Recent scam email regarding legal services

From Shawn Atkins [info@protective.com]

I wish to retain your services to handle a collection issue. A referral would be welcome if this is not within your scope of practice.

Shawn

From seinaberg@iprimus.com.au

Please do you handle cases on failure to obey court order of child support?

Ms Seina

From musaki1@cox.net

Hello, I would like to engage your legal expertise .Contact me if interested

Saki Masaru

From  Theo Trescher [smlucas@crimson.ua.edu]

I am Theo Trescher, Our company (Trescher Fabrication Ltd) needs your legal Assistance on a collection case. Please Advise.

From rev.teddyharris@anyemails.com

Hello My Dear frined,

Greetings and happy new year to you my good friend. With hope you are getting along well. Yes I have latter made it by recovering my inheritance with another partner, I knew you made efforts to assist me but unfortunately it did not work out with both of us, I urge you not to regret it may be it is God wish that we shall not be partners. It is true that you tried helping me but one thing or the other did not permit to help me out all the same there is no problem since I latter made it by recovering the funds with another partner from Paraguay and my mind cannot allow me to go with out compensating you with the little efforts you made when I contacted you. So please accept this offering with good faith.

I am giving this offering with good faith just as compensation so just accept with open mind I left an ATM CARD with my pastor who linked me with the new partner due to the urgency in my trave ling arrangement I was not able to get in touch with you before I traveled out am now in Paraguay. With the new partner who help me to succeeded in getting my inheritance transferred out so am presently in Paraguay now and I am very busy with my new partner in our investment plan and in search for the school that I will register with I have not yet got any phone number where you can reach me when I settle down and got a phone number I will send to you ok and I could not be able to check my email frequently.

All you have to do now is to make haste and contact the pastor whom I have left an ATM CARD value of $250,000USD it is cash able in any Atm machine in your country so quickly contact the pastor now, his name is Rev pastor John Edward. So just contact Pastor John Edward on his email address below and comply with him to send ATM CARD to you without any delay. Private : E-mail (jedward2@gmx.com)  Meanwhile do not forget to let me know immediately you receive the Money so we can share the joy together.

Best Regards.

Faithfully,

Mr.Teddy Harris

They all appear so truthful.  I am sure they couldn’t be a scam to separate you from your money.  The last one is especially compelling.  Could anyone with a name like Reverend Teddy Harris be lying to us?  Surely no more that these people, and these, and these.   

Today is the day…

for scam email directed to lawyers.  First, Ms. Trump (probably no relation to The Donald), writes:

Dear Counsel,

My Name Is Sharon Trump. I wish to file an enforcement petition against my ex-spouse for breaching the court’s decree with regards to payment of property settlement. If you are available for such case Kindly Advise immediately.

Regards,

Sharon Trump

shatrump@comcast.net

Her return addresses from the email she directed to me are shatrump@iprimus.com.au  and sharontrump28@iprimus.com.au  As of yet, I have never received a legitimate email from that domain.  One day it may happen, but I wont hold my breath.

Next up is  SN.

I really need you to respond to my emal because i want you to represent me in a legal case

In case you want to respond to her “emal” her return address is sapphirekori@qq.com.

Ms. Kinoshita at it again.

I received the following email 3 times over about 20 minutes yesterday.  I guess Ms. Kinoshita is trolling for suckers once again.

Dear Attorney,

Please advise if you handle such case, I wish to file a contempt petition against my ex-spouse for failure to make court ordered payments resulting from dissolution of marriage.

Elena Kinoshita

kinoshita_e@yahoo.com.hk <http://ca.mc1217.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=kinoshita_e@yahoo.com.hk>

Scam emails from the past couple of weeks

Looks like I am still on the master mailing list for legal scammers.  The last couple of weeks I have received the following:

Please I need  your firm to  represent me to enforce an agreement and possible litigation and collection of settlement agaisnt my Ex…

From Stephany Kiyoshi with an email address of kiyooshiinow@cox.net

Dear Attorney, I swiftly need your legal help in my divorce case…

Also from Stephany Kiyoshi.  I guess my failure to reply caused her to send the second message.

I need your legal help over a Settlement Agreement against me and my ex.

Another appearance from Lauranne Chinatsu at  llchnh@Shaw.ca

Previous posts about these scams here, here, here, and here.

All of these scams have a common theme.  Someone owes the potential client a sum of money for some reason (divorce and business debt have been the most popular).  The potential client wants you to contact the debtor and secure payment.  If you are dumb enough to contact the alleged debtor, he will quickly agree to pay the amount due via check, money order or some other worthless paper.  Your client will instruct you to deposit the check and quickly forward his share less your contingency fee.  You think everything is going smooth until your bank calls to let you know that the check or money order is a fake.  Now you get to replace the money in your client trust account and everyone is going to think you are an idiot for falling into this trap.

Why scammers scam?

For money of course.  Most every attorney realizes a money scam email when they see it.  The key word here is most.  Email is free so these scammers don’t have any costs.  Every single moron they are able to con out of money results in pure profit.  But how much profit is involved?  According to a news report from the ABA Journal last year, one scamming ring netted $31 million dollars before Nigeria caught up to ring leader Emmanuel Ekhator and extradited him to the United States.

The ABA Journal also reports that Minnesota law firm Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz lost $400,000 in Ekhator’s scheme.  Not content to walk away with the loss of $400k, the Milavetz firm recently filed suit against Wells Fargo claiming that Wells Fargo was responsible for the firm’s loss because it knew or should have know that the financial transactions were bogus. Regardless of the specifics of the case, when a large successful firm loses money in this manner you have to wonder just what the heck they were thinking.

Still scamming from Nigeria

After blogging here, here and here about people trying to scam lawyers over the internet, I continue to receive the same old email scams.  Here is recent one:

Dear Attorney:

We like to know if you have conflict that will prevent you from representing Precision Machine Products company, Poland, against an entity in your jurisdiction.

Due to some accounts in your jurisdiction not fulfilling their contractual obligations, we are currently looking to appoint a legal representative who can ensure that our delinquent or past due accounts are settled and represent our company in the collection or possible law suit.

If you require the name of the opposing party to conduct your internal conflict, please respond to our inquiry.

I look forward to receiving your mail.

Yours respectfully,

Cesar Benedty

Email: benedtycesar@yahoo.com.hk

Precision Machine Products Company Poland A. div of Aiki Riotech Corporation

4 15-1 #204 Ko

Just out of curiosity, Iused iptrackeronline.com to see where the email originated.  Looks like they don’t call them Nigerian scams for nothing.

While I am not at all suprised that these emails keep coming, I am surprised to see from a recent announcement from the Mississippi Bar that a local lawyer was bilked out of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in a similar scam.  Ouch!