Commercial debt collection scam by Dan Hensen (or Greg Hensen or Timothy Rager) of Hensen Equipment LLC
Date First Reported: February 2012
Primary Name Associated: Dan Hensen
Description of Potential Fraud:
46 lawyers in Canada and the U.S. have told us they’ve received emails from the purported Dan (or Greg) Hensen, or Timothy Rager, with regards to a commercial debt litigation scam. For examples of other names attached to this kind of fraud see our Confirmed Fraud Page. For an explanation of how this fraud works see our Fraud Fact Sheet.
Here is an example of the email:
From: Dan Hensen [email protected]
Date: 2 February, 2012 11:05:08 AM EST
To: lawyer name
Subject: Hensen Equipment LLC (Legal Representation)
Reply-To: Dan Hensen
[email protected]
I am writing on behalf of Hensen Equipment LLC to request your firms possible legal representation in matters concerning Hensen Equipment LLC and a client in your state.
We have reviewed your firms profile and believe that this case is within your jurisdiction which is why we write requesting your firms services.
Do not hesitate to contact me, we will be more than happy to provide you with further detail once we receive your response.
Do let us know your position in this case, we anticipate receiving a prompt response from you or your firm .
Sincerely,
Dan Hensen
Hensen Equipment LLC
9009 Quince Street # A
Henderson, CO 80640-8142
[email protected]
A lawyer who replied got this response:
Good day Mr.White, thank you for your response.
We appreciate your willingness to render services as we have requested.
We are a company based in Colorado and our principal activity is that of a civil and Industrial construction company that specializes in the manufacturing, leasing and sale of various construction materials and equipments. We also provide general construction services with clients located throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
In order for you to run a conflict check we have provided the name of our client below and hope there is no conflict of interest that prevents you from representing us:
HOBDEN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LTD
3153 STEELES AVE W SUITE 4
Milton, Ontario L9T 2V4
Canada
HOBDEN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LTD owes a total of $94,850.12 for the initial lease and eventual sale of Construction equipment and delivery service. This payment is overdue as our regular sale agreement was for total payment to be made not later than six weeks upon delivery or legal action may be enforced if payment delay exceeds 6 months. An initial payment of 10 % was made in July of 2011 before the equipment was delivered. According to the terms of the agreement, this client is over 5 months late on payment as delivery was received and confirmed in good condition on 29th July 2011.
Since then we have made several contacts to our client requesting payment only to be informed that our payment request has been approved by their company but still awaits remittance by their accounting
department.
We have been doing business with our client for a few years now and we wouldn’t want this to be the end of our fine business relationship which we have built over the past years; however our concern is that
they may not meet payment deadline.
We do not want this matter to get to litigation unless necessary because it is time consuming, expensive and damaging to business relationship. We believe that our clients won t have any choice but to comply with payment demands to avoid legal action. Once we establish legal presence in your province.
I will be updating other associates at my company on this matter and ask that you send to me a copy of your firms standard retainer agreement for our review. We are willing to provide all necessary
documentation and information with regards to the issue at hand once we have agreed on terms of your representation i.e. a retainer letter from your firm.
I would appreciate receipt of this document on or before Feb 8th, 2012 as i will be away from the office on business until then.
Thank you very much and we await receipt of your firms’ standard retainer agreement.
Sincerely,
Dan Hensen
Hensen Equipment LLC
9009 Quince Street # A
Henderson, CO 80640-8142
[email protected]
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.
March 06, 2012 at 1:59 pm, Liza Sheard said:
I received an email from Dan Hensen today! Thank goodness for your Blog!
Thanks. (Although it did look pretty suspicious…)
May 01, 2012 at 2:38 pm, Diana Riffert said:
I received the first contact email. I don’t advertise an email address, so while suspicious, I allowed for the possibilty that he had received my email address from a known client. I asked for facts and detail, then a little research and found this blog. I do not have a litigation practice, and were it not for this blog, might have referred him to another solicitor .. which I will not now do. Good blog.
May 29, 2012 at 11:00 am, arleen huggins said:
Thanks for your Blog. While it also looked suspicious to me the fact that a contact was included and the compnay appears on the internet caused me to believe that this might be a legitimate inquiry.
June 05, 2012 at 9:43 am, Charlena Claxton said:
Thank you for the blog. I received the email and was suspicous of its contents.
June 06, 2012 at 10:54 am, Louis-Pierre Gravelle said:
and now they are targeting Quebec lawyers. We received a bunch of these this morning. At first glance, it looks legit (there is even a Court of Appeal decision in the State of Washington!) but it still smelled fishy. This page confirmed my suspicions.
September 25, 2012 at 3:29 pm, mark epstein said:
I am in Vancouver, BC Canada. I received this email and suspected it to be a fraud. Thank you for your website as it appears to be indeed a fraud.
Mark Epstein
September 26, 2012 at 9:56 pm, Paul Daffern said:
I received two emails from Mr. Rager of Hensen Equipment LLC of CO. I thought the emails were suspicious and found your website reference to this scam when I searched the company name. I am in Barrie, ON. I received the first email on Monday Sept 24 2012 with a follow up email received today Wed Sept 26 2012. Thanks for posting this information and saving me time. The form of the emails sent to me were nearly identical to the example of an email that was posted.