Scammers are still on the prowl, and this time, they almost caught a Miami lawyer in their trap.

The attorney, who specializes in real estate and is also a title agent, recently contacted the Bar to report a convincing email that appeared to come from Manatee County Government, offering a legal consulting opportunity. But a closer look revealed the email was part of a sophisticated scam designed to install harmful software.

While the email seemed professional at first, the lawyer later discovered subtle red flags, including an odd email address and a small grammatical mistake. After responding and downloading a ZIP file containing what the scammer claimed was a vendor registration form, the lawyer’s security software, Microsoft Defender, flagged the file as a Trojan virus, stopping it just in time.