IP and Copyright Infringement Frauds
In this type of scam a lawyer is contacted to help a (usually overseas) business collect damages from a purported IP or copyright infingrement by a company in the lawyer’s jurisdiction. The fraudster will provide documentation showing the terms of the agreement and how it was violated. A retainer agreement will be signed, but the fraudster will delay in paying the retainer fee. Instead, the lawyer will be asked to deduct any fees from the debt payment.
When the lawyer has sent a demand letter (or sometimes, before any letter has been sent) a cheque will arrive. The lawyer will be asked to deposit the cheque in the trust account and wire the balance (after fees are deducted) to an overseas account. Of course, the cheque is fraudulent and the lawyer will be left with a shortfall in the trust account.
In this type of scam, the fraudsters will often use the details of a real company, including web address, names of real employees and the mailing address. The contact phone number and email, however, will be fake. We’ve seen the same company names used several times, with only the name of the fraudster changing.
Hayashim, Shigeru of Dai Nippon Printing [March 2013]
Honghui, David of China Resources Machinery [March 2012]
Iwasaki, Hiroaki of Iwasaki Publishing [Dec 2012]
Jiang, Long of GoerTek Inc [Jan 2013]
Kazuyuki, Andrew of CCP Group International & Co [February 2012]
Ikeda, Yatuka of Ikeda Publishing Co [Feb 2013]
Liu, Daniel of China Resources Company Ltd [July 2012]
Miyahara, Hiroaki of Gakken Co Ltd [Sept 2012]
Miyashita, Harumas of Miyaobi Publishing Co [Feb 2013]
Nagasakii, Dan of CCP Group International & Co [June 2012]
Ohwa, Kenji of Daiwa Shuppan Publishing Inc [Sept 2012]
Sugioka, Masatoshi [Nov 2012]
Wang, David of China Resources Company Ltd [Jan 2013]
Yamaguchi, David of China Resources Machinery [April 2012]
