by FraudInfo

Date First Reported: September 2015

Primary Name Associated: Therese Flint

Description of Potential Fraud:

fraud-warning

A California firm notified us that they received an email from the purported Therese Flint of T-Bird Computers Limited looking to retain them with regards to a commercial debt collection.

This appears to be a 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 purchaser (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 message sent to the lawyer’s contact form:
 
FIRST NAME: Therese
LAST NAME: Flint
EMAIL: [email protected]
PHONE:
ZIP:
PREFERRED CONTACT METHOD: email
 
Our company is currently facing cash-flow crisis resulting from inadequate Account Receivable collection practices for customers in the state of California. We have trouble collecting our account receivable from these regions which stood at $664,200,which we need to recover.
  In order to recover/collect all outstanding balance from Customer in this State, We have decided to engage a competent Law Firm like yours who is base in California, to follow-up on these customers in your State and help in the collections of all payment.
  If you or your firm can help us in this regard, Please for more details

Replying to the message brought this response:

I have been referred to you by the Law office of XXXXXXXXX. Our company is currently facing cash-flow crisis resulting from inadequate Account Receivable collection practices for customers in the state of California. We have trouble collecting our account receivable from these regions which stood at $664,200,which we need to recover.  In order to recover/collect all outstanding balance from Customer in this State, We have decided to engage a competent Law Firm like yours who is base in California, to follow-up on these customers in your State and help in the collections of all payment.
  If you or your firm can help us in this regard, Please for more details

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.