"AvoidAClaim" Blog

Over 60 Ontario lawyers have notified us that they’ve received an email from a “Mr Marsden” (or sometimes Mr. Goling) of Alfa Construction Ltd asking to retain their services. The address given looks to be a residential address in North York, ON, though a Google search of the company name finds a similar company entry in Nepean, ON and California. There may or may not be a real company with that name. It would appear to be a setup for a debt litigation scam. 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 the initial email:

From: Mr. Marsden [mailto:a.marsden@alfaconstructionltd.com]
Sent: April 30, 2012 9:30 AM
To: lawyer name
Subject: RE: Alfa Construction Ltd

Sincerely,
Mr. Goling
f.goling@alfaconstructionltd.com
Tel:1-289-628-6330

A lawyer who replied to “Mr Goling” got this response:

How was the weekend? I trust it was pleasant.

Mr. Goling
f.goling@alfaconstructionltd.com
Tel:1-289-628-6330

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

In the paper world keeping client data confidential was easy and cheap. In the digital world, its difficult and expensive, and the job is never truly done.

The authors of Locked Down (Sharon D. Nelson, David G. Reis and John W. Simek) believe that law firms are not doing enough to protect electronic client data. The reason for this is a combination of ignorance of the IT world, expense and a belief that “it can’t happen to us”. As a result, law firms are being specifically targeted by hackers who consider them easy pickings.

This book is an attempt to explain the wide variety of information security risks facing law firms and how lawyers can best protect their data, whether they have a large budget or small. It covers such topics as:

• creating secure passwords
• working securely from laptops and smartphones
• developing information security checklists for your firm
• protecting mobile devices from theft

This is good reading to go along with practicePRO’s Managing the Security and Privacy of Electronic Data in a Law Office.

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the ABA Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

Over thirty lawyers in Ontario and the US have told us they’ve received emails from the purported Leo Esaki or Lee Hang of Akita Patent Law Office with regards to a commercial debt litigation scam. 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 the initial email:

From: Leo Esaki [mailto:leo.es@techie.com]
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 8:51 AM
To: lawyer name
Subject: DEBT COLLECTION

Leo Esaki
Akita Patent Law Office
1-13-9 Higashi-tabata
Kita-ku Tokyo Japan
ZIP 160-0022
Email; leo.esak@techie.com

A lawyer who responded got this reply:

Thanks for your response, our client is Ishizuka Electronics Corp Japan and their debtor information is below, the debt owed is $650,000.00. We like to know if you have conflict that will prevent you from representing our client Ishizuka Electronics Corp, against Hawaiian Electric Company. We have explored all avenues to resolve this issue amicably, unfortunately we have not progressed as expected.

Regards
Leo Esaki
Akita Patent Law Office
1-13-9 Higashi-tabata
Kita-ku Tokyo Japan
ZIP 160-0022

One lawyer received the following fake passport:

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

Lawyers in Ontario and the US have notified us that they’ve received an email from the purported Patricia Zimmerman 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.

Here is the initial email.

From: Patricia Zimmerman [mailto:pzimmmerman41@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 9:32 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Re:Possible Representation

Regards,
Patricia Zimmerman

A lawyer who responded received the following reply:

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. Your 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.

Patricia Zimmerman.

Click to see a copy of the collaborative family law agreement

The fraudster also signed and returned a retainer agreement.

