by FraudInfo

Date First Reported: January 2014

Primary Name Associated: Yoshiko Tomoko

Description of Potential Fraud:

fraud-warning

A New York firm reported to us that they’ve been contacted by the purported Yoshiko Tomoko and Shinchosa Publishing with regards to retaining their services to collect on a breach of an IP 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 party in breach of the agreement (who is also 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 contact email sent by the fraudster to the lawyer:

On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 1:52 PM, Yoshiko Tomoko wrote:
Dear Attorney,

We are a Production, publishing and marketing company in Japan. We have a breach of intellectual property agreement matter in your jurisdiction, we can forward to you the other party information for you to run a conflict check.

Yours Sincerely,
Yoshiko Tomoko
Manager
Shinchosha Publishing Co., Ltd.
71 Yaraicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8711, Japan
Tel: +81333716411
www.shinchosha.co.jp/

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 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.