Delinquent Money Collection Scam

Be warned about this scam, the company website is wrong (I tried to email another email address attached to the website but retruned due to spam box full) and the Online Lawyers Database does not exist.
Dear Counsel,

This is an official request for legal representation on behalf of Hangzhou Iron & Steel Group Company. (HISGC) is a large enterprise group mainly engaging in Iron & steel multi-development with manufacturing and representative.

we are presently incapacitated due to international legal boundaries to exert pressure on our delinquent customers and we request for your services accordingly. we got your contact information from the Online Lawyers Database as a result of our search for a reliable firm or individual to provide legal services as requested.

After a careful review of your profile as well as your qualification and experience, we are of the opinion that you are capable and qualified to provide the legal services as requested.On behalf of Hangzhou Iron & Steel Group Company.

Please accept my sincerest appreciation in advance for your willingness to render your services as we look forward to your prompt response to our request.


Yours Sincerely,


Mr. Changming Lang
Chief Financial Officer.
Hangzhou Iron & Steel Group Company
Banshan County, Gongshu Dct,
Hangzhou
Zhejiang 310022
China.
Tel: +86 10868 99249
Fax:+86 10868 99249
Website: http://www.hzsteel.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FREE email @ Inbox.com.pk - Visit http://inbox.com.pk

Hi LondonLegalEagle

Welcome to Scamwarners.

Thank you for providing this additional information, could you please also post the email address that the email came from.

Welcome to Scamwarners
Can you tell us which "London" please? We're not interested in your location as such, but if it's London, England, it will be the first time I've heard of this scam aimed at UK lawyers.

Thanks BL and London. Good info.

Another forwarded to me:

From: Tanaka masato [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 8:47 PM
Subject: Counsel

Hi Counsel

My name is Tanaka masato. I am contacting your firm in regards to a
divorce settlement with my ex husband
Paul masato who resides in your jurisdiction in USA . I am currently on
assignment in Japan . We had an out of court Agreement (Collaborative Law
Agreement) for him to pay $448,450.00 plus legal fees

He had only paid me $44,000 since the agreement.

I am hereby seeking your firm to assist me in collecting the balance from
him... He has agreed already to pay me the balance but it is my belief
that a Law firm like yours is needed to help me collect payment from my
ex-husband Mr Paul masato or litigate this matter if he fails to pay as
promised.

Thanks

tanaka masato

I've seen a similar format using Paul Mizuki as the husband.

The FBI has issued a warning about divorce scams on their website:

http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm

NEW TWIST ON COUNTERFEIT CHECK SCHEMES TARGETING U.S. LAW FIRMS

01/21/10—The FBI continues to receive reports of counterfeit check schemes targeting U.S. law firms. As previously reported, scammers send e-mails to lawyers, claiming to be overseas and seeking legal representation to collect delinquent payments from third parties in the U.S. The law firm receives a retainer agreement, invoices reflecting the amount owed, and a check payable to the law firm. The firm is instructed to extract the retainer fee, including any other fees associated with the transaction, and wire the remaining funds to banks in Korea, China, Ireland, or Canada. By the time the check is determined to be counterfeit, the funds have already been wired overseas.

In a new twist, the fraudulent client seeking legal representation is an ex-wife "on assignment" in an Asian country, and she claims to be pursuing a collection of divorce settlement monies from her ex-husband in the U.S. The law firm agrees to represent the ex-wife, sends an e-mail to the ex-husband, and receives a "certified" check for the settlement via delivery service. The ex-wife instructs the firm to wire the funds, less the retainer fee, to an overseas bank account. When the scam is executed successfully, the law firm wires the money before discovering the check is counterfeit.

All Internet users need to be cautious when they receive unsolicited e-mails. Law firms are advised to conduct as much due diligence as possible before engaging in transactions with parties who are handling their business solely via e-mail, particularly those parties claiming to reside overseas.

Please view an additional public service announcement posted to the IC3 web site regarding a similar Asian extortion scheme located at the following link, http://www.ic3.gov/media/2009/090610.aspx. Individuals who receive information pertaining to counterfeit check schemes are encouraged to file a complaint at http://www.IC3.gov.

I am an attorney and yesterday replied to a job posting -where Houston co. was seeking for financial services attorney through craigslist.com-houston legal job. Today got this email



---------------------------------------

Original E-mail
From: James Kaplan <[email protected]>
Date: 01/28/2010 07:33 PM
To: XXXXXXXXXXX address not needed - Michelle
Subject: Re: Financial Services Attorney


Thank you for your response to my inquiry for legal services from your firm and am sorry for the delay in my response as it is due to
the time difference in Guangzhou.


We have been able to establish that delinquent or past due accounts is in about five states in the U.S, running over $1,850,506 in about a year or more over due in some cases.