Agreement received. I will review it and If OK; I shall make immediate provision for the fee.
I do not think this matter will result to litigation as he is not disputing the claim neither did he want to contest it. All I need is a reputable law firm like yours to act on my behalf as I am sick of his various excuses. He got properties here in Kentucky, Aussie, and Canada as well. He is well to do business man but just wouldn’t want to come up with the balance on time as agreed. He agreed to pay but kept giving me numerous excuses and turning me around. Each time he noticed I am about to seek a legal counsel to sue for breach of the agreement we had, he always come up the notion that he want to pay and the moment I cool off, he won’t come up with the payment.
We chose Collaborative Law Process to reduce emotional and financial cost and the agreement is binding and enforceable anywhere as stated in the CPLA. He emailed me agreeing to pay after I notified him of my intention to sue him for breach of the agreement we had. He had previously made several promises to come up with the payment and none he ever kept and that is the more reason I told him this time around, I am seeking a legal counsel that will retrieve this funds from him and if need be, litigate him for breach of the agreement.
I am seeking a counsel basically because it is taken longer for him to come up the settlement as agreed on the CPLA, and I know with a counsel involvement, these funds will be release as soon as possible without going to court. After I notified him of my intention, he had already requested for your firm contact details to enable him establish contact with you and set up an arrangement on how to remit the money he owed as I have instructed him without delays or possible litigation.
I shall get back to you soon with the retainer fee after my review of the agreement.
Regards
Ms. Zimmerman.

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

The Royal Bank has advised us that several counterfeit Canadian dollar bank drafts have been negotiated by lawyers (4 in Ontario, 3 in Alberta and 1 in Quebec). These drafts are drawn on RBC transit 05142 003 and are payable to individual lawyers. The subject line on all 8 drafts indicates “Rowland Webster”. They are dated April 12 and 13, 2012, and are in the amount of $325,850. They indicate Royal Bank of Canada, Mississauga ON on the top left corner of the draft. RBC’s investigation indicated that these drafts were given to the lawyer as payment on a debt collection.

The name Rowland Webster has been used as the debtor name on a loan collection fraud previously reported to LAWPRO. The fraudster client in this case was purporting to be Barbara Duckett. See this AvoidAClaim post for more information on the Barbara Duckett fraud. RBC did not provide the fraudster client name used on the above frauds.

Here is a scan of one of the cheques:

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

The College of Law Practice Management has just launched the 2012 InnovAction Awards.

The COLPM is looking for lawyers, law firms, and other deliverers of legal services who are engaged in some extraordinary innovative efforts.

Would your firm qualify or do you know of another firm or person that would deserve this prestigious award and the recognition it brings? Here are the Judging Criteria:

• Disruption: does this entry change an important element of the legal services process for the better, and marketplace expectations along with it?
• Value: is the client and/or legal industry better off because of this entry, in terms of the affordability, ease, relevance or its effect on legal services?
• Effectiveness: has this entry delivered real, demonstrable or measurable benefits, for the provider, its clients, or the marketplace generally?
• Originality: is this a novel idea or approach, or a new twist on an existing idea or approach?

Look around to see if your firm’s work might qualify it for this designation. What has your firm done in the last few years to improve its level of client satisfaction, develop stronger leadership, leverage existing knowledge, or open new markets for its services? Be on the lookout for other firms and organizations that are doing some truly spectacular things.

Applications for the 2012 InnovAction Awards are available here

Do the wills you are drafting for your clients deal with their digital assets? Does your will deal with your digital assets (personally and for your practice)? I’m guessing that your answers to both these questions is “No.”

Sharon Nelson did an excellent post on this hot topic on the Ride The Lightning blog. Until recently, lawyers just didn’t think about digital assets. This needs to change as lawyers and clients alike all have significant and growing online presences. It can be very difficult and time consuming for family members and estate trustees to deal with digital assets if they don’t know of them or don’t have the necessary usernames and passwords to access them.

Sharon (and her husband John) recently redid their wills and they have generously posted the language they came up with for their wills and Powers of Attorney. If you haven’t thought about this important issue for your will or the wills you are doing for your clients, please review the provisions that Sharon has posted and consider incorporating an appropriate adaptation of them in the wills and powers of attorney you are drafting.

The following article is by Wendy Werner, owner and principal of Werner Associates LLC, a career coaching and law practice management consulting firm. It originally appeared in the 2012 Student Issue of LAWPRO Magazine.

On the face of it, interviewing should not be all that difficult – particularly for lawyers. As members of a profession who primarily make their living either writing or speaking, the idea that having a conversation about your interests and abilities in your own profession sounds both logical and easy.

