"AvoidAClaim" Blog

The 6th Annual 2011 CLawBies (the Canadian Law Blog Awards) were handed out today (New Year’s Eve). AvoidAClaim was runner-up in the Best Practice Management Blog category.

Congratulations to Samantha Collier for her Social Media For Law Firms blog, the winner in this category, and to my friend and co-runner-up David Bilinsky for his Thoughtful Legal Management blog.

Great to see a vibrant and growing Canadian blawgosphere. See the CLawBies site for a full list of winners and runners-up.

Seven Ontario lawyers and one in Alberta have notified us that they have been contacted by the purported Tammy Hoffmann with regards to a divorce settlement agreement. This is a fraud we have seen before under several other names and similar scenarios. For details on how this fraud works and a full list of names attached to it see our Confirmed Fraud page.

Here is an example of the email:

Subject: Re: Possible Representation.
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:31:28 +0200
From: TAMMY HOFFMANN
Reply-To: tamyhofmann@gmail.com
CC: recipient list not shown: ;

Tammy Hoffmann.

Here are some of the documents lawyers have received in relation to this scam.

Hoffman Collaborative Agreement

One Ontario lawyer received the following cheques (one for settlement, one for retainer) and cover letter.

Another Ontario lawyer received the same cover letter and nearly identical cheques.

How to handle a real or suspected fraud (more…)

[This is the text of a Fraud Alert that LAWPRO sent to Ontario Lawyers December 15, 2011.]

LAWPRO continues to see high numbers of bad cheque frauds targeting Ontario lawyers. On a monthly basis, 250-300 lawyers advise us that have been targeted by bad cheque frauds. We are seeing the same types of scams over and over again, and on a weekly basis we are seeing two or three new fraudster client names. And these frauds are becoming more sophisticated. Very experienced lawyers have been successfully duped. One of the most convincing frauds we have seen, an IP licence dispute scam involving a client named Dan Nagasakii from CCP Group International, has been reported to us several times over the last few weeks.

Be extra vigilant as we approach the Christmas and New Years holidays! From past experience, we know that fraudsters are more active just before long weekends and holidays.

Bad cheque frauds continue to be the most common type of attempted fraud we are seeing. These otherwise legitimate-looking legal matters create circumstances to dupe a lawyer into quickly disbursing funds on a bad cheque or bank draft that was deposited into a trust account. The fraudster gets real money and the lawyer is left with a trust account shortfall. Common scenarios include the payment of spousal support arrears, business debt collections, and personal injury settlements.

This AvoidAClaim blog post lists the common red flags of an email fraud scam.

To help lawyers identify fraudulent matters, LAWPRO is posting information on individual confirmed frauds on the AvoidAClaim.com blog. Click the Confirmed Frauds button to see a full list of the names of confirmed fraudsters. For each confirmed fraud there are individual postings that allow you to see the actual back and forth communications between lawyers and fraudsters. You’ll also find images of the fake supporting documentation the fraudsters are supplying, including identification, bad cheques and bank drafts.

You can help us help other lawyers avoid being duped by forwarding copies of the emails and supporting documents that you receive on any fraud attempt to fraudinfo@lawpro.ca.

Keep your guard up

Some of the fraud attempts are very obvious: Poor spelling, bad grammar and/or completely untenable fact circumstances (e.g., multi-million dollar lottery wins or inheritances) should sound alarm bells.

However, some frauds are extremely sophisticated and look like completely legitimate legal matters. Both new and experienced lawyers have been temporarily fooled into working through file opening and initial stages of the matter before they recognized or determined they were the target of a fraud. Unfortunately some lawyers are being duped by these frauds. Don’t be complacent. The fraudsters go to great lengths to create scenarios that otherwise appear to be legitimate legal matters. Recently we have seen several matters that originated with phone calls, direct and personalized emails or through firm website intake forms. The fraudsters are prepared to engage in extensive and ongoing communications over weeks and even months, usually by email, but also by phone, and on occasion, even in person. Here is an example of communications that went back and forth over several weeks. They will provide information, names and addresses that are tied to your local area.

How to handle a real or suspected fraud (more…)

Three Ontario lawyers have notified us that they have been contacted by the purported Tammy Smith with regards to a divorce settlement agreement. This is a fraud we have seen before under several other names and similar scenarios. For details on how this fraud works and a full list of names attached to it see our Confirmed Fraud page.

Here is an example of the email:

From: tsammyith@gmail.com [mailto:personel@atauni.edu.tr]
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 2:47 AM
Subject: [!! PROBABLE SPAM] Re: Representation.

Tammy Smith.
tsammyith@gmail.com

Here is a transcript of one lawyer’s conversation with the fraudster:

Good day to you and thanks for responding to my email. Please pardon my late email response as my condition does not allow me to stay long on the computer. The consultation fee shouldn’t be a problem, kindly send me your firm fee / retainer agreement for my review and if OK upon receipt, I shall make immediate provision for the fee.

Tammy Smith.
Smith Tammy Collaborative Agreement

Attached is a contract which will only cover a negotiated settlement. If litigation is required in the future, we will sign another contract. I will have to estimate the amount of time filing suit and trying the case will take. Let me know if this is agreeable to you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Agreement received. I will review it and If OK; I shall make immediate provision for the fee. Kindly have the agreement reattach in another format as it’s not opening over here. Have it reattach either with PDF or World. He now resides in Nederland, TX area. I have requested for his full physical address and here is his email bsriansmith@gmail.com.

