Bogus Support Collection Scams Targeting Family Law Lawyers Continue
Thanks to Kerri at the CBA for bring this May 2010 Law Society of Saskatchewan fraud alert to my attention.
It provides details (including copies of the correspondence and the collaborative family law agreement) about an attempted spousal support collection fraud that targeted a Saskatchewan lawyer in May. It really jumped out at me because the collaborative family law agreement provided by the fraudster was almost exactly identical to one used for a fraud attempt against an Ontario lawyer in April this year. The fraudster, who claimed to be Karen L Clarke in Saskatchewan, used a different name in Ontario – Tanaka Sadasuke. The name of the ex-husbands and amount of support to be paid were different as well. Otherwise, everything else in the two agreements was identical, including the date it was signed and names of the two lawyers allegedly involved in negotiating the agreement – Jennifer Harper and Andrew Rosenberg.
In both cases, a reply to the fraudster’s initial email prompted further communications with the fraudster, and in the Saskatchewan fraud, a counterfeit cheque from the ex-husband. You can see the correspondence, the agreement and the bogus cheque from the Saskatchewan fraud in the Law Society of Saskatchewan bulletin.
Be alert and vigilant –fraudsters continue to target family law lawyers.
Cross posted at Avoid a Claim.
She’s still at work. I am an attorney in South Bend, Indiana. I practice collaborative law. I just received a message from Tanaka Sadasuke, seeking to enforce a collaborative law agreement. I became particularly suspicious at the point she suggested that her husband was willing to make a large settlement payment, but would do so only to my attorney trust account. I could deduct my retainer from that payment. Right. The other attorneys supposedly involved in negotiating the original agreement were Ms. Harper and Mr. Rosenberg. I was asked to represent her, as Mr. Rosenberg had retired.
Thanks for the post, very interesting – fraudsters can have an easy time with people who aren’t aware enough to realize they are getting scammed. I got a job with a home security company, and then did some research and realized they were scamming military families, telling them they will give them free installation and low month-to-month costs – and then required a fee of a few thousand dollars to stop the service. Families didn’t realize this until they wanted to stop, and then they are stuck with this huge bill or just have to keep paying $40 a month for the rest of their lives. It was awful.
I received one from Laura Schneider claiming to seek collection on
Michael Schneider. I will report to CALBAR this morning, after I try to get some more specific information from them.
I am a family law attorney licensed to practice law in the State of California. My practice is located in the City of Newport Beach, County of Orange. I recently received an e-mail from a woman identifying herself as Chen Ruizhen. Ms. Ruizhen represented in her e-mail that she allegedly living in China and was seeking to retain my firm to assist her with the collection of an outstanding property settlement equalization payment, in the sum of $468,450 USD. Ms. Ruizhen forwarded to me by email a copy of photo i.d. card purportedly issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affirs of the People’s Republic of China in her name, Identity Card No. 350103480127008, Date of Birth 01/27/50, place of birth Fujian, China and a Collaborative Law Participation Agreement prepared by Jennifer Harper and Andrew Rosenberg, neither of which are attorneys licensed to practice law in the State of California. Therefore, the scam appears to be alive and well. A Collaborative Law Agreement is no different than a Marital Settlement Agreement and there must be an underlying dissolution or legal separate proceeding and case number in order for the Collaborative Law Agreement to be incorporated into a Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage of Legal Separation to be a valid enforceable court order. Further, irrespective of whether or not the parties retain Collaborative Law attorneys, in the State of California both parties must exchange Preliminary Declarations of Disclosure Pursuant to FC Section 2104 or any Collaborative Law Agreement would be voidable.
This scam has morphed into Lambert Lisa chasing Michael Lee her not yet ex husband for funds whilst on a missionary visit to Asia. The CLPA list jenifer Harper and Sandra lopez as the lawyers. Googling harper is how I tracked as being a scam. Another tip of to being a potential scam was the fact she still listed her retired lawyer as a he, despite two females being listed on the agreement. Dodgy