by FraudInfo

Date First Reported: May 2014

Primary Name Associated: Henry Peyrebrue

Description of Potential Fraud:

fraud-warning

Lawyers in California and Washington state notified us that they received an email from the purported Henry Peyrebrue 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.

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

From: Henry Peryebrue [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2014 7:39 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Loan Recovery

Dear Counsel,

Advise of your firm’s availability to represent our oversea partner in collecting the debt owed by a company in your area. There is a pending issue regarding outstanding balance for property financing. Let me know your position as soon as possible and I will update you accordingly.

Sincerely,

Henry L Peyrebrue
Legend of Mir ii – CEO
420 Delaware Avenue
Delmar, NY 12054
Phone: (518) 635-0856
Fax: (855) 667-2693
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
Banking and Finance Consultants in Delmar, NY

Replying to the email brought this response:

Thank you very much for you reply.

This matter involves a client and my oversea partner, Mr. Tony Chu of Ikeda Publishing Company, Japan.

It has been very challenging collecting the balance due on loan received by the client, so we have decided to ask for your professional help to represent my oversea partner in collecting the debt owed. The amount owed is US$1,100,000.00. They are not disputing but delaying payments unnecessarily.

For your conflict check, the name and location of the company owing us is:

Haight Properties Inc,
233 E Carrillo Street # B
Santa Barbara, CA 9310

You may proceed with your conflict check and get back to me as soon as possible. Assuming your conflict check is clear, it will be most helpful to get a copy of your engagement letter with your payment information.
Upon agreement, and we will send our clients the final demand notice requesting them to contact you immediately. We will want to have your response on this.

I think for understanding and clarity purposes and time difference, email might be the most convenient means of communication for my partner to get detailed reports.

Thank you for your anticipated co-operation.

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. Instructions on how to report a claim are here.

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.