BEWARE: Troubling Scam Perpetrated on New Debtors

Attached here is a letter that was reported to Chapter 13 Trustee Doug Neway by debtor