A scam Web site that mimics a law firm’s Hong Kong homepage is still active on the Internet, although the incident was reported to police in both the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and China.
According to William Barber, a Hong Kong-based partner of Richards Butler, the incident is believed to be a scam targeted at Chinese residents in the U.K. Richards Butler is a U.K-based law firm that merged with U.S. counterpart Reed Smith last year.
“All calls we received were from the U.K.,” said Barber. “These individuals mentioned they got calls from a travel agency named Journey HK, which claimed they won money in a lucky draw.”
He added that these individuals were told that a Hong Kong-based law firm named Heng Chang serves as the third party to manage the prize collection procedures. At least 20 individuals from the U.K. called the Richards Butler Hong Kong office and inquired about the incident, Barber noted, adding that these people found the Heng Chang site suspicious because it had the name of Richards Butler on it and imitates the Web site of the latter.
Barber said Richard Butler reported the Heng Chang scam site to the Hong Kong Police on May 14. However, the scam site remains on the Internet.
“The bogus site is hosted in China which has its own laws and regulations,” said Alex Wong, investigation B team sergeant, Technology Crime Division, Commercial Crime Bureau of The Hong Kong Police. “We have already reported this to the [Chinese] police which I believe will do their own investigation.”
Scam continues
According to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the scam is still on. Late last week, the source received phone calls from the same travel agency that claimed the source has won a lucky draw prize of up to 50,000 pounds (US$98,144). “I was requested to pay for a temporary membership of a Hong Kong-based investment company to collect the prize,” said the source. “And I was told the investment company was represented by a Hong Kong-based law firm dubbed Heng Chang International Law Firm.
“With no formal documentation or other information besides the phone calls, I decided to contact Heng Chang to investigate what’s going on,” the source said.
“A representative of the law firm finally responded after several calls and explained they needed bank details, ID details, and a deposit to be made before the prize can be collected.”
Further investigation of the site uncovered names of partners, services and a mention of other offices in the region and in the U.K., according to the source. But then the source noticed the name at the top of the Web site is Richards Butler International Law Firm. Assuming this to be the parent firm, the source searched for the parent site, and was surprised to find the site almost identical in appearance and for the most part in content.
The source also found some glaring discrepancies between the two Web sites after deeper examination. While the Richards Butler site was complete with full contact information, office locations, full biographies, and contact details for partners, the Heng Chang site lacked those details, the source said.
“I noticed the Heng Chang site changes regularly,” said Barber. “Initially it was a complete imitation of our old Web site. Then they changed photos and contact information.”
He said Richards Butler’s old Web site was still on the Internet because of IT issues related to the transition from the old site to a new one. “Most (content) of our old site was taken down. We will soon take it down completely.” Barber added that the law firm also reported the case to the law society in Hong Kong.
