by FraudInfo

Date First Reported: August 2013

Primary Name Associated: Gorge Qin

Description of Potential Fraud:

fraud-warning

Three U.S. lawyers have notified us that they received an email from the purported Gorge Qin of Renesas Electronics Corporation looking to retain them with regards to a commercial debt collection.

This is a classic bad cheque scam that presents as legal matter requiring the assistance of a lawyer. In this scam lawyers will be duped into wiring real funds from their trust accounts after depositing a fake cheque received as payment from the debtor (who is part of the fraud). See our Confirmed Fraud Page for more of an explanation of how these frauds work and to see other names associated with it. Our Fraud Fact Sheet lists the red flags of a bogus legal matter that is really a fraud.

Renesas Electronics Corporation appears to be a real company whose name is being used in this fraud and the fraudsters are impersonating Gorge Qin.

Here is the initial contact email and subsequent response sent by the fraudster to the lawyer:

From: [email protected]
To:
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2013 11:49:16 -0400
Subject: Legal Rep

Gorge Qin an attorney of Jon Pin Kazutaka Law Office firm here in Japan.We would like to know if you have conflict that
will prevent you from representing our client Renesas Electronics Corporation, against an entity in your jurisdiction.
This matter regards shipment and product’s standard.

We have explore all avenues to resolve this issue amicably, unfortunately we have not
progressed as expected.

If you require the name of the opposing party to conduct your conflict check, please respond to our inquiry and we are ready to pay
your retainer fee immediately

Mr. Gorge Qin
Chan Fong Law Firm
NBF Hibiya Building 14F
1-1-7, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-0011, Japan
Tel:+81-3-3539-1371
Fax:+81-3-3939-1772

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.