by FraudInfo

Date First Reported: March 2012

Primary Name Associated: Mathew Cornell

Description of Potential Fraud:

fraud-warning

Lawyers in Ontario and Quebec and Alberta have notified us that they’ve received an email from the purported Mathew Cornell 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 load frauds.

Here is the initial email.

From: Mathew Cornell [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 5:50 PM
To: lawyer name
Subject: Legal Assiatance

I need your legal assistance on a claim.

A lawyer who replied got this response:

Dear Counsel
Thanks for your response, I loan a friend of mine the sum of $350,000.00 dollar, it has overdue the repayment date for some time now. My debtor ia a canadian and he is currently living in canada.

He has made a lot of promise to pay back without keeping to his promises that is why I need your assistance to help me retrieve the funds from him.

I shall send to you a copy of the Loan Agreement we have entered in UK upon your response.

Mathew Cornell.
+44 702 4039436

The lawyer advised that he was not taking on the matter until he had been properly retained, which was ignored in the reply.

Thanks for your mail, be informed that my debtor will send you the money required via Cheque.

He wrote me pleading that he is ready to make payment that he will not want me to litigate the matter since I have told him that I have engage a law for to litigate the matter since he has refuse to pay, at the end I resolved that if he does not want me to take up the matter legally that he should be reday to make payment inclusive of all legal charges, which he accepted and I told him that the funds should be sent to the law firm within a week, so he accepted and requested I send him my firm payment informations to enable him make the payment.

I gave him the below informations to send the payment, please confirm to me if this is ok so that I can give him final directives.

Hope to hear from you soon

Mathew Cornell

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 SheetMore 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.