Attorney scams

I receive countless emails from prospective "clients" asking for my services and these "clients" are usually from Nigeria, or China. I normally perceive these contacts to be scams and would summarily ignore them. The latest attempt was, in all honesty, quite sophisticated. This so-called client was seeking services for debt collection. Not only did it use the name of a business that appeared to actually exist–it had a seemingly sophisticated website with cheesy effects (1st red flag)-- it provided a list of actual customers that supposedly owed the "client" money for services rendered. The client, Simyi Auto Parts Industry, stated that they had no authority to pay my requested retainer fee due to communist issue, but one of its customers would issue payment to me and I would then deduct my retainer and send the remainder to them. I asked specific questions as to which customer would be issuing payment and how I was selected to be their counsel. I received no responses to those questions. A week later, I received a check made payable to me in the amount of $250,000.00 by overnight courier and the sender information was barely legible. I knew it was a scam at that point. The client sent emails asking if I had received the check and I advised them that I had to authenticate the check before depositing it. The client, by way of a person named "Joe", telephoned me inquiring about depositing the check and I repeated what I had said by way of e-mail. "Joe" then stated that he has conducted business with the issuer of that check for ten years and there should be no problem. Common sense dictates that if he had been doing business with this customer for that length of time, there would be no need for intervention from counsel. Further, if the customer had that kind of money to pay his creditor, why would he issue payment to me? I went through the exercise and presented the check to the bank for authentication and the bank officer indicated that the account from which the check was drawn did not match the name of the remitter of the check. In addition, there were eight fraudulent checks drawn on the account already. In sum, I would have NEVER deposited that check without verification. I emailed Simyi Auto Parts and advised them that the check was fraudulent and needless to say, I never heard from them again.

Welcome to Scamwarners. I'm glad you spotted it as a scam. It has caught a lot of lawyers.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1578
If you can post the email (less your personal details) that refers to the fake site, we should be able to get it closed.

Obviously you're level headed enough to look at propositions carefully, and even then proceed cautiously marvg25, and you may wonder why scammers even try to scam professionals. The reason is simple - the rewards are so much better and one success can set a scammer up for life.

They've been hammering away at banks for years and they're always on the hunt for new opportunities. What 419 scammers lack in skill they make up for in persistence and their skills are improving.

Here is a copy of the email chain I believe is the latest scam on this type of thing:

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On Feb 21, 2015, at 8:55 PM, "Shanghai Simyi Auto Parts Ltd" <[email protected]> wrote:


Hi attorney,

This is Joe Huang from Shanghai Simyi Auto Parts Ltd China.
I wrote an email to you on Thursday 17th of December 2014 and has been waiting to receive your response since then. Please could it be that you didn't receive my earlier mail or you were too busy and forgot to respond to my inquiry asking for your firm's assistance to recover debt being owed to us in your location.

I am sending this short mail as a reminder and your prompt acknowledgment of my mail will be highly appreciated.

Yours truly,
Mr. Joe Huang
General Manager
Shanghai Simyi Auto Parts Ltd
No.368, CheXin Rd. CheDun Town SongJiang
District, Shanghai, P.R.C
Tel: (86) 021-57609090
Fax: (86) 021-57609595
http://www.simyi.com

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On Feb 22, 2015, at 1:06 PM, "Shanghai Simyi Auto Parts Ltd" <[email protected]> wrote:

Dear Robert,

Good morning to you and thank you very much for your response.
We appreciate your time in reviewing our request and we will do everything
possible to ensure a smooth and hitch free business relationship. We are
ready to work with your firm to achieve our goal as the importance of your
services cannot be over emphasized.

We have buyers of our sophisticated auto parts accessories from different
parts of the world, earlier committed to redemption of their short term credit
reprieve we grant to them for their faithfulness and regularity.
But since the global recession ushered in slowness in trade universally, some
customers granted such credit facility had taken it for granted. Therefore, we
are persuaded in entirety that employing service of an attorney will to a large
extent establish desired vigor and genuine commitment to appropriately
collecting our money from the defaulting customer at your end.

However, we believe that litigation should be applied as a last resort as we
intend to retain our relationship with our customer after payments are made.
We do not intend to resort to litigation unless all other options are exhausted,
but we will like the comfort of knowing that the option is available and letting
our customers know that litigation may be enforced if the option becomes
necessary.

We understand the concept of running a conflict check that is why we have
decided that all cases be treated on a case by case bases and all delinquent
accounts dealt within isolation. Based on this perspective, we are letting you
know that two of our delinquent customers are in your state and they are all
individual own businesses.

Find below one of our customers that we are ready to pursue their collection
immediately.

Winjet Automotive, Inc
15277 Don Junlian Rd
City Of Industry, CA 91745

If no conflict, kindly let us know your terms for contingency basis as well as
hourly basis for us to review before you proceed to drafting your attorney/client
fee agreement. Meanwhile the delinquent account is estimated at $320,400.00
(Three Hundred and Twenty Thousand Four Hundred US Dollars ). and we have
about two delinquent customers in your state right now.
Due to the fact that litigation might not be necessary, we assume that these
cases are within your jurisdiction and regional boundaries will not be an issue
for you.

We thank you for your business as we look forward to your prompt response.

Yours truly,
Mr. Joe Huang
General Manager
Shanghai Simyi Auto Parts Industry CO. Ltd
No.368, CheXin Rd. CheDun Town SongJiang
District, Shanghai, P.R.C
Tel: (86) 021-57609090
Fax: (86) 021-57609595

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From: Shanghai Simyi Auto Parts Ltd <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 8:14 AM
Subject: Your approach
To: Robert

Thank you Mr. Robert

I find your approach acceptable and look forward to receiving your attorney/client
fee agreement so we can review and endorse.
The first approach remains to seek collection through the demand letter only because
we don't want to harm the five years old business relationship we has built with this
customer no matter they disappointed us this time. If that didn't work out we would
then advice on how else to go about it.

I look forward to receiving your standard fee agreement.

Yours truly,
Mr. Joe Huang
General Manager
Shanghai Simyi Auto Parts Industry CO. Ltd
No.368, CheXin Rd. CheDun Town SongJiang
District, Shanghai, P.R.C
Tel: (86) 021-5709090
Fax: (86) 021-5760959

------

From: Shanghai Simyi Auto Parts Ltd [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 1:28 AM
To: Robert
Subject: Fwd: Your approach

Mr. Robert,

We continued waiting to receiving your attorney/client fee agreement since notifying you of our acceptance of your terms.

Yours truly,
Mr. Joe Huang
General Manager
Shanghai Simyi Auto Parts Industry CO. Ltd
No.368, CheXin Rd. CheDun Town SongJiang
District, Shanghai, P.R.C
Tel: (86) 021-5709090
Fax: (86) 021-57609595

----

Same name as referenced in this news story from a few years back: http://www.staradvertiser.com/business/ ... =116801998

Definitely the latest incarnation of the same scam.

Thank you for posting the information, as it may very well stop someone else from falling for the scam.