Copyright infringement scam using the names Lee Fong and Lee’s Pharmaceutical
Date First Reported: January 2014
Primary Name Associated: Lee Fong
Description of Potential Fraud:
An Ontario firm reported to us that they’ve been contacted by the purported Lee Fong of Lee’s Pharmaceutical with regards to retaining their services to collect on a copyright infringement.
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:
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of lee fong
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2014 2:55 AM
Subject: Copyright Issue
Attn Sir,
I present to you a case of Copyright Infringement between my company and another business associate who has betrayed my trust for his company and violated our agreed and signed copyright agreement.
I seek a good firm who if retained will be able to handle this issue first of all within the scenario of a demand letter to them towards amicable settlement as agreed or we go to litigations
Let me know of your charges which we are ready to pay and should you give consent to this and ready to take up this case, i shall furnish you with all the relevant documents relating this matter.
Hope to read from you soon.
Regards,
Lee Fong
Chairman
Lee’s Pharmaceutical (Hong Kong) Limited
No.2 Science Park West Avenue,
Hong Kong Science Park, Shatin,
Hong Kong
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.
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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.
February 16, 2014 at 10:19 pm, Michael Campbell said:
We received the same scam. This is a typical fake client email directed to lawyers. The scammer pretends to be a client with a claim against another company, party, etc. The lawyer is engaged and sends a demand letter. Lo and behold, the other party quickly settles and sends a check (usually a bogus cashier’s check or similar). The lawyer deposits it to the lawyer’s trust account and then wires a check to the “client”. A week or two later, the bounced check comes back and the lawyer’s bank charges the lawyer’s account for the loss.
Here is the scam email:
From: lee siu fong
Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2014 10:00 AM
To: Gary Hood
Cc: John Leja
Subject: Copyright Infringement Issue
Attn Sir,
I present to you a case of Copyright Infringement Issue between my company and another business associate who has betrayed my trust for his company and violated our agreed and signed copyright agreement.
I seek a good firm who if retained will be able to handle this issue first of all within the scenario of a demand letter to them towards amicable settlement as agreed or we go to litigation.
Let me know of your charges which we are ready to pay and should you give consent to this and ready to take up this case, i shall furnish you with all the relevant documents relating this matter.
Hope to read from you soon.
Regards,
Lee Fong
Chairman
Lee’s Pharmaceutical (Hong Kong) Limited
No.2 Science Park West Avenue,
Hong Kong Science Park, Shatin,
Hong Kong
March 11, 2014 at 10:36 am, Christiane Adler said:
We are a German IP law office and we received the same scam. In our case, a German pharmaceutical firm, located in Munich, allegedly infringed copyrights of Lee’s Pharmaceutical. After a couple of mails with different attachments we received a cheque yesterday. We became suspicious when we received the last email with a supposed letter of the Munich Firm. In this letter a logo was used which doesn´t correspond to the logo the real firm uses on its website. The whole letter was poorly crafted. It didn´t even contain a telephon number and the adress was misspelled. The cheque was seemingly sent from Canada via FedEx. However we found an information in the internet that FedEx items from Nigaria for instance go through a British FedEx Centre first. Therefore it may well be that our letter wasn´t originally sent from Canada.