Business debt collection scam by Gary Seiders (or Gary Seidel or Gary Seidner)
Date First Reported: April 2013
Primary Name Associated: Gary Seiders
Description of Potential Fraud:
[Updated March 2014]
Fifty lawyers in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada and the U.S. have notified us that they’ve received an email from the purported Gary Seiders or (Gary Seidel or Gary Seidner) 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 loan frauds.
Here is the email:
From: Gary Seiders [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 3:36 PM
To:
Subject: Legal services
Hello Attorney,
My name is Gary Seiders and I am in need of your legal expertise. I loaned $395,000 to John Anderson, the money which was to be paid back in 2years but he has not done so yet. Please I will need your help to file a law suit against him to recover the money I’m owed and I truly hope you can assist me with this.
Sincerely
G. Seiders
Other variations of the contact letter mention different amounts and different alleged debtors, including “my late sister’s husband Paul Beckman”.
A lawyer who replied got this response and fake ID:
Thank you for the reply. Please find attached the agreement we had which should explain the loan terms a lot better. From the agreement you will notice that there is a 15% interest on the total loan if he defaulted. The initial loan was for $290,000 and he paid back $89,000 on the 25th of January 2013 and still owes $201,000(excluding interest). Please how do we proceed now?
Necessary information’s
My Information
My name: Gary Lee Seiders
Address at time of loan: 290 Middle Road Fairfield ME 04937 U.S.A
Present Address: Saitama-Ken Kawaguchi-Shi Namiki 2-5-1 Japan
Present Phone Numbers: +85281915874, +819060357499
Debtor’s information
Name: Paul Beckman
Address: 78 Patterson Ave Ottawa, ON K1S 1Y3, Canada
Phone Number: 416-830-7816
Email: [email protected]
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.
April 04, 2013 at 12:04 pm, Robert Garretson said:
My firm received the same email, but the loan was to “my late sister\’s husband Paul Beckman” and did not give an amount. Email was [email protected].
April 18, 2013 at 6:45 pm, Steve Caesar said:
Recieved almost identical email. In addition on follow-up it appeared confidential email information between a client and us had been intercepted.
CONTACT US FORM: April 17, 2013 – 09h
Name: Gary Seiders
Phone Number: 85281915874
E-mail: [email protected]
Comment: Good Day Attorney, My name is Gary Seiders and I am in need of your legal expertise. I loaned some money to my late sister’s husband Paul Beckman, the money which was to be paid back in 2years but he has not done so yet, please i will need your help to file a law suit against him to
recover the money am owed and i truly hope you can assist me with this.
Sincerely Gary Seiders
August 14, 2013 at 3:13 pm, Paul Voorn said:
[Repost to correct email]
This fraudster is now using the following email as of August 13, 2013 under the name of Gary Seid:
[email protected]