But throw the words “job interview” into the mix and a whole new paradigm emerges. With seemingly so much at stake, job interviews take on a new meaning for people who ordinarily would not shy away from talking about the field they have chosen and the background that they bring.

At the same time, it also seems that candidates often appear at interviews unprepared for a conversation in which they have voluntarily decided to participate.

Here are some thoughts about making the most of a difficult process, and in the end making good decisions about where you want to work.

Preparation is key

Although you are, hopefully, going to be doing most of the talking in the interview, it pays to know as much as you can about the firm with whom you are interviewing, and the people who will be interviewing you. When you schedule the interview make sure to ask lots of questions. Whom will you be meeting with, how long will the interview last, and will the interview be a series of one-on-one conversations or a group meeting? There is a huge difference between those two kinds of interviews, and you want to be prepared for the one that you are going to have.

While most law firm interviews feature relatively standard questions, corporations now often employ what are called “behavioural” or “situational” interviews. These rely on the premise that past behaviour predicts future performance. To that end, candidates are queried at length in a series of statements that start with, “tell me about a time when,” followed by a series of situations that range from your best moments to your worst.

You may not believe that this is the best way to learn how you will perform in the new position – but not being prepared to deal with this format can be fatal. And coming up with your best answers to these situational questions on the way home in the car is not going to do you any good.

The best way to prepare is to know the content of your resume completely, and to be able to talk, in specifics, about how you have approached work situations in the past. Whether or not you find yourself in an interview of this type, it helps significantly to prepare the stories that you want to talk about in advance. Your interviewers are likely to forget about your past titles and dates: But you do not want them to forget your stories. Whatever you do, resist the temptation to “wing it” when it comes to preparing your answers to questions about your past experience.

The SAO formula

There is an easy formula to employ when talking about what you have done – SAO – or Situation, Action, Outcome.

You want to describe succinctly the situation in which you found yourself, remembering that the listener may not know anything about the topic you are describing; include the actions that you took, and what happened as a result of your action.

Remember that in addition to winning circumstances, you are likely to be asked about times when you did not finish a project, meet expectations, or win a case. You may also be asked about difficult relationships with co-workers or supervisors. Having something prepared in advance is likely to prevent you from leading with an inappropriate story, or one that leaves the listener with a less than positive impression. While it is fine that you made mistakes in the past, you want the interviewer to know that whatever lesson was to be learned, you have done so and you will never make the same mistakes again.

Knowing who you are going to be meeting with gives you the opportunity to be well versed in their background prior to the interview. In addition to any posted firm or company biography, make sure that you look at their LinkedIn profile, any appropriate lawyer directories, court filings, and of course, the grapevine. The more you know about the temperaments and background of those interviewing you, the greater the likelihood that you will hit the right tone during the interview process.

Questions to ask and when

There are two sides to the interview process, and it is an important distinction to keep in focus. If during the interview you believe that the hiring entity has all of the power in the process, you may subtly signal a lack of confidence in your own value. However, you must understand that the early stages of the interview process are all about what you are bringing to the table. It is not until the other side begins to signal an interest in your candidacy that you can begin to ask questions about the ways in which this employer might be a good place for you to apply your skills.

Most interviewers will ask if you have any questions – which of course you do. But there are some questions that should be asked no sooner than when a job offer has been tendered. It is then and only then that you have leverage in the interview process.

Questions you ask during the interview process should relate specifically to the job: The kinds of things that you would be doing, the experience the interviewer is looking for, and what would make someone successful in the job. If you can get a description of a successful candidate, you can go on to reiterate to the interviewer why you would be just such a candidate.

Questions about the culture of the firm, the reasons the position is available, working hours and conditions, and possible advancement should be left until after a job offer. So should any discussion of salary and benefits. Many potential employers will ask you for salary requirements; but answering those questions short of a job offer is likely to short circuit your ability to negotiate on your own behalf when an offer is made. When asked – and you will be – politely tell the interviewer that you will be more than happy to discuss salary at the time of a job offer. If you get pushback, and it is possible that you will, reiterate your willingness to talk about the issue after an offer, and that you are at present primarily interested in learning more about the job and how you would be an asset to the organization.

