Flattery Will Get You . . .

Who doesn't like a compliment?

I know I love them. Yeah, tell me I look handsome and . . . you pretty much own me. OK, maybe I'm not that shallow, but I do enjoy praise. In fact if you heap it on nice and thick, you won't hear me protest!

Many otherwise strong people have been brought down by their own vanity. After all, it is one of the seven deadly sins. And, apparently, one that I particularly am prone to indulge in.

So this week, a little bit of online flattery almost cost me money, my professional reputation, and good old, general humiliation. What happened you ask?

Two weeks ago, out of the blue, I received an email in my professional email account from someone purporting to be an attorney based in Brussels. The attorney said he had a client in Japan who he had represented, but now had a legal issue in my jurisdiction (the email never said "Michigan" however, which should have aroused my suspicion). The email went on and gave the contact information for his Japanese client.

My first reaction was pride. Wow, a European lawyer found my little website and decided, based on reading my glowing descriptions of my professional abilities, that I could represent his client. Figuring there was no harm in sending an email, I sent an email to the supposed client briefly introducing myself.

Four days later, I was surprised and delighted that I received back an email FROM JAPAN!!! And, yes, the president of a Japanese Steel Company was asking me to make a proposal to represent his company in a dispute with a Michigan company. I was thrilled.

To make a good proposal, I immediately did some online research. The Japanese company was a legitimate enterprise--in business since 1934. My purported potential client was in fact the president of the company. The Michigan corporation really is in business and could in fact have been in a dispute with a Japanese steel company.

I sent by email a brief proposal to Mr. Nishimoto and included a representation contract. I even asked for a significant retainer because this could be a big job, and I needed pre-paid funds to get started.

Two days later, to my delight, I received an email from Mr. Nishimoto. He claimed he had received approval from his Board of Directors to accept me as their Michigan legal counsel. He sent back a signed contract. He also sent me the purchase order that was the center of the dispute. This seemingly legitimate purchase order was signed AND SEALED by the president of the Michigan company. Everything appeared in order.

Mr. Nishimoto said he still wanted to keep the Michigan company as a customer. He said he told his customer that they had retained a Michigan lawyer in case they could not resolve their dispute and that I would spring into action "as a last resort". My instructions were to send wiring information so that he could send me my retainer, and then sit tight.

Wow, how easy! I would get paid, and, possibly not perform any services. At this point, however, nagging questions started popping up in my brain. Certain aspects of this chain of events seemed almost too good to be true. And, if something is too good to be true, in many cases, it isn't true.

But, I pushed forward with optimism, seeing this engagement as a chance to get some good publicity for my law firm. I even asked my daughter to start working on a press release to announce our new client. Both my daughter and I put on our Facebook pages, glowing announcements of our good fortune. However, I didn't send the bank routing information, not yet.

Ultimately, as we were compiling information for the press release, Lonelli Googled the name of the company and its president, and a listing appeared about scamming lawyers. Thank God for search engines!

As we read the posting, we saw that other lawyers in the United States had received nearly identical communications from persons needing legal representation. The set ups included the same companies, European lawyer, and legal dispute. One lawyer commenting on the scam said it originated in China, and he pointed out some of the "red flags" he noticed: poorly written correspondence; "too familiar" messages from persons who supposedly were C-level business execs; too quick turn around times for decisions.

Yeah, I had noticed those things too, but I didn't want to heed the signs, not at first. Yes I thought the writing style of the emails was a little strange, but the messages were written by persons for whom English is a second (or third) language. Why should I be put off by a little funky grammar!

And getting emails directly from the president of a multi-billion dollar steel company, that was unusual, wasn't it? Why wasn't he working through his own legal staff? When I get hired by big companies, its always by their legal counsel, not by their president. Ah, but here's where I was seduced by my own vanity. Why wouldn't the president of the company be impressed by my website and abilities? He clearly thought this matter was so important it required his personal attention.

Thank God I'm paranoid about sharing bank data through emails. I was not going to send him the keys to my professional bank account until I was completely sure the engagement was for real. But I was close. I did call my bank and confirmed the routing number. Sending the information was on my "to do" list for the day. I very nearly got scammed.

Instead I sent my "client" a sharply worded email saying he could fool a lot of people, but he didn't fool me! Secretly I hoped he would write me back and apologize and compliment me on my expert sleuthing skills. Maybe I'd hear him say like one of the confounded criminals on Scooby Doo, "Yeah, I almost got away with it, but those smarty pants kids figured it out."

Even better, perhaps Mr. Nishimoto would write back with more proofs and say, those lawyers in Virginia who were scammed, that was a fraud, but I'm for real, and I can prove it. And, I'll MAIL a check to you immediately to prove I still want you!

But instead, my inbox is strangely silent, and the scammers troll the internet looking for other lawyers whose vanity may cloud their better judgements.

Know any Japanese steel companies that need a good lawyer? I've got some free time on my schedule this week.