really works for LAWO, you can reach them though their office's phone system.
• Ask them to email you from a LAWO address: All LAWO employees have an email address that ends in "lawolaw.org." Look closely! Scammers often use email addresses that look like real addresses but are slightly different. For example, "lawolawenc.org" looks like it's from us, but the extra "enc" in the address means it's from someone else.
• Ask for a business card: All employees have business cards with their name, phone number, email address, and the LAWO logo.

Still not sure? Call or email our communications specialist, Emily Desmond at (419) 930-2542 or edesmond@ablelaw.org to verify if someone really is a LAWO employee.

Visit the Consumer Protection section of the Ohio Attorney General website to learn how to protect yourself from fraud and scams, and how you can file an official complaint with the Office of the Attorney General.