If you are asked to complete a written application that includes salary history, write something narrative like: “within range for experience,” or “market rate.” If you have to include numbers, try to fill in the blank with zeros.

Benefits & working conditions

When an offer has been made, refrain from discussing salary until you have received full disclosure of the benefits package. Without that information you will not be able to know what you want to negotiate in the employment package.

If at all possible, have the salary conversation in person. If a number is delivered to you over the phone, set up a meeting to talk about the offer in person. Understand that you must be clear about the salary you are willing to accept. Remember as well that this is a negotiation on behalf of your first client – yourself. As an attorney, negotiation is likely to be part of your job requirements, so you should demonstrate that ability now.

There are a number of other things that you may want to discuss prior to talking about remuneration. Now is the time to talk about working conditions, billable hour numbers and rates if they are applicable, opportunities for advancement, partner track, marketing support, fee-splits, and firm culture, just to name a few.

This would also be a time when you want to meet more of your potential future colleagues, and see the physical office space you would occupy if you haven’t already. While taking any job has its risks, you are at this point trying to eliminate as many future surprises as possible.

So borrow a page out of the prospective employer’s interview guide. The firm doing the hiring will probably want references from you to ensure that you are who you say you are. Now’s the time for you to gather some of the same kind of information from the firm by meeting and talking with more people. Just as you have been asked about your weaknesses or shortcomings, now you may also want to ask the firm about issues they are working on to improve.

Remember as well that no job (and no candidate) looks better than the day before you start. If you see red flags now, you may want to consider whether or not this is the best fit. Just because you have
successfully made a case for yourself in the interview doesn’t necessarily mean this is the job you want to own.

Due diligence on both parts of the interview is likely to create a better chance of a good fit – for you and the hiring firm.

Again this year, the always exciting 60 Sites in 60 Minutes plenary session concluded ABA TECHSHOW 2012. Presenters Natalie Kelly, Dan Pinnington, Catherine Sanders Reach and TECHSHOW Chair Reid Trautz shared variety of serious and funs sites with the packed room. It was a lot of fun to do 60 sites. For those that could make it, here is a full list of the sites we presented:

Sites to help you do your job

• ABA Preview of Supreme Court Cases: Everything you want or need to know about what is happening at the Supreme Court, past, present and future. americanbar.org/publications/preview_home.html
• Fastcase and Mobile Sync: Legal research on your desktop, iPhone or iPad. Bar Association users can use the Mobile Sync feature to keep one research session going across all platforms. www.fastcase.com
• CellularAbroad is a helpful site to find the best mobile phone and coverage option specific to your phone and carrier when traveling overseas. www.cellularabroad.com
• Google Scholar adds treatment to citing cases scholar.google.com/
• Jureeka: Turn legal citations in web pages into hyperlinks that point to online legal source material in Chrome or Firefox jureeka.blogspot.ca
• TinyEye: Reverse image search: find out source of an image, other uses of it, higher resolution versions, etc. www.tineye.com
• Google Images lets you search by dragging and dropping an image www.google.com/imghp
• Meevsu: Have a live confrontation or debate via webcam, with the audience voting for the winner meevsu.com