There has been no complaints made about our products,no payment has been made with several previous attempt to make collection in these accounts ending negatively.


Beibei Jignyi Glass Company would have been settled if we had a reputable lawyer / firm representing our organization in collections or possible law suit,hence Beibei Jignyi Glass Company is willing to maintain an evergreen retainership fee of $25,000USD, to demonstrate to you that we are ready to work with you on collections on delinquent accounts.


At this moment it will not be proper for me to provide you with list of delinquent accounts or the copy of a typical contract/copies of invoices until there is client-attorney engagement / relationship..


Below are the areas we would require your expertise.


1), Provide legal consultation,collections of delinquent accounts,required representation / bring actions in court against the delinquent customers based on agreed amount per hour or percentage on collection made.


Please accept my sincerest appreciation for your willingness to render your services, as we look forward to your prompt response to my email. If you have any questions contact me personally anytime by email.



Yours truly,


James Kaplan
Chief Operating Officer
Beibei Jignyi Glassware Factory
Guangzhou,China

did some search- co. name appeared legit but then I and got your website.Problem is that I submitted my Resume and the SCAMMERS MAy try to use my name TO COLLECT UNEXISTENT DEBTS!! I contacted the FTC Aand filed a complain just in case someone receive a collection call Anything ELSE? I SHOULD DO?

Quotes added for clarity - Michelle

I wouldn't worry too much if I were you, you have taken the appropriate action. It is possible they will attempt to use your information in a scam. It is also slightly possible they could use some of your information in another type of scam, such as a romance scam.

We have seen some scam attempts to collect nonexistent debts, but those are usually via email, and the scammers like to impersonate collection agencies more than lawyers. Since lawyer names, phone numbers, and CV's are readily available online, the truth is they could use the name of just about any lawyer in the US to collect debts.

And with so many people willing to post their life stories to the world via social networking sites like myspace, facebook, and sites like twitter, the scammers literally have hundreds of thousands of possible people to impersonate.

It probably makes sense to just keep an eye out for any misuse of your name online, maybe set up a few google alerts to see if it pops up anywhere? Also be on the alert for more scam attempts (the 2 most common are the company debt collection and divorce settlement collection)--once you have responded to anything, you are seen as a possible target. It's also a good time to get into the habit of checking IP's on anything questionable--while an appropriate IP is not proof that it is NOT a scam, an African IP will help you to weed out some.

Two more forwarded by a lawyer:

-----Original Message-----
From: AKEMI KOBAYASHI [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Subject: Dear Counsel

Dear Counsel,

My name is Ms AKEMI KOBAYASHI. I was married to my ex husband Newberg
KOBAYASHI (who lives in your jurisdiction)for 7 yrs and in July 2009,
We mutually agreed under a Collaborative Participation Law Agreement to
go our separate ways. Newberg had agreed to pay me $914,000.00 under
terms of the agreement so that I can settle down and to his credit; he
has paid me $104,000.00 but with an outstanding balance of
$810,000.00.I am hereby seeking your legal assistance in collecting the
balance or helping me enforce the agreement, and have him honor the
agreement inentirety.

I will be providing further information upon your request. I believe
that one of the reasons he has refused to pay is because I have re-
married. I understand that been remarried does not automatically void
the agreement. Prior to our separation due to irreconcilable
differences, we were married for 23yrs of which by his instruction, I
was a full time house wife to carter for our four children. Please get
back to me if this is a case you can undertake. Let me know if you
require consultation fee before you advice or look at the evidence, I
am hereby seeking your firm to assist in collecting. the balance from
him. He has agreed already to pay me the balance but it is my belief
that a Law firm like yours is needed to help me collect payment from my
ex-husband or litigate this matter if he fails to pay as promised.

Sincerely,

AKEMI

From: Scanlon, Brian [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010
To:
Subject: Attorney Advice, please reply to [email protected]

Dear Counsel,
I am sending this email as a mutual introduction. Mrs. Amy zeng is the
managing director of Shenzhen Zhaoheng Specialty Steel Co.,Ltd.

Shenzhen Zhaoheng Specialty Steel Co.,Ltd. is a manufacturer and supplier of
steel, coils and transformers. Shenzhen Zhaoheng Specialty Steel Co.,Ltd.
is owed payment on shipments that they made to customers here in the US, Canada and
South America from January 2009. The company is now seeking advice and possible
representation in litigation against the non-paying companies in your
state. I can not handle this matter at this point because it is out of
our jurisdiction. I have represented this company in the past, therefore
I am assisting them in finding an attorney in the required state.

Kindly contact Mrs. Amy zeng if you are interested in representing
them. Below is her contact information as follows:

Amy Zeng
Shenzhen Zhaoheng Specialty Steel Co.,Ltd.
[email protected]

I encourage you to contact one another to see if this is a situation where you can work
together. Should you have any questions please contact my office at the below noted
information.

