ASIABIZBLOG

Bob Compton, producer of Win in China, talks about his film and the business plan competition it documents.

See below for a video clip from the film: Win in China (www.wininchinamovie.com)

$400,000 lost to overseas scammers in what should by now be a well-known modus operandi to American attorneys.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings has reportedly fallen victim to a sophisticated debt collection scam, to the tune of more than $400,000.

The Nashville Post...reports that the law firm wired more than $400,000 to the foreign bank account of a scammer posing as a client. Lawyers at the firm believed the funds were covered by a check it had deposited—a check that turned out to be phony.

Read the article to learn more about the precise method by which the scam operated. No email communication was mentioned, but entirely consistent with similar scams we have described many times on this weblog.

Just the other day I received another invitation to dance:

Jinan Haohua Industry, Co. Ltd
153 Wardour Street. London.
W1F 8WN.
(+) +44 704 574 7799

Attention: Counsel,

We the management of Jinan Haohua Industry, Co. Ltd, require your legal representation for our North American Customers. Jinan Haohua Industry, Co. Ltd, a manufacturer and supplier of chemical, we are been owed payment on a shipment that we made to a customer in America in June 2008 and now seeking advice and possible representation in litigation against the non-paying company.

We are of the opinion that the ability to consolidate payments from North America will eradicate delays due to inter-continental monetary transaction between the UK and North America. We understand that a proper Attorney Client Retainer will provide the necessary authorization and we are most inclined to commence talks as soon as possible.

Your consideration of our request is highly anticipated and we look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely,

Chang Ming Cheng,Managing Director.

Let's briefly review what's suspicious about this e-mail:

1) It arrived from a generic e-mail provider, not a company address: Chang Ming Cheng [chang_mngcheng@yahoo.co.uk].

2) My name, law firm and address are nowhere to be found. Clearly, an email blast. Scammers are lazy, looking for easy pickings. They will not spend the time and money focusing on a handful of suckers when 100,000 are out there.

3) E-mail properties display this information:

Received: from coal.daxa.net ([202.145.6.71]:52698) by jeep.websitewelcome.com with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256)

According to this page, that server (202.145.6.71) is in Jakarta, which received the email most likely from a server in Hong Kong or Singapore.

4) 153 Wardour Street in London does not exist! 151 is an office building and 155 is a storefront. A falafel restaurant!

I did all of this research in less than five minutes. I would have been happy to take 1/100 of Bradley Arants's alleged loss as payment for services rendered to them in doing due diligence on that purported client and not see them in the situation they're in now. In fact, attorneys must be able to perform this simple research either by themselves or through people who can, especially when the Internet is involved.

Forewarned and forearmed!

http://twitter.com/Asiabizblog

Asiabizblog is becoming something of a repository for attorney scam e-mails. Many Google searchers have come to Asiabizblog through keywords associated with scam e-mails they have received. Good for you!

I receive at least one a week. Here is the latest -- and the first one to come from a Gmail address, which cannot be tracked any further than the Gmail origin itself. However, my spam filter immediately placed in the junk folder. If your mail application does not have a spam filter, you need one.

Dear Counsel,

I am sending this email as a mutual introduction. Mr Patrick Wong is the Managing Director of Toho Technology Co. Toho Technology Co. is a manufacturer and supplier of coils and transformers. Toho Technology is owed payment on shipments that they made to customers here in the US from Febuary 2007. The company is now seeking advice and possible representation in litigation against the non-paying companies in your state.

I can not handle this matter at this point because it is out of our jurisdiction.I have represented this company in the past, therefore I am assisting them in finding an attorney in the required state. Kindly contact Mr. Patrick Wong if you are interested in representing him. Below is his contact information as follows:

Patrick Wong

Toho Technology (H.K) Co. Ltd

pwong273@gmail.com

Should you have any questions please contact me through my email (NicholasWrightLaw@gmail.com). I encourage you to contact one another to see if this is a situation where you can work together.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Wright, Esq.

NicholasWrightLaw@gmail.com.

This e-mail is as transparent as they come.

1. It is not addressed to me personally.
2. The e-mail apparently originated at a Gmail return address, where company address should be expected.
3. Who the heck is Nicholas Wright, other than an alter ego for the sender? If he is an attorney, what is his contact information? Where is he admitted?

in fact, NicholasWrightLaw@gmail.com is listed as a 419 scam.

Now here is a new idea, or at least something I've not heard of before. A legal trade mission to China, organized by Brian Su, who is not himself an attorney, as far as I know. Brian tells me that a good number of law firms and companies in China have committed to meetings with any attorney who might wish to drum up business in China. There is a fee. (Please note that I post this not because I am paid for it -- and I'm not -- but simply to alert people who may wish to look into it.)

It appears that cross-border trade between Hong Kong and mainland China may be settled in yuan as early as next month. [Thanks to Frank Caruso at the Chinatex blog.]

Note the limitations:

The State Council said early in April that it would allow traders in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Dongguan to settle their cross-border business in yuan.

In December, the council said Hong Kong and Macau would be permitted to use yuan for the settlement of trade with designated partners in Guangdong and the Yangtze River Delta under a pilot scheme. Mr Zhou said how many mainland enterprises participated in the scheme would depend on the governments of the two delta regions but “there will be at least a few hundred”.

Mr Yam said all Hong Kong exporters and importers could settle trade with their designated mainland counterparts, but the scheme could only be implemented after the PBOC issued administrative guidelines.

One has been reading pronouncements about convertibility since the early 1980s. This writer is still unsure that full convertibility will ever take place, if only because -- without consideration of economic or financial reasons -- convertibility takes substantial control out of the hands of those who have enjoyed it for so many years. This project, at least described by the article, appears to be a beta test.

Given our prior posting on dangerous imports and reader reaction, this may be of interest to readers.

The Hanoi Market Control Sub-agency has affirmed that China-made clothes contain formaldehyde, a substance which is harmful to human skin, with the content ratio of less than 2 percent. No official conclusion has been released because no regulation covers this issue.

[Thanks to Trade Lawyer twitter for the onpass.]

Sony seems to have shipped PCs with new filtering software, with interesting instructions to consumers.