Helpful information

• Law Practice Today e-zine archives is full of terrific articles on all aspects of law practice management www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_magazine
• Room77: See what your hotel view is like, before you book the room www.room77.com
• Priceblink: Find lower prices while you shop and set notifications for desired price points. www.priceblink.com
• The Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group exists for one purpose. You’ll have to see for yourself because you won’t believe it until you see it. www.horg.com/horg/intro.html
• PMA Pipe: Keep up with all the law practice management blogs feeds.feedburner.com/PmaPipe
• MarineTraffic: Watch the movement of ships around the world, tracked by GPS in real time MarineTraffic.com/ais/
• AllTop: See the top headlines on the most popular news sites and blogs alltop.com
• The World at 7 Billion: With seven billion people in the world, where do you fit in? Just enter your birthdate and find out! www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515
• Handsfreeinfo: See what your state’s cell phone and texting laws for drivers prohibit – or are about to prohibit. Handsfreeinfo.com
• WhoIsTheMostFamous:With just a first name, try to guess the most famous surname. WhoIsTheMostFamous.com
• Scoopertino is the parody blog of all things Apple (based in Coopertino, CA) that recently claimed Apple would replace the complete iTunes library with songs sung by Siri, starting with Stairway to Heaven! scoopertino.com
• US Department of State provides important travel information for every country in the world www.state.gov/misc/list/index.htm
• An American’s Guide to Canada tells you everything you want to know about life in the Great White North, including “Canadianisms” and how to immigrate. AmericansGuide.ca

Technology tools and sites

• Adobe provides great online tools for collaboration and converting and editing PDF documents acrobat.com
• Alternativeto: If you’ve decided to replace a software application, this site will recommend alternatives based on user feedback. alternativeto.net
• FollowUpThen: Schedule followups to emails you don’t need to deal with now, by simply forwarding them to this site. followupthen.com
• Snipreel: Clip YouTube videos so you can share just the best parts. Snipreel.com
• GreatApps: Helps you weed through the 1,000s of apps out there by featuring the best 25 at a time. greatapps.com
• “If This Then That” write “recipes” and tasks to automate actions between “channels” like Facebook, Twitter, Email, Dropbox, Evernote and more ifttt.com
• Thsrs Find shorter synonyms for longer words ironicsans.com/thsrs/
• Zamzar is an oldie but a goodie site that coverts computer files you upload into other formats; great for old WordPerfect docs you now need to access via MS Word zamzar.com
• Down for everyone or just me? Find out if a website is down www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com
• Ninite: Pick all the popular software you want to install right from one page www.ninite.com
• FacebookCheating: Read and share stories of cheating that happened via Facebook. Also access spying and therapeutic resources for online activity. facebookcheating.com
• Factory Reset Wiki: Find factory reset codes and procedures for all kinds of products. Factory-Reset.com
• Join.me is a free, yet robust screen sharing and conference call system that is extremely easy to set up and/or join. join.me/
• TextMechanic allows you to manipulate and play with text in all sorts of different ways (for example, pick a random line of text) TextMechanic.com/Random-Line-Picker.html

Social media tools & resources

• Visual.ly: Generate a cartoon avatar and infographic for your Twitter account visual.ly/twitter
• Tips to surviving the zombie apocalypse (and other disasters) from the Centres for Disease Control blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/
>MemoLane: emails you reminders of your social media past memolane.com
• Frequency.com is a video aggregator that provides a convenient platform to find and view informative and humorous videos in one place. www.frequency.com
• Twylah creates a visually great-looking website out of your tweets and the links they contained. www.twylah.com
• MyPermissions lets you examine and clean up all the permissions you’ve given social media apps to access your private data mypermissions.org

Law practice management

• HBS Elevator Pitch Builder The good folks at the Harvard Business School have created the on-line pitch builder to help you hone your, well, elevator pitch. Try it! www.alumni.hbs.edu/careers/pitch
• Thinkstock: A huge supply of the best stock images thinkstock.com
• 99Designs is a new on-line graphics marketplace to have law firm logos and website graphics designed at extremely low rates, thanks to the winner-take-all nature of the marketplace. 99designs.com

Online privacy and dangers

• Google Privacy Tools: All the ways Google gives you control over the information you share and store with them: google.com/policies/privacy/tools/
• ScamTrends: Keep track of all the constant attemps to scam you by email, social media, phone, etc www.scamtrends.com
• AvoidAClaim This blog about law practice management and claims prevention also features warnings about the latest fraud attempts against lawyers www.avoidaclaim.com
• FCC Small Biz Cyber Planner: Information on how smaller companies can secure themselves against cyber crime www.fcc.gov/cyberplanner
• SecretSync is a great way to easily share proprietary, sensitive information using online synchronization utilities getsecretsync.com
• StartPage: A search engine that doesn’t collect your personal data startpage.com