Ms. Smith

Smith Tammy Signed Agreement

How to handle a real or suspected fraud (more…)

Lawyers in Nebraska and South Carolina have been received emails from the purported Bryan Swayne with regards to a commercial debt litigation scam. “Carrington Career & Workwear” is a company name we’ve seen attached to other frauds attached to the names Steven Bessant, Bailey Chander, and Jerry Steven. For examples of other names attached to this kind of fraud see our Confirmed Fraud Page. For an explanation of how this fraud works see our Fraud Fact Sheet.

Here is an example of the message:

From: Bryan Swayne [mailto:bryanswayne@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 7:31 AM
To: lawyer name
Subject: Re: law suit!

Sincerely,
Bryan Swayne,
Managing Director
Carrington Career & Workwear Ltd
Market Street, Adlington Nr Chorley
Lancashire, PR7 4HJ, United Kingdom.
Tel:+44 702 401 2556
Fax:+44 700 607 6776
www.carrington.uk.com

How to handle a real or suspected fraud (more…)

Four Ontario lawyers and one from Texas have notified us that they have been contacted by the purported Claudia Goodwill with regards to a divorce settlement agreement. This is a fraud we have seen before under several other names and similar scenarios. For details on how this fraud works and a full list of names attached to it see our Confirmed Fraud page.

Here is an example of the email:

From: Claudia Goodwill. [mailto:claudiagwill@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2011 6:43 PM
Subject: Re: Possible Representation.

Claudia Goodwill.

How to handle a real or suspected fraud (more…)

[Updated Dec. 23, 2011]
More than a dozen Ontario and US lawyers have notified us that they’ve been contacted over the last month by the purported Dan Nagasakii of CCP Group International with regards to retaining their services in a breach of licence matter. This is one of the most convincing frauds we have seen. There is a fake website to make the client look legitimate. In the week just before Christmas we have reports from several lawyers worked on the matter as far as receiving cheques on this fraud. One lawyer was successfully duped by this scam.

This is a new variant of the basic bad cheque scam in which the aim is to have a counterfeit cheque deposited in the lawyer’s trust account and good money disbursed to the fraudsters. As with business loan frauds where the debtor miraculously agrees to pay up right away, in this scam the ‘client’ accused of breaching the licence agreement will no doubt also quickly send a (counterfeit) cheque for damages to the lawyers office, and the lawyer will be asked to wire the funds (minus fees and costs) to an offshore account.

Here is an example of the initial contact email (Note that these messages are convincing as they are personally addressed to individual lawyers):

From: Dan Nagasakii [DNagasakii@ccpgroup-int.com]
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 9:52 AM
To: [LawyerEmailAddress]
Subject: Property Rights Violation

Dan Nagasakii
President/CEO
www.ccpgroup-int.com
CCP Group International
Tokyoto Toshimaku Kita
Otsuka 3-12-22, Japan.

While personally addressed to the lawyer (initital contact these messages are frequently BCC’d to many people), this message looks odd in several ways. The top level domain (TLD) of the sender email is different than the TLD in email in signature line (red flag). The president’s contact info on the website mentioned in the email signature matches the info in this message – Dan Nagasakii – which could be a good sign. However, A Google search failed to find info mentioning the president elsewhere on the web – the double ii is an uncommon spelling so you would expect to find something (red flag). There was no matching email for the president found on the web (possible red flag).

One lawyer who carried on correspondence with the fraudster agreed to let us reproduce the email exchange. Emails from the lawyer are in bold. Emails from the fraudster in italics. Emails from the purported company that breached the copyright are indented in bold. (more…)

Five Ontario lawyers and one BC lawyer have notified us that they’ve received emails from the purported Barbara Duckett looking to retain them with regards to a breach of a business loan agreement. This is similar to other frauds of this kind we have seen. For a full description of how this fraud works and to see other names attached to it, see our Confirmed Fraud page that deals with business load frauds.

This is the initial contact message (Note that this fraud has also been reported to us with Roland Webster named as the debtor):

From: Barbara Duckett [mailto:bduckett@blumail.org]
Sent: December-04-11 6:09 PM
To: lawyer name
Subject: breach matter

Barbara Duckett
282 Cyncoed Road
Cardiff, S GLAM CF23 6SA

A lawyer who replied received the following response, counterfeit ID, and agreement between Duckett and the debtor (in this case, Roland Webster):

Thanks:I am so sorry for the late response.I had some family emergency.Below is the name of the borrower:

The Borrower is someone I have known for a few years and we have done business in the past without any issues.He has only paid $65,000 out of a total ($389,000) the balance is still outstanding till this day. I am in constant contact with him and even though he has promised to pay the balance, I think the threat or possibility of litigation would serve as a catalyst to make him pay sooner rather than later.
I am prepared to pay a reasonable retainer or collection costs for this service as soon as I get an engagement letter from your firm. I expect this to be
a non-litigation collection from the borrower but I am prepared to litigate this matter if Mr.Webster is not ready to pay the balance owed on the loan agreement.
I have attached to this mail a pdf version of the loan agreement promissory note for your perusal.Please send me a copy engagement letter so that we can proceed with this issue with Mr. Webster. I want to also let you know that as a owner of a small business,this loan that I gave to him has caused considerable strain on my operational capital.

Duckett Webster Agreement

Other lawyers have received the following counterfeit cheque and cover letter:

How to handle a real or suspected fraud (more…)

The deadline to submit a 2012 LAWPRO renewal application has passed. If you’re a LAWPRO insured and you haven’t filed for 2012, call LAWPRO at 1-800-410-1013 or 416-598-5899.