Scammers are using one of the world’s biggest freelance platforms to pose as real solicitors, including employees at major fashion brands, investment banks and the Financial Conduct Authority.
This article was written by Effie Webb and originally published by The Bureau Of Investigative Journalism.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) has identified dozens of Fiverr listings offering legal services while impersonating genuine UK lawyers – a criminal offence.
They steal names and registration numbers from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) – unique identifiers that confirm a lawyer is qualified and regulated – and pair them with AI-generated headshots.
Many of the profiles offer to draft data protection policies, tenancy agreements and other contracts, hooking in potential customers with advertised prices as low as $10 (£7.61).
Some of the fake solicitors admitted in messages to TBIJ that they used AI in their work.
TBIJ found and alerted 30 people and companies to fake profiles using Fiverr to trade on their names and credentials. We also reported the accounts to Action Fraud and the SRA, which has since published a scam alert about Fiverr. The regulator has recorded a sharp rise in bogus law firms and impersonation scams, publishing more than 1,400 alerts this year.
Phil Brickell, a Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax, believes online platforms have become a key battleground for scammers.
He said: “The government’s forthcoming fraud strategy must include measures to hold online companies to account.”
An SRA spokesperson for the regulator said its powers are limited, but confirmed it urgently reviewed the profiles identified by TBIJ “due to the nature of the risk to the public falling victim to the scam”.
Doppelgangers
Eli went on Fiverr looking for a low-cost legal opinion last month. He found someone claiming to be a specific solicitor and using his SRA number (which identifies and verifies registered lawyers), but became suspicious when the responses to his questions “felt like a chatbot” and the account owner refused to speak on the phone.
The next day, Eli looked up the solicitor and called his law firm, which informed Eli the profile was fake.
Mock-up of a Fiverr profile like the one impersonating Joseph*Joseph*, the solicitor Eli thought he was speaking to, only learned his identity had been stolen thanks to Eli. Screenshots shared with TBIJ confirm the account used Joseph’s real name and SRA number.
“The person was clearly pasting everything into GPT,” Joseph said, after chatting with the fake account. He added that if the imposter issued a certified document in his name, it would have been legally worthless.
The solicitors who have been impersonated on Fiverr include members of staff at the Financial Conduct Authority, a Big Four accounting firm and a global investment bank.
Marcus Denning, a senior lawyer at MK Law in Australia, told TBIJ that “these scams adversely affect the level of public trust in regulated legal professions,” he said.
Of the people and companies who responded to TBIJ’s findings, all confirmed that the accounts were impersonating them. Several firms added that they were investigating the fake profiles, and had made their own reports to the SRA, Action Fraud and Fiverr.
When TBIJ contacted the Fiverr profiles, posing as a prospective client, many claimed to be working abroad or listed time zones outside the UK, despite advertising themselves as UK-based.
They quoted rates of £50 to £150 to draft an NDA – less than a UK-based lawyer would be likely to charge, but several times the rock-bottom prices they advertise.
Advances in generative AI have made it possible to ask chatbots to draft complex legal documents, leading to even some real lawyers making serious errors. In June, the high court ordered lawyers to stop misusing AI, after dozens of fictitious cases were cited.
The technology also enables fraudsters to create plausible legal services scams.
Eli, who works in tech, said he only spotted the scam because he is very cautious online. “That’s probably why I didn’t fall for it, because I immediately felt something was wrong,” he said.
AI first, customers second
Fiverr’s community standards ban impersonation, misrepresentation and the use of AI-generated profile pictures.
Many of the fraudulent accounts’ profile pictures did not match the lawyers they were impersonating and showed typical signs of generative AI use, including unnaturally smooth facial features, blurred, textureless backgrounds and distorted or smudged edges around hair and clothing.
While this violates Fiverr’s terms of service, sellers are free to use AI to complete work for clients, and Fiverr does not proactively check listings. In fact, the platform advises buyers to state clearly if they do not want AI-generated work.
Several of the fake account owners denied using AI in their legal work. One wrote to TBIJ: “I am a qualified UK solicitor. How will you expect me to be using AI to draft contract [sic]?”
Fiverr also does not screen legal services providers, instead advising buyers to verify details themselves.
Fiverr disclaimerIf users think an account is fake, they can report messages or specific service offerings through the platform, but it is only possible to get an account removed entirely by directly contacting Fiverr – and even then service seems patchy.
The majority of the profiles TBIJ identified remain live at time of publication, even though many law firms flagged them to Fiverr and requested they be removed. Several solicitors said Fiverr did not respond after they reported the fake profiles.
Joseph said the account impersonating him was eventually removed after he contacted the company, but Fiverr never acknowledged taking it down or apologised.
In September, Fiverr announced it was becoming an “AI-first” business. Chief executive Micha Kaufman announced on X that the company would expand its use of artificial intelligence to improve fraud detection. A Fiverr spokesperson told TBIJ that the company uses a combination of automated detection, manual review and user reporting to remove listings that breach its policies, but declined to comment on the fraudulent listings we identified.
Some lawyers run genuine accounts on Fiverr. Cullen Gordge, one such solicitor, told TBIJ that the platform is crowded with AI-generated legal listings, prompting some clients who find him through the website to request video calls to verify his identity.
“One even left a review saying, ‘Cullen’s great and the best thing of all, he’s actually legitimate,’” he said.
Fuelling fraud
Experts say impersonation scams are becoming more common as generative AI allows fraudsters to create convincing identities at low cost with little effort.
Sam Gregory, an expert on deceptive AI who has testified before the United States Congress, said fraudsters can now “create personalised impersonations of verified professionals – like regulated UK lawyers – and deploy them on platforms where potential victims are actively seeking those services.”
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said in July that he anticipated “a significant impending fraud crisis” as the internet becomes ever more saturated with AI-generated content.
Fraud is the most common type of crime in England and Wales, accounting for over 40% of all offences, according to the National Crime Agency. In the first half of 2025, a record 217,000 cases of fraud or suspected fraud were recorded by Cifas, an anti-fraud non-profit. More than half of these involved identity fraud.
Simon Miller, director of policy at Cifas, said AI has turned fraud into a “service industry,” making scams faster, slicker and harder to detect, and allowing criminals to impersonate “everyone from loved ones to solicitors”.
Regulatory gaps
Tom*, a lawyer for a firm targeted by Fiverr fraudsters said platforms like Fiverr are “a high-risk environment for fraud”, and said it was “absurd and unscrupulous” that the company appeared to take no responsibility for fake listings. He added that regulators and consumer protection systems had been “pretty hollowed out” in recent years.
“The SRA regulates lawyers, but they struggle to manage non-lawyers, who are effectively cybercriminals operating outside their jurisdiction,” he said.
Tom noted several other lawyers at his firm were victims of identity theft in the past year. “These criminals look for reputable firms and pick people at random,” he said.
* Name has been changed.