Non-billable Time

• MapCrunch lets you randomly teleport anywhere in the world via Google Streetview Mapcrunch.com
• MyExWife’s Wedding Dress: Family lawyers will especially get a kick out of this site started by a man whose wife purposely left behind her wedding dress when they separated, and what he did with it to get even. myexwifesweddingdress.com
• VeryFunnyAds: Pretty self explanatory! VeryFunnyAds.com
• AbsolutelyMadness: collects the funniest pictures on the internet absolutelymadness.tumblr.com/
• PhotoShop Disasters: A collection of the worst examples of bad Photoshop efforts PSDisasters.com
• Monk-e-Mail: In just a few minutes you can customize an animated message complete with your own voice to send a birthday greeting or other fun greeting. Hosted by CareerBuilder.com of all things, but why not? www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/default.aspx
• PoopSenders For friend or foe, res ipsa loquitor. www.poopsenders.com
• Craftastrophe:A collection of the tackiest examples of homemade crafts Craftastrophe.net
• WhySiriWhy? Amusing Siri quotes and awkward voice-text failures whysiriwhy.com
• AwkwardWorkplacePhotos.com. Go. Laugh. Get back to work! workplacephotos.com
• Devolve Me: Upload a photo of yourself (or someone else) and devolve it to see what you would look like 1.8 million years ago.www.open.ac.uk/darwin/devolve-me.php
• MultiPlayerPiano: Play the piano online with whoever else is on the site at the same time multiplayerpiano.com

If you liked these sites, you can see the sites that were featured in previous ABA TECSHOW 60 Sites in 60 Minutes presentations as well as the ABA TECSHOW 60 Sites in 60 Minutes Hall of Fame

Lawyers in Ontario, Manitoba and the US have told us they’ve received emails from the purported Don Hill of Hill Equipment Co with regards to a commercial debt litigation scam. 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 the initial email:

From: Don Hill [mailto:donhill@hillequipmentco.com]
Sent: April-03-12 2:42 PM
To: lawyer name
Subject: Re: legal representation

I am writing on behalf of my company to request your firms possible legal
representation in matters concerning a client in your province.

We have reviewed your firms profile and believe that this case is within
your jurisdiction which is why we write requesting your firms services.
Do let us know your position in reviewing this matter, so I may provide any
additional information.we anticipate receiving a prompt response from you or
your firm.

Sincerely,
Don Hill
CEO/PRESIDENT
Hill Equipment Co
119 Listi Lane
Highlands, TX 77562
email:donhill@hillequipmentco.com

A firm that responded got the following reply:

Good day to you and thank you very much for your prompt response to my email. We appreciate your willingness to render services as we have requested.
We are a company based in Colorado and our principal activity is that of a civil and Industrial construction company that specializes in the manufacturing, leasing and sale of various construction materials and equipments. We also provide general construction services with clients located throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
In order for you to run a conflict check we have provided the name of our client below and hope there is no conflict of interest that prevents you from representing us:

Sincerely,
Don Hill
Hill Equipment Co
119 Listi Lane
Highlands, TX 77562
email:donhill@hillequipmentco.com

The firm sent their retainer agreement, which was signed and returned with this email:

Thank you very much for your willingness to render your services. Attached with mail is the signed copy of the retainer agreement. We have been having talks with our customer and we brought the possibility of litigation to their notice.Laz Tool And Manufacturing, Inc informed us that payment will be effected not later than 10th of may 2012. We also instructed that further correspondence including payment be made via our legal representative (your firm).

Sincerely,
Don Hill

The firm then received a cheque for $295,000 and instructions to deduct their retainer from that amount and wire the balance overseas.

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