Fraud Alert - Bad Cheque Scam

For Immediate Release – November 12, 2013
POSSIBLE FRAUD ALERT – CAUTION

The Law Society of New Brunswick has been notified that some of its members may have been targets of a scam. 

A lawyer has received an email from the purported Xu Gang of Henan Billions Chemical Co. Ltd looking to retain his services with regards to a commercial debt collection.

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).

Henan Billions Chemical Co. Ltd appears to be a real company whose name is being used in this fraud and the fraudsters are impersonating Xu Gang.

The initial contact email and subsequent response sent by the fraudster to the lawyer may look like this:

From: Henan Billions Chemical CO. Ltd
To:
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2013 2:30 PM
Subject: Dear Counsel,

Dear Counsel,

We need a litigation lawyer who can handle a collection case. Please let me know if you can be of assistance to me or If not a referral could be helpful. CONTACT Mr. Xu Gang Email: chenanbillions@yahoo.com

Regards,
Mr. Xu Gang.

As usual, we are advising caution when dealing with these types of situations.  If you are faced with this type of request from a client who is not able to attend your offices, it may be wise to have the potential client attend the offices of a lawyer that you know, or of your choosing to confirm his or her identity.  It is also wise to confirm that the potential client has personally attended the lawyer’s offices.

When you open a new client file, refer to the Law Society of New Brunswick’s Code of Professional Conduct and the Rules on Client Identification.

If you are dealing with clients you do not know well, relying on the telephone number to verify the document may not expose the scam.

Also note that you have a responsibility to guard against becoming the tool or dupe of the unscrupulous client.  Lawyers must be alert to and avoid unwittingly becoming involved with a client engaged in illegal activity.  Vigilance is required, because the means for criminal activities may be transactions for which the lawyers commonly provide services.

If you receive correspondence or calls of this nature or a variation of the situations described above, please advise the Law Society.