Business debt collection scam by Berlin Miller
Date First Reported: November 2012
Primary Name Associated: Berlin Miller
Description of Potential Fraud:
A lawyer in Ontario and one in Arizona have notified us that they have received an email from the purported Berlin Miller with regards to 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: Berlin Miller [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 1:46 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: Re: Legal Representation.
Dear Counsel,
I am in need of your legal assistance regarding a breach of loan agreement I provided a friend of mine in the amount of $550,000. He needed this loan to complete an ongoing project he was handling in March 2010.
He now resides in your jurisdiction and the loan was for 24 months with interest accrued at the rate of
8.5%. The capital and interest were supposed to be paid on March, 2012 but he has only paid $50,000.
Please let me know if this falls within the scope of your practice, so that I can provide you with the loan
documents and any further information you need to know.
Thanks,
Berlin Miller.
How to handle a real or suspected fraud
If you have been targeted by any of these frauds, please forward any of the emails and supporting documents that you have received to [email protected].
If you suspect you are acting on a matter that might be a fraud, call LAWPRO at 1-800-410-1013 (416-598-5899). We will talk you through the common fraud scenarios we are seeing and help you spot red flags that may indicate you are being duped. This will help you ask appropriate questions of your client to determine if the matter is legitimate or not. If the matter you are acting on turns out to be a fraud and there is a potential claim, we will work with you to prevent the fraud and minimize potential claims costs.
If you have been successfully duped, please immediately notify LAWPRO as there may be a claim against you.
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Fraud Fact Sheet More fraud prevention information and resources are available on the practicePRO Fraud page, including the Fraud Fact Sheet, a handy reference for lawyers and law firm staff that describes the common frauds and the red flags that can help identify them.
November 06, 2012 at 12:34 pm, D. Jeffrey Craven said:
I am also in Arizona. I received an email from “Berlin Miller” this morning. As I first viewed it on my cell phone, I did not realize it was sent to “undisclosed recipients” so I did send a response that essentially said I couldn’t help him unless he called me.
With all out of state queries I do an internet search right away to get some basic information about the potential client, which is how I discovered this site. The email I received was identical to this one. I have received others like this but usually there are tell-tale signs that it is phishing or some other scam. The phrase “moved to your jurisdiction” is usually a give-away to me; I don’t know how I missed it this time (head slap). Anyway, at this point I’ve done nothing so it’s of little concern.