Commercial equipment purchase scam using the names Watabe Onkyo and Universal Machinery and Equipment
Description of Potential Fraud:
Two Ontario firms have notified us that they received an email from the purported Watabe Onkyo of Universal Machinery & Equipment looking to retain them with regards to making a large commercial purchase. (There is a real company that is being impersonated here. The websites www.dredgesbroker.com and www.universalmachineryandequipments.com mirror the real site, except that the contact information has been altered. The above names being used in this scam are also real people who have been impersonated.)
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 contact email sent to the lawyer:
On Mar 21, 2016, at 11:43 PM, “info gen” [email protected]<mailto:[email protected] wrote:
My company needs an attorney that could represent us in a Purchase and Sales Transaction. Does your firm practice that area of law? If not a referral will be appreciated.
Thanks.
Replying to the email brought this response:
My Company is in the process of selling a dredger to a buyer residing in your area. I need an Attorney to help me draft a purchase and sale agreement for the transaction. I have attached some necessary details of the dredger for your view, please advice on your rate, retainer fee and forward to me your retainer agreement to sign. Find below the name of the proposed buyer for your conflict check. The manufacturer and the total expenditure amount is One Million Nine Hundred and seventy Thousand dollars.
Proposed Buyer:James Terry
McNally International Inc
1855 Barton Street East
Hamilton, ON
L8H 2Y7
Thanks, looking forward to your prompt responses.
Watabe Onkyo
Deputy Director of Sales
Universal Machinery and Equipment, INC
2-12 Kamiji 2-chome Higashinari-ku Osaka 537-0003 Japan
Tel: +81-06-6975-7601
Fax: +81-06-6975-7602
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]. We use this information for the warnings we post on AvoidAClaim. We do not disclose the names of firms that have provided us with information.
Ontario Lawyers - Call LAWPRO
If you are an Ontario lawyer acting on a matter that you suspect might be a fraud, call LAWPRO at 1-800-410-1013 (416-598-5899). One of our Fraud Team members 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, we will work with you to prevent the fraud and minimize potential claims costs.
What can you do to help put a stop to the fraud attempt?
You can simply stop replying to the fraudster’s emails or inform them that you suspect fraud and will not act on the matter. You can report the fraudsters’ email addresses to the email hosting company. If you have a fraudulent cheque you can destroy it or send it to the fraud department of the financial institution it is drawn upon. In Canada, you can report the fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
We are often asked if it is worthwhile to report the fraud attempt to the police in the hopes of helping catch the fraudsters. You can certainly report the fraud to your local or federal law enforcement agencies, but unfortunately it is often difficult, expensive and time consuming for them to attempt to shut down these online fraud perpetrators (though there are some successes).
What if the fraud has been successful?
If you have been successfully duped, please immediately notify LAWPRO as there may be a claim against you. See the LAWPRO website for instructions on how to report a claim.
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. To proactively prevent trust account shortfalls and malpractice claims, LAWPRO encourages firms to teach their lawyers and staff about fraud and how to recognize fraud attempts.
September 07, 2017 at 2:35 pm, Galloway Law group said:
I got this exact same quote today from [email protected]
going by the name Manato Yamato. he cited a washington LLC and used contact phone number +81-06-6975-7601