Horitsu Note #1403 - Alert about fraud related to our office

◾️ Regarding a scam that uses our Law Firm's name
 I started answering new questions in the last issue, but due to a somewhat urgent matter that I would like to make known to our readers, I will take a break from answering the questions you have been asking me.

Just last week, I had the opportunity to talk with a Japanese lawyer who handles many consumer-related cases. At the time, he mentioned that up until last year, there were many fraudulent cases using business names that people are familiar with. They approach with a simple task but before you know it, the demands gradually escalate. Starting from this year, there has been an increase in international romance scams. Foreigners target Japanese people located in Japan and approach them through social media networking sites, and approach them using accented Japanese.  In some cases, people have been scammed out of tens of millions of yen in just a few months. When the scammer has succeeded to a certain extent, they may offer a romantic or business partnership. The scammer’s aim is to drain the individual of all their money.  However, in the case of a bank transfer scam, the recipient’s account can be traced because the law has been amended in Japan, making it easier to seize an account. So scams making people buy virtual currency are becoming more frequent.  I think we should begin adopting the mindset that any casual communication that offers services regarding money via social network is going to be a scam. 

These past few days, I have received at least two inquiries with similarities to the above written scams using our office name. I immediately advised these people to not contact the sender.  Does this mean our firm has become famous enough to be used as a scam?  If you receive any communication from my firm without having contacted us first, please contact our office directly via email or phone to confirm the information with us.  

Below, I have written the correspondence that took place between our office, as this individual has kindly provided us with information. The message read the following: "I received a call on my cell phone yesterday from a woman claiming to be Taguchi, a California attorney at Marshall Suzuki, who told me that she had received a call from a Japanese woman who was trying to get me to pay for her services.  She said the following to me: I am working on a case of international romance fraud involving a Japanese national and the perpetrator group has been identified in California and we are in the process of recovering a portion of the fraudulent amount. I am contacting you because there is a possibility that I may be able to recover some of the money from them. I would like you to install the Signal app so that we can keep in touch in the future.”

This is the message we received from the individual regarding the scam. Please note that we will be ensuring this individual’s anonymity. In the first place, it seems suspicious that a lawyer, for whom preserving evidence is part of their job, would ask someone to install Signal, a social networking service that erases past histories of conversations. There is no woman who calls herself "Taguchi" who works at my law firm. Additionally, if she were a California attorney, she would have a bar registration number, so I think it is important to ask her for that registration number, or look it up online. Scammers are very thorough with their plans. We are assuming that when an individual downloads the Signal app, the scammer would then change the conversation into beginning an initiation fee in virtual currency under the guise of being a legal consultation. I urge readers to contact us first if they receive any unexplained communication from my firm. 

The individual who provided us with this information told us that several years ago he transferred funds through a fraudulent FX site several years ago, and after realizing this, he asked a lawyer in Japan to try to identify the recipient, but has not yet been able to do so. This person speculated that the scam group of this FX site had a list of victims, and that the list of victims may have been circulated. Then, under the false pretense of recovering the original damage caused by the scam FX site, they seem to have set up a lawyer named Taguchi from my firm.

I myself am upset that there are people who are willing to commit immoral and despicable acts to continue to scam the victims of fraud by talking about being a lawyer who is in the business of helping victims. You should be suspicious first if you receive any communication about profit, romance, or superficially profitable stories, and if you receive any offers to send more money or to buy virtual currency, you should notice that this is a red flag and immediately dismiss any future communication.

I would never want to anyone to become a victim of crime that uses my firm’s name, so if you receive any contact using Marshall Suzuki's name that you have no knowledge of, please be sure to contact me first for confirmation, whether by email or phone.We will always respond to you, as a matter of priority. 
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However, I would like to catch this scam group somehow and deliver some sort of punishment for their actions. It is unforgivable, talking about the name of a lawyer and committing fraud.That is why we have written this article with urgency this time, because we definitely do not want any victims.  We would like to thank those of you who have reported these incidents to us.