Attorneys beware: The equivalent of the so-called “Nigerian prince who has been trying to contact you” has found out where you work!
Recently I received a referral for a potential client from another attorney. The first email from this potential client, whom I will call Mr. Jones, explained that he had matters pending in three different jurisdictions.
The next email was conspicuously more sophisticated and specific. He asked if I, or my firm, had a conflict of interest with a specific company—XYZ Industries. I looked it up, and I found that XYZ had a real website and was a real company. Mr. Jones claimed that XYZ owed his company $1.2 million. “Please send us your retainer agreement,” Mr. Jones wrote.
I wrote back and requested to see the contract Mr. Jones had with XYZ. He sent a contract, poorly written but with some measure of legalese, and reiterated his claim to have lost $1.2 million at the hands of XYZ Industries.
At this point, I was more than a little suspicious. I suspected Mr. Jones was going to do the following:
- Send us an agreement
- Inform us that he had wired a lump sum to us—let’s say $50,000
- Inform us that he ended up settling the case
- Instruct us to reverse the wire transfer, keeping a small amount for our trouble
Sound familiar? Most people are aware of the so-called “Nigerian prince” scam in which a fake cashier’s check is tendered to someone who is instructed to “give back” a certain amount and keep the rest as some sort of processing fee—only to find out that the check was fake and the money “given back” was lost forever. Similarly, there may be a way for a wire-transferred money order to be rescinded by the transferor, in essence just like a counterfeit check—even after it looks like it has cleared.
So how did I know this was a scam? I confirmed it. I contacted XYZ in New York, and I happened to get on the phone with the person who allegedly signed the contract that Mr. Jones had sent to me. I explained to him that I was in the process of being retained, and I had a contract I was being asked to enforce.
The person at XYZ had never heard of Mr. Jones or his company. I sent XYZ’s manager the contract and he said:
- The signature was not his.
- XYZ does not do the kind of business Mr. Jones was alleging.
- There is no way that XYZ would make an agreement worth that much money with a contract as flimsy as the one Mr. Jones provided.
This case presents an important lesson for attorneys, but clients can also learn a great deal from it. It shows that legal actions might be commenced based on issues that are completely fabricated. In other words, you may have done nothing wrong, yet be named by a fraudulent third party in a lawsuit commenced against you.
On their part, attorneys need to be reminded that not every referral is a good one. If I had received this interesting correspondence from Mr. Jones unsolicited, I would have ignored it—but I got it from a colleague whom I know and respect. I informed her of what happened, and coincidentally, ran into another attorney who received the same sort of email from one of their colleagues. The kicker? The scam artist was still using XYZ Industries as his fictional adversary.
A week later, Mr. Jones contacted me again, and I learned that he had planned to scam me the old fashioned way: He told me he had settled the conflict for $350,000, which he would have XYZ send to me by check; I should deposit the check in our escrow account, and deduct whatever fee we deemed reasonable; and we should send the balance back to the grateful Mr. Jones. Grateful, indeed! I wrote back and told him to keep his fraudulent check.
If you’re an attorney who has received a suspicious request, think twice before getting involved. If you are a business who has been named in a lawsuit alleging facts that are suspiciously unfamiliar, contact the plaintiff’s attorney—or your own.
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