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PAGE 4 NEWS January 9, 2012 • Law Times intellectual property lawyers PracticePRO warns about scheme involving licence breach Cheque scams now targeting BY KENDYL SEBESTA Law Times more than a dozen lawyers across Ontar- io and the United States in an attempt to defraud them through a bad-cheque scheme that practicePRO describes as one of the fi rst and "most convincing frauds" in intellectual property law the organization has ever seen. According to practicePRO, Dan Na- gasakii of CCP Group International al- legedly contacted several Ontario law- yers before the holiday break last month to inquire about legal services in a fabri- cated case of a breach of a licence involv- ing the company In correspondence with lawyers, Na- gasakii would accuse his company's client of breaching a licence agreement with it. Th e client, in announcing its intention to resolve the matter, would then send a cheque for damages to the lawyer's of- fi ce. From there, the lawyers would be asked to wire the funds, apart from fees and costs, to an off shore account where Nagasakii allegedly hoped to collect the money, according to a practicePRO advi- sory issued last month. "We've had about a dozen or so re- ports over the last month," said Dan T he purported president of a Japa- nese medical supply company has allegedly sent e-mails to 'We've had about a dozen or so reports over the last month,' says Dan Pinnington. Pinnington, director of practicePRO. "Th ey began trickling in during the fi rst week of December and after our blog post about Nagasakii on Dec. 9. We've seen a report from Quebec, reports from Hawaii, New York, California, and a few in Ontario as well." Lawyers, then, should be on guard for signs of things that don't add up, Pin- nington notes. "Fraudsters will provide you with a variety of offi cial-looking documents, and it may be very hard to tell which are real and which are fake. Th ey will have corporate certifi cates, of- fi cial documents. . . . You name it and they'll have it. We've seen hundreds of them here, although this is the fi rst time they seem to be specifi cally targeting the intellectual property bar." So far, however, only one lawyer has been duped by the scam and reported it to practicePRO in Ontario. Th e others have only received e-mails from Nagasakii. In an example of those e-mails posted on the practicePRO web site, Nagasakii produces several of his offi cial-looking documents and other materials for the victimized lawyer, who agreed to share his correspondence in the scam. Al- though the initial e-mails appear relaxed and Nagasakii seems to have an offi cial- looking web site, he becomes more urgent as the money begins to change hands, something the practicePRO no- tice says is a red fl ag. "Please can you ask your Bookkeep- ers to send me the wire transfer slip so I can confi rm to my bankers that my funds have been sent as I am indebted to them and they are mounting so much pressure on me here," Nagasakii alleg- edly wrote to the lawyer. "Th anking you for your anticipated cooperation." Shortly after, the lawyer sent an e-mail in reply saying he had discovered the funds were fraudulent and had reported Nagasakii to the police. According to Jonathan Colombo of Bereskin & Parr LLP, such scams are "very uncommon" in intellectual prop- erty law. Th e Nagasakii one, he adds, "doesn't make sense." "I would imagine it would be very uncommon in the intellectual property world because most things in our world take months to do. Th ere may be some ability for fraudsters, but I would imag- ine it would be more pronounced in other areas where the turnaround time is much quicker." Caution, according to Colombo, is key. "I think the best advice is to follow LawPRO's warning and don't do any- thing until you know for sure that the money isn't fraudulent. If it happens to be taking longer than normal, just wait for the cheque to clear before you do anything." Pinnington, meanwhile, says law- yers who are unsure if the e-mails they receive are fraudulent can also contact LawPRO. "We have people who are dedicated to answering your questions and are very familiar with these fraudulent doc- uments and e-mails," he says. "Call us up and we'll walk you through it." Now Accepting Applications for Classes Starting in September 2012 Part-time, Executive LLM program for corporate counsel and practising lawyers Information Sessions Wednesday, December 7, 2011 5:30 - 7:00 pm Friday, December 9, 2011 8:00 - 9:30 am Monday, January 16, 2012 5:30 to 7:00pm Friday, January 19, 2012 8:00 to 9:30am U of T Faculty of Law, Faculty Lounge 78 Queen's Park, Toronto No registration required. Please feel free to drop in anytime during these hours. Taught by U of T Faculty of Law professors, together with top international faculty from INSEAD Business School, NYU School of Law, and Rotman School of Management. For more information and to apply: http://www.law.utoronto.ca/programs/GPLLM.html Supported by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) - Ontario Chapter and in partnership with Carswell, a Thomson Reuters business. GLLM_LT_Jan9_12.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 12-01-03 11:49 PM