Too Much Praise from a Would-Be Client Alerts BBB Lawyer to Scam
An outside lawyer for the Better Business Bureau in Colorado figured out he was the intended victim of a scam after he received a letter from a client containing too much praise.
Zachary Wilson is a Fort Collins lawyer and the general counsel for the Better Business Bureau in Northern Colorado and Wyoming, according to a press release detailing his experience.
When Wilson first got an e-mail from an overseas company seeking to pursue a collections action in Colorado, the business checked out as legitimate. Nothing aroused suspicion.
But Wilson suspected something was amiss when he received a follow-up letter thanking him for his “wonderful retainer letter.” The press release quotes Wilson. “What kind of businessman talks about a retainer letter being wonderful?” he asked. The second letter also had awkward grammar and misspellings, while the first was flawlessly written.
Wilson had been targeted in a scam in which an unsuspecting lawyer receives a collections check, deposits it into his or her account, and then wires all but a retainer fee to the supposed client, who is posing as a legitimate businessperson. The lawyer finds out too late that the check is phony.
In Wilson’s case, he got a collection check but he never deposited it. Instead, he gave it to his bank and asked it to investigate. As he suspected, the check was fraudulent.
