Separation agreement scam using the name Ellison Kazumi
Date First Reported: June 2014
Primary Name Associated: Ellison Kazumi
Description of Potential Fraud:
Six U.S. firms notified us that they received an email from the purported Ellison Kazumi looking to retain them with regards to a collecting overdue payments resulting from a separation agreement.
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 email sent by the fraudster to the lawyer:
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 12:28 PM
Subject: Child Support Inquiry!
Please advise if you handle child support enforcement in violation of a court order?
Ms. Kazumi.
Replying to the email brought this response:
Thanks for your response, i am contacting your office because of an agreement in place and I have tried calling but its little bit difficult to reach your law office due to the much hours difference in time. I am still going to call you but i first want you to know what transpired, my ex husband Mr. Ellison has failed to obey court order as agreed
We entered a separation agreement incorporated, merged into and made part of the court decree for a settlement of child support, spousal support, and medical support of $843,250.00, he has paid me $331,500.00 but still owing $511,750.00 and he refuse now the stipulated time for completion of payment has long elapsed and i know he has the financial means to pay the balance owed to me.
And he refuse to produce the balance I request your legal services with regards to compelling him to remit balance owed to me with full force Mr. Ellison now lives in Knoxville, TN He is a citizen in your country.
Please Attached to this mail is a copy of the Separation Agreement and the Final Judgment.I will be pleased to provide further information on this case on request and I expect this to be resolved in a timely manner.
I wish to retain your firm for this purpose, let me know your retainer fee to handle this case and please send me a copy of your agreement letter for my review and if the terms are acceptable I will retain your firm so we can commence the process without delay,
Thank you for your cooperation, as i await your agreement letter because i look forward to your Assistance, I hope to hear back from you soon
Ms Kazumi.
7B, 9-15 Naka-ku, Nagoyashi, Japan.
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.
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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.
June 03, 2014 at 12:39 pm, Douglas Graham said:
Probably all these Japanese divorce support requests are being sent out by our old fraudster contact Fumiko Anderson with new name and new passport photo. Note that she does not change the spot on the passport where the red hand stamp contacted the paper. Her divorce judgment should raise questions among the marginally alert for the following reasons: 1. It’s a Japanese court order written, mostly, in English. 2. The “witnesses” have Chinese names. 3. Some of the Asian language appearing on the document is actually Korean. 4. There is no provision in the document for visitation of the children by their father.
This web site is probably the reason for the name and photo change, but the format won’t change – it must be working to some extent.
DG
September 15, 2014 at 11:26 am, Stephen Henderson said:
My law firm has, in the last two weeks, received three separate emails from this same person/entity. At first, it seemed legit, so the scam is well prepared, especially with the passport photo. They even gave a local address. What tipped my off was that the “separation agreement” and “final judgment” were in English from a Japanese court (which does not happen) and secondly the few “characters” used to mimic Japanese are actually Korean.
I filed a complaint with FBI, but doubt anything will be done.