Canadian Lawyer

REGIONAL WRAP-UP Bad cheque ScamS on the riSe originating from an alleged Malaysian company, according to PracticePRO. The alleged company, Yuraki Yamanaka of S everal Ontario lawyers were the targets of an August com- mercial debt litigation scam Chan Industries Pte Ltd., is said to have sent e-mails to lawyers asking whether or not they are in a conflict that will prevent them from representing the company's alleged client, Renesas Electronics Corp., against "an entity" that Yamanaka claims is in the lawyer's jurisdiction. the e-mails end by asking the lawyer to respond and say "we are ready to pass your retainer fee immediately. According to PracticePRO's warning, lawyers replied, they got an e-mail back with more information about Yamanaka' alleged case involving unpaid machinery. Yamanaka also asked the lawyers to send a retainer agreement, PracticePRO warns. Dan Pinnington, vice president of " When s SPECIALIZATION IN BUSINESS LAW Part-time, Executive LLM program for corporate counsel and practising lawyers claims prevention and stakeholder rela- tions at LawPRO, said it was one of many bad cheque scams targeting lawyers in the last several years. "The main type of scam we've been seeing lately are bad cheque scams. These are scams that oth- erwise present legal matters, but ultimately turn out to be a scam. For example, bad debt collections fall under that category. I think we've been seeing more of them compared to what we used to see in the past." In the last year and a half, Pinnington themselves as legitimate says LawPRO has uncovered more than 3,000 bad cheque scams nationally and abroad. "Those are just the tip of the ice- berg, ting reports that more of them are surfac- ing in other provinces and territories too. In August, PracticePRO issued alerts " says Pinnington. "We are also get- " on at least five similar scams. Each appear to follow the same pattern of e-mailing lawyers, asking for their help in a legal matter, and inquiring if there are conflicts. Pinnington said the spike could be For more information, call 416-978-1400 or visit: http://www.law.utoronto.ca/programs/GPLLM.html TIME: EVENT: Supported by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) - Ontario Chapter and in partnership with Carswell, a Thomson Reuters business. GLLM_IH_Apr_12.indd 1 10 OCTO BER 2012 www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com due to the increasing accessibility of tech- nology and lawyers being able to access large amounts of money. "Some of the scams are also clearly part of organized crime and lawyers are likely being tar- geted because they hold large amounts of money in trust and are able to access that money fairly easily. lawyers should look out for to avoid the scams. "Be aware of matters that look too easy, messages that are inconsistent, and anyone that is willing to pay higher than normal fees." Pinnington pointed to several red flags " — KENDYL SEBESTA 12-05-03 10:58 AM

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