Has someone offered you a huge sum of money or a valuable consignment? It's a 419 or advance fee fraud - find out how they work, and what to do to be safe.
#200399 by ScamRid Wed May 07, 2014 3:12 am
I have been contacted 3 times by someone claiming to be working for a New York Lawyer - Michael Edward Johnson ( NY attorney registration number 2185692 ).
Google searches of all 3 numbers I have been phoned from suggest they are scammers.
Unfortunately I am unable to find any contact details for this lawyer (apart from a mailing address which is of little use as I am in Australia ).
I have sent an email highlighting my concerns to the New York Attorney registration board who claim they cannot do anything.
I have also sent an email to AD3COPS at the New York courts on the 3rd of this month with no response .
I have contacted the FBI and they referred me to the FTC. I have listed a complaint with them , again with no response.
My concerns are that this person is claiming to be working for a lawyer and using his name and registration details illegally.

This person claims that the Michael Edward Johnson listed on Martindale.com is who he represents. The stated address on that site is 410 Park Avenue, New York.

The suspected scam involves the lawyer - Michael Edward Johnson - undertaking a class action against two companies - Great Wall Capital and Anova - they have somehow obtained contact details from people involved in these companies scam. Now they are contacting these people claiming to be a New York Lawyer to obtain more funds. Initial cost to be part of the class action is $325.00.

The 3 phone numbers I have been called from are:
+12108240171
+12124098937
+16073639766

The IP addresses used include:
77.247.181.163
5.104.224.42
62.210.129.149
68.178.252.117

Based on the above, this is a scam. My concerns are that American Authorities have no apparent interest in someone fraudulently claiming to be US registered lawyer ( This lawyer is listed on the NY Courts Registration Authority, but has no useful contact details- hence I am unable to contact him to warn about his name and registration number being used in a scam). To me such a scam with no local action by authorities has the potential to undermine any foreign dealings with that country, as is occurring in Nigeria (if you live in Nigeria, it is impossible to buy anything or do any trading whatsoever over the internet). I think that someone should be able to contact this lawyer and inform him about my concerns, but this has proved impossible from Australia.
I have had some fun wasting this scammers time, but I think he has lost interest in me now and moved on to the next victim.
Advertisement

#200400 by AlanJones Wed May 07, 2014 3:25 am
Unfortunately, the reason the US authorities aren't interested is that there is nothing that they can do to stop this - the scammers will be using throwaway email addresses, so even if the authorities had those addresses shut down they would just open a new one and continue with the scam.

The best thing to do is to publicise all of the email addresses that these scammers are using so that if anyone else who is approached by them searches they will find the details.

Looking at the phone numbers you have posted:
+12108240171 is a US landline that aparently belongs to a business called Trane Parts Center in San Antonio, TX.
+12124098937 is a New York number and is probably a VoIP number - a US member who is more familiar with the US phone company Onvoy can probably confirm this.
+16073639766 is another possible VoIP number (Frontier Communications Oration) from NY, that has a number of spam/scam comments against it on WhitePages.

Please do not tell scammers that they are listed here - it will take them seconds to change their fake details and their new details will not be listed for any future victims to find.
#200569 by ScamRid Thu May 08, 2014 2:55 am
Thanks for the reply.

My concern isn't the lack of action on the emails or phone numbers.

The concern is this person is using a real NY Attorneys name and registration number - he is listed
on the NY Attorney Official Site, I have contacted them and they gave me his home address in Boulder, CO.
The lawyer is Michael Edward Johnson, NY registration number 218 5692. I guess they have picked him for the exact reason that he is not easily contactable by official means to confirm his identity.
If I was the lawyer concerned, and had my details being used by a scammer, I would be extremely annoyed if my registration board had been alerted, but no-one bothered to tell me. I can't go around and knock on his door because I live in Australia. I'm sure their is a local branch of the registration board in Boulder or even a police officer that could drop around and let him know - he might want to update his contact details held by the board so he is contactable. To me this is pretty serious when professional people are having there details hijacked from official sites and no officials are willing to act - life as a scammer must be so easy.
If there is anyone on this site who lives in Boulder, I'm sure the real Michael Edward Johnson would be very grateful if they dropped a note in his mail box.
#200573 by Bryon Williams Thu May 08, 2014 4:10 am
Welcome to Scamwarners ScamRid,

I understand your concern. Scammers will use real peoples information to scam. We have seen them use Presidents, First Wives, Head of States, Diplomats, Actors, Models, normal people and etc. If you have a public profile scammers will grab that information in an attempt to scam. Law Enforcement can not knock on each door to say hey " Your name and information is being used in a scam".

This particular Attorney may be already informed of his information being used. He is a victim of the scammer as well. He does not need unwanted emails or contacts from people. Allow this victim to go on with his life and family without being disturbed.

How do you know he was not alerted.
I would be extremely annoyed if my registration board had been alerted, but no-one bothered to tell me.


He may not if it is an established long time business contact.
he might want to update his contact details

Please contacta moferatorstor if you have a question or information about this post.



Please do not tell the scammer he is posted here.


Please remember the fallen. https://www.odmp.org/

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 246 guests