by FraudInfo

Date First Reported: March 2016

Primary Name Associated: Gavin Pykerman

Description of Potential Fraud:

fraud-warning

A lawyer in the Northwest Territories and two in the US have received emails from the purported Gavin Pykerman with regards to a commercial debt litigation scam. This is similar to other commercial debt collection scams we have seen that use a real company, and even real employee names pulled from the company website, but with fake contact information.

The full list of names attached to this type of fraud can be found on our Confirmed Fraud page. For more details of how the fraud works see our Fraud Fact Sheet.

—–Original Message—–
From: Gavin Pykerman [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 5:04 AM
Subject: Lawsuit

I need a commercial litigation lawyer to handle a collection matter, I will also need a referral if this is not your line of practice. Thank you as I look forward to your response soonest

Sincerely,
Gavin Pykerman.

The lawyer replied and got this response:

Thanks for your reply. I am Gavin Pykerman, soliciting your representation on behalf of Claremore Mechanical Services Ltd. We got your contact from the lawyer referral service and as such we need your counsel in litigation to collect a debt owed in the amount of $700.000.00USD by a delinquent seller in your region. Kindly let me know the best time to reach you. We prefer to established Our presence in your state via a legal representative, Thereby forcing the seller to comply with payment request as effort made for refund has proven to be abortive.

Find Below the location of the delinquent seller for you to run a conflict check Please send your retainer agreement for my review thereafter.

Central Mechanical Systems Ltd
345 Old Airport Rd,
Yellowknife NT,
X1A 3T4

We ordered Machinery Equipments worth $1,400,000.00, of which 50 percent of the funds was demanded before delivery. Payment to the seller was made in September of 2011 and calculation shows that delivery is above three Months late, The regular purchase agreement requires seller to effect goods not later than 60 days upon payment or legal action may be enforced if delivery delay exceeds 90 days.

I will forward you supporting documents i.e., proof of payment, sales invoice and wire transfer slip once your retainer agreement is signed.

I look forward to your prompt response and your retainer agreement. Thank you

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.