Posted March 31, 20221:39 pm
If someone claiming to be an employee of The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland asks you to send them your financial information by email—don't do it! A real Legal Aid employee will never ask you to send financial info by email.
Here are some things you can do to make sure you are talking with a real Legal Aid employee:
- Call them through our phone system: How do you know if the phone number someone gave you is a real Legal Aid number? Visit our website to find the real phone numbers for all of our offices. If a person really works for Legal Aid, you can reach them though their office's phone system.
- Ask them to email you from a Legal Aid address: All Legal Aid employees have an email address that ends in "lasclev.org." Look closely! Scammers often use email addresses that look like real addresses but are slightly different. For example, "lascleve.org" looks like it's from us, but the extra "e" in the address means it's from someone else.
- Ask for a business card. All Legal Aid employees have business cards with their name, phone number, email address and the Legal Aid logo.
Still not sure? Call our Director of Development and Communications, Melanie Shakarian, at 216-861-5217 to verify if someone really is a Legal Aid employee.
Visit the Cuyahoga County Department of Consumer Affairs to learn how to protect yourself from fraud and scams, and how you can file an official complaint with the department.