People will do a lot of dumb stuff without talking to an attorney. They'll think,"OMG, lawyers are saying they'll put me out of business," or "OMG, the IRS/SEC

People will do a lot of dumb stuff without talking to an attorney. They'll think,"OMG, lawyers are saying they'll put me out of business," or "OMG, the IRS/SEC/FBI have told me I did something bad," and they call the number on the letterhead. People want to believe that other people are reasonable. I wouldn't advise this for the latter group, but it is quite enjoyable to wind up time saying a lot of nothing (except maybe a nice description of your bowel movements) to the legal firm, who then charge their client for writing it down and telling them what was said. In general, keep your effing mouth shut. It's generally safe to ignore "scary letters" (and especially emails) if you're not actually served, because it's inexpensive to carpet bomb potential suckers. Once they legally act against you (such as the IRS telling you they have started auditing your returns), break out your rainy day retainer fund. There are good attorneys out there and they're not hard to find.