by FraudInfo

Date First Reported: January 2013

Primary Name Associated: Hideaki Terabayashi

Description of Potential Fraud:

fraud-warning

Three Ontario lawyers have notified us that they have received an email from the purported Hideaki Terabayashi of NICCABI 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: Hideaki Terabayashi [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 9:14 AM
Subject: Breach of contract Lawsuit

Good Day,
I am addressing this mail to you to Retain your legal service in Litigation. Please let me know if you can act in this case. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks and have a great Day

Regards
Sincerely,
Mr Hideaki Terabayashi

One lawyer who replied got this response and fake documentation:

Thanks for your urgent mail. This mail contains more information regarding my case.

We ordered for electrical machines worth $2,800,000.00 USD on the 2nd July, 2012 from a seller in your region who has proven to be a delinquent seller. Half Payment in the amount of $1,400.000.00 USD was made on 2nd July, 2012 and the other installment of the total cost of purchase was agreed to be made immediately after the delivery of our purchases. Yet we haven’t heard from them ever-since, all mails sent to them hasn’t yielded any feedback, and this appears to us as a breach of contract. So we are hiring your service to help us handle this case, Thereby forcing the seller to comply with payment request as effort made for refund has proven to be abortive. More information will be given to you as at when due to enable you do your proper litigation, but underneath is the delinquent seller’s Address.

Securekey Technologies Inc
199 Bay St Unit 2900
Toronto, ON M5L 1G4, Canada

Please run a conflict check and send me your retainer agreement for my review.

I await your mail

Sincerely,
Hideaki Terabayashi.
President
NICCABI CO. Ltd
2-5-8 Miyauchi, Nakahara-ku,
Kawasaki-city, Kanagawa 211-0051 Japan
Tel: 81447662111
Terabayashi purchase agreement

Terabayashi invoice1

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.

For more immediate updates on fraud and claims prevention, subscribe to the email or RSS feed updates from LAWPRO’s AvoidAClaim blog.

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.