Sincerely,
Brian Scanlon, Paralegal
kenneth phillips, Attorney
[email protected]

And another today

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject:

Dear Counsel,

My name is Sarah Martins. I am contacting your law firm in regards to a divorce settlement with my ex-husband (Robert Giggs ) who resides in your jurisdiction.

I am currently on assignment in London. We had an out of court agreement (Collaborative Law Agreement) for him to pay $456,535.00 plus legal fees.

He has only paid me $60,000.00

I am hereby seeking your law firms to assist in collecting the balance from him. He has already agreed to pay me the balance but it is my belief that law firms like yours is needed to help handle and facilitate the collection process from my ex-husband or litigate this matter if he fails to pay as promised.

Regards,

Sarah Martins

And some more:

-----Original Message-----
From: Dunford, Benjamin [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Subject: Dear Counsel..Reply To [email protected]
Dear Counsel,

I am sending this email as a mutual introduction. Mr. Frank
Yu is the Managing Director of Eversun Technology Co., Ltd.

Eversun Technology Co., Ltd. is a manufacturer and supplier
of steel, coils and transformers. Eversun Technology Co.,
Ltd. is owed payment on shipments that they made to customers
here in the US from June 2008. The company is now seeking
advice and possible representation in litigation against the
non-paying companies in your state. I can not handle this
matter at this point because it is out of our jurisdiction. I
have represented this company in the past, therefore I am
assisting them in finding an attorney in the required state.

Kindly contact Mr. Frank Yu if you are interested in
representing them. Below is her contact information as follows:

Mr. Frank Yu.
Eversun Technology Co., Ltd.
OUR OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.eversunmoulds.com
EMAIL: [email protected]

I encourage you to contact one another to see if this is a
situation where you can work together. Should you have any
questions please contact my office at the below noted information.

Sincerely,
Alex Morgan, Esq
[email protected]


Dear Counsel..Reply To [email protected]


-----Original Message-----
From: Haru Kazuhiko [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010
To:
Subject: LEGAL DISPUTE

Dear xxxxx

I am Ms. Haru Kazuhiko. I'm contacting you with regards to a divorce settlement entered into in December 2008 with my ex-husband (John Kazuhiko) who resides in your

jurisdiction.

We mutually agreed under a Collaborative Law Participation Agreement to go our separate ways. We had an out-of-court agreement for him to pay me the sum of $487,450.00

including legal fees of which he has only paid $50,000. As a result, I am hereby seeking your firm's legal representation in collecting the balance of $437,450 from

him. He has already agreed to pay the balance but it is my belief that a law firm would be required in helping me collect the payment from him or enforce the agreement

if he defaulted in making the payment as promised.

If this is something you will be able to handle for me, please advise with your retainer fees.

Sincerely,

Haru Kazuhiko

Another one.

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from sknet88.seekdotnet.com (70.87.211.27)
Received: from computer.wbb.net.cable.rogers.com [24.156.136.35] by sknet88.seekdotnet.com with SMTP;
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
From: Li Cheng
Global Chemical Ltd (China).

To Whom It May Concern:

This is an official requisition for your legal consultation services on behalf of Global Chemical Ltd(http://www.chem.com.cn) China.

We are situated in China. We are experts in the Production of raw materials, such as Barites, Paint & Coatings, Plastics & Rubbers, and chemical Machines from Asia into Europe and America. We export goods into North America and parts of Europe. We have a dire need for North America liason\receiving representative to assist us with receiving payments from our delinquent customers in North America, indebted to us in quite substantial and various amounts of monies and we request for your services accordingly.

We are presently incapacitated due to international legal boundaries to exert pressure on our delinquent customers in North America and we request for your services accordingly.

We got your contact information from the Chambers of Commerce, in search for a reliable firm or individual to provide services as requested. After a careful review of your profile, we are of the opinion that your Escrow activity is relevant to our needs. We wish to state that we are open to negotiation of your compensation.

Please accept my appreciation on behalf of Global Chemical Ltd. China, in advance for your willingness to render your services and we look forward to your prompt response to our request.

Thanks,

Sincerely yours,

Li Cheng
International Relations Officer
Global Chem (China).

Another one. IP Address: 61.177.186.246 - Yangzhou, China

From: Gerry Schuman <[email protected]>
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
To: Undisclosed recipients
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010
Subject: Your Service Is Needed

Hi Counsel.
My name is Gerry Schuman,
I am a contacting your firm in regards to a divorce settlement with my
ex-husband
(Mark Schuman) who resides in your jurisdiction. I am currently on
assignment in South Korea; we had an out of court, Agreement (Collaborative
Law Agreement) for him to pay $468,450.59 plus legal fees, He has only paid
me $44,000 since.
I am hereby seeking your firm to assistance in collecting the balance from
him. He has agreed already to pay me the balance but
It is my belief that Law firm like yours is needed to help me collect
payment from my ex-husband or litigate
This matter if he fails to pay as promised. Here is my email address you can
reach me at: [email protected]

Sincerely,
Gerry Schuman.

