Practice Resources
Fraud Alerts
January 30, 2012
A member of the Law Society of Saskatchewan and a member of the
Law Society of Alberta were recently contacted as part of 2 similar
scams. Although neither attempt was successful these scams
have a bit of a different twist. Please see details (for members
only).
August 25, 2011
The plaintiff, the Bank of Montreal, carries on business in
Calgary and elsewhere across Canada. The defendants, who are
too numerous to mention, and are outlined in the Style of Cause of
the Statement of Claim, are
individuals, realtors, appraisers, lawyers and corporations who are
alleged to have been a part of, and in some cases, benefitted from
fraudulent mortgage/real estate schemes.
June 20, 2011
The Law Society has recently been advised of a new wave of trust
account frauds. Note this is a fraud, and not a scam, in that
bogus cheques are prepared by the fraudsters using the lawyer's
trust account information. The bogus cheques (usually in
amounts of less than $20,000) are then cashed (deposited) by the
fraudster with the hope that they will be honoured by the financial
institution. Read more...
April 4, 2011
Deposit of Trust Cheques Written on U.S. (Foreign)
Accounts
Lawyers should be aware that cheques written on United States
bank accounts (including cashier's cheques) can take one or two
months or even longer to clear, particularly if they are drawn on a
smaller U.S. bank. If the cheque is found to be fraudulent (2 or 3
months later), the system will automatically withdraw the funds
from your trust account, leaving a deficiency in your trust account
and you will be responsible for making up the shortfall.
The key here is that the clearing system for cheques in the
U.S., and no doubt in some other foreign countries, is much slower
than here in Canada and scammers try to use this to their
advantage.
Scammers recently tried to use this delay in an unsuccessful
scam attempt in Saskatchewan. Thanks to the alertness of a couple
of our members and their staff, this scam did not work, but be
aware of the M.O. as the names, amounts and remitters will change
in the future, but the M.O. will be similar.
This scam was similar to previous scams in that:
- The member was approached via email or phone;
- The member was to collect monies owing to the scammer;
- Once monies were received and deposited to trust, the member
was to wire part of the funds to the client's bank account (either
inside Canada or in a foreign country), in this case Japan.
In this case, the scammer was "owed monies for an injury and
disability resulting from an accident on the job" in Canada. The
scammer had signed a Settlement Agreement and General Release prior
to contacting the member. According to the scammer, 2 payments had
been received, but the rest was overdue and the member's services
were required to collect the remainder.
Sounds familiar so far. Now the wrinkle.
The company involved and owing the funds is from the U.S. The
monies received by the member were in the form of a "Cashier's
Check" drawn on a U.S. bank. (see images of Cashier's Check and scammer's passport)
These Cashier's Checks were deposited to the member's trust
account on February 14, 2011, but the member was not advised until
March 16, 2011 (over a month later) that the cheques had "bounced."
Bottom-line, the cashier's cheque was fraudulent.
Defence in Addition to Standard Procedures
- Make sure you receive independent verification that the company
writing the cheque is legitimate.
- Check with the company that wrote the cheque to make sure the
cheque is legitimate.
May 17, 2010
A number of members have been approached with the latest scam
whereby a divorced woman from the US seeks help from a law firm in
Canada to obtain funds owed by her ex-husband who lives in
Saskatchewan. Please see excerpts from the actual emails
between the fraudster and one of our members.
August 21, 2009
Beginning in October 2008, a number of Fraud Alerts were
circulated by John Allen, CA regarding lawyers trust accounts.
Please read the attached Fraud Alert Update, as
well as well as a Press Release from the RCMP.
March 6, 2009
The Law Society of British Columbia has provided notice to the profession of a new
scam in that province. We have had no indication of any
Saskatchewan connections at this time.
November 24, 2008
The following scam was recently attempted in another province.
We do not have all the details yet, but we understand it was
intended to work as follows:
- A member is contacted by phone to act for a purchaser of real
estate.
- The purchaser is from out of the country, and in this case,
overseas, but the member deals with a person in Canada acting on
the purchaser's behalf (ie. a relative).
- Fortunately, the member asked the purchaser to comply with the
new proposed Rules on Client Identification (ie. provide a
certified copy of passport, etc.). The required identification was
never received.
- The Canadian contact stated that copies of identification would
be difficult to obtain because the client was ill and receiving
medical treatment in Germany.
- Another lawyer was acting for the vendor and a realtor was
involved.
- The member received a fraudulent cheque for the amount of the
purchase. The cheque could be from a bank, mortgage company, or
anyone, since it is a forgery.
- The member deposited the fraudulent cheque and was contacted
soon after by the clients' family member advising that the client
had passed away and requesting the return of monies (from trust),
presumably, by wire transfer. This transpires in a timely manner;
before the member becomes aware that the original cheque was
fraudulent.
Further details will be provided as they become available, but
please note that this is fraud, and as with other scams, this will
no doubt take on many forms as the fraudsters attempt to get your
trust money.
In the meantime, if you are contacted by anyone with this type
of scam, please advise John Allen, CA at the Law Society office at
569-8242.
October 16, 2008
There is a new scam out there that is much harder to detect than
those previously received by members. I am attaching
information (cover letter and invoice) received by a member in
regard to this scam for your information and it is worthy to note
that:
- The names used are very close to legitimate companies.
- The email address in this case is "live.com". This type of
address "hotline, yahoo" etc is a warning sign to be on the
alert.
- As noted by the member below, this scam originated with a cold
telephone call and was then followed up with the email
- An internet search for the company revealed a similar
corporation but that corporation was doing a different type of
business.
- This letter is far more professional than those rec'd on
previous scams
The names and locations of the corporations under suspicion
are:
- Genentech Engineering - New York
- Devlan Construction - Nova Scotia
- Maxwell China Ltd. - China
I have also been advised by another lawyer that he has received
numerous emails, faxes and at least one phone call on a scam
similar to the one described above and in the attachment. The
information provided below came directly from the lawyer
contacted.
This began with a cold call on the telephone followed by this email two days later.
