Rise in Notario Fraud Targets Immigrants

Scammers have traditionally used fear and false information as strategies. Immigration lawyers and nonprofits are reporting a “alarming” increase in notario fraud, a scheme in which scammers use notary public licenses to trick immigrants into thinking they are licensed to practice law, robbing them of their money and putting them in riskier situations as millions of undocumented immigrants nationwide prepare for Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation. María, a Mexican victim of domestic abuse, was defrauded by a friend who promised to assist her in obtaining a humanitarian visa after she assisted law enforcement in apprehending her abuser. In an interview with the Latin Times, María, whose last name is being kept at her request to preserve her privacy, said that over the course of ten years, her fraudster defrauded her of almost $100,000. The single mother was working 14-hour days at the time to cover the fictitious fees. “I worked in a dry cleaning shop, cleaned houses, and took extra jobs—I even borrowed from a nephew and a sister,” she added in Spanish, claiming that her scammer used fictitious paperwork to update her about the nonexistent case while posing as an attorney on her behalf. María contacted Public Counsel for pro bono legal help, where Gina Lough, the Directing Attorney of Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, looked into her case and found that the fraudster had been using María’s funds for personal costs. With Lough’s assistance, María obtained a U Visa, which is issued to victims of domestic abuse. Nevertheless, her quest for justice turned out to be a challenging struggle. Despite María’s assailant being convicted of grand theft and held responsible in a civil case, he never served a day in jail nor reimbursed María a single cent of restitution—an outcome that is all too frequent in notario fraud situations, Lough stated. Immigration specialists recommend that individuals consistently check the qualifications of anyone providing them with legal assistance. Clients are entitled to ask for contracts that are signed and dated in their native language, and they are expected to obtain receipts for any payments made to an attorney, according to the Public Counsel.