by FraudInfo

Description of Potential Fraud:

fraud-warning

[Updated Jan 2015]

50 lawyers in Canada and the U.S. have notified us that they received an email from the purported Andrian Nakazato looking to retain them with regards to a collecting overdue payments resulting from a separation 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 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 email sent by the fraudster to the lawyer:

From: Andrian Nakazato [email protected]
Date: Sun, May 25, 2014 at 1:06 PM
Subject: Assistance for failure to complete court ordered payments
To:
—
Dear Counsel ,

I wish to file a case against my ex-husband ( Ramseyer Nakazato ) for
failure to complete court ordered payments of Child Support, Spousal
Support, Equitable distribution and Medical support in our separation
agreement. Kindly respond to confirm your readiness to assist.

I am earnestly waiting for your reply.

Warmest Regards,

Andrian Nakazato .

Replying to the email brought this response:

Thank you for your prompt response to my inquiry. Am residing in Japan. And my ex-spouse Ramseyer Nakazato lives in your jurisdiction.

We were married and divorced in South Korea with 4 children, my ex-husband Ramseyer Nakazato relocated in Costa Rica, he is a business man, he is into Real Estate Management, We both agreed under a Separation Agreement incorporated, merged into and made part of the court decree for a settlement of Child Support, Spousal Support, and Medical support of $950,500.00USD, he has paid me $251,500.00USD but still owing $699,000.00USD and the stipulated time for completion of payment has long elapsed.

I am hereby am now seeking your legal assistance in collecting the balance or helping me enforce and have him honor the agreement. I will be providing further information upon your request. I have already advised Ramseyer Nakazato my ex that I will be retaining a lawyer, so he knows I am ready to take action to get my money from him, So I will require you to send me your retainer
agreement base on an hourly rate so we can start from there. I need to know if I will be able to work with your terms.

Attached is a copy of the Separation Agreement, Decree of Divorce.

This is my first time seeking for a lawyer and I believe a law firm like yours is needed to help me collect payment from him or litigate this matter if he fails to pay as promised. Please send me your retainer agreement for my review in your next email. Please be inform my english is not clear enough, let me know how we can do this?

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.