Q: Is it a criminal act in Florida to provide an attorney with a fraudulent email address?
Attorney is doing estate planning for an elderly client who was brought to this attorney by a relative. Elderly client has comprehension issues due to age and illness. Relative provides attorney with an email address he has created for the client without her knowledge so that the attorney can presumably communicate with the client and forward documents. Client has no knowledge that relative did this and in fact she has never operated a computer or even knows what an email address is. Attorney has no reason to believe that the email address does not belong to his client as it was provided by the relative and has characters in it that closely resemble his client's name. Attorney believes he is communicating and sending estate documents to his client when in fact they are going to the relative without the client's knowledge. Is this a criminal act? Is the attorney also at fault for not verifying that the email address in fact belonged to his client?
Thanks
A: While this may not actually be criminal, it certainly lends way to the conclusion that undue influence and manipulation are being used.
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