For anyone reading this thread, we have added information about this type of scam to our forum here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6195

To those of you contributing scam emails you've received, please keep posting them. They're showing up in searches and helping keep people aware.

Another one. Not as much information as we would like, but more than enough to prove it's a scam.
Note the two different spellings Shuanglin and Shuangliin. The first belongs to a genuine business whose identity is being used by the scammer. http://www.shuangliin.com is a clone of the real site and created on 14 May 2009 for only one year. We are taking steps to have it closed.
The correct spelling is used only on the Hotmail address, which means nothing. There is no good reason for a business with it's own domain to use free email addresses.

Shuanglin Group [email protected]

Mr Lean Jin Leong
CEO: Shuangliin Group Incorporation,
Hong Kong.
E-mail: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.shuangliin.com
Tel: +852-3693-1401
Fax: +852-3010-0601
Sorry to tel you that we discarded those. They purported to seek our engagement to take away a 20% fee from a $450,000 collection from a Canadian Company, without any effort from our part.

Another one.

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from mail.must.edu.tw (120.105.0.31)
From: "Hon-Kwang Electric Co.Ltd" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: We require your service

Dear Counsel,

Hon-Kwang Electric Co.Ltd, needs a legal representative.

Hon-Kwang Electric Co.Ltd. is a maker of power supplies & specialized in the design and manufacture for the domestic and foreign market. Hon-Kwang has developed various power supplies using the best of available technology, our main products include AC/AC adaptor, AC/DC adaptor, regulated power supply, transformer, switching power supply, ballast, charger and line matching transformer.

After a careful review of your law firm profile, we decided to contact you to represent our company (Hon-Kwang Electric Co., Ltd). Hon-Kwang Electric Co., Ltd. is a leading manufacturing company in Asia. We would require your legal representative for our Customers. We are of the opinion that a reputable attorney is required to represent us in order for us to recover funds due to our organization by overseas customers, and as well follow up with these accounts. In order to achieve these objectives a good and reputable law firm like yours will be required to handle this service.

We understand that a proper Attorney Client agreement must be entered into by both parties. This will be done immediately you accept to work for us.
We hope to start a mutually fruitful and long term business relationship with your law firm
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,
Larry Yong

I received the below from [email protected]. Before I found this site, however, I sent through details of the trust account into which payment of a retainer fee could be made along with a retainer agreement. Most importantly, does anyone know if these people can do anything dodgy if they have details of the trust account? The other thing that I don't understand how the scam works when I won't provide any services until a retainer fee has been deposited into trust. If they do actually pay the retainer, and if no "collected" monies are forwarded to them until they have definitely cleared, then they would just risk losing the retainer.

About our Company:
Polymer Technologies Pte Ltd® manufactures a comprehensive line of Polyurea Spray Machine, FRP Corrugated Sheet, materials and Polyslit products for Companies and individuals. Polymer Technologies Pte Ltd® products offer excellent performance. Because they're durable, they can be an economical choice for most companies and individual and no complaint regarding our products. Here are some of our products:
•BMC line •Casting Machine for Solid Surface
•Chopped strand mat line •Chopper System
•Continuous Blender for cultured marble; solid surface •Continuous Casting Machine
•Epoxy System Dispenser •Filament Winding Machine
•Polyurethane Injection Machine •Pultrusion Machine

Delinquent Accounts:
We have been experiencing difficulting in payment from Customers in Sydney, Australia hence we decided to employ the service of a reputable Law Firm like yours to represent our organisation and fight for us in collection of these accounts from Customer or file a lawsuit if need be.

The Total amount been owned is AUS$1,445.000.00 and these accounts has been running for about 9 months now and some cases over a year. At this moment, it will not be proper for me to provide you with the list of delinquent accounts or send you copies of the contract/invoices until we establish an Attorney-Client engagement or relationship. If this is done, we are willing to maintain a retainer fee of AUS$30,000.00 or on contingency basis. I will want you to send me your retainer fee agrement so that I can sign and return back to you.
We expect that you will provide legal consultation, collection of delinquent accounts, required representation and bring to actions in Court against the delinquent customers.
Accept my sincerest appreciation for your willingness to render your service. I await your response with your retainer fee agreement.
I can reached by email if you have any question.
Your Faithfully,
Patrick Lee
POLYMER TECHNOLOGIES PTE. LTD.
44 Tech Park Crescent Singapore 638095
Tel/Fax: 6568638219
www.polymertec.com