A number of payment scams have been propogated recently which
focus on lawyers. The scammer generally asks the lawyer to assist
in making a payment to some foreign jurisdiction based upon a set
of circumstances that are designed to sound credible. One of these
schemes came to light in the recent case of Meridian Credit
Union Limited vs (The Estate of) Geoffrey Grenville-Wood.
Mr. Grenville-Wood was a prominent Ottawa area lawyer and was
approached by a purported Taiwanese businessman to assist that
businessman in issuing a cheque to a Japanese company. Mr.
Grenville-Woods was sent a cheque made out to him drawn on an
Ontario company (Polstar Construction Ltd.) which he deposited at
his credit union, reserving his five per cent commission in his
personal account and issuing a cheque in the remaining amount to
the Japanese company.
