by FraudInfo

Date First Reported: May 2014

Primary Name Associated: Eddie Wilson

Description of Potential Fraud:

fraud-warning

Six Ontario lawyers notified us that they received an email from the purported Eddie Wilson looking to retain them with regards to a breach of a business loan 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 debtor (who is part of the fraud). See our Confirmed Fraud Page for more of an explanation of how these frauds work and other names associated with it , and our Fraud Fact Sheet for a list 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’s intake site, and subsequent reply:

On Mon, May 26, 2014
at 9:09 AM, Eddie Wilson [email protected]
wrote:

Hello,
Good morning, my name is Eddie, I need a legal
service,I will like to know if your are available to take a
new case at this time.
Your response will be appreciated.

Thank youEddie

Replying to the email brought this response:

Thank you for your response,i am planning on litigating against a client who lives in Canada,we have an outstanding payment with him and all effort to recover the said amount has been hitting a brick wall,he has always come up with excuses, after been informed of statute of limitation ,we are in conclusion that this is where our client is looking at for succor and evade paying this debt,we would like you to help us file a suit at a competent court and also get in touch with him as our lawyer, and we will be willing to give 15% of the recovered funds as contingency and we are also open to other legal advises, we will also consider a reasonable retainer against the contingency .We want this to begin immediately and and i will forward you all necessary documentation on request.

Regards
Eddie

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. Instructions on how to report a claim are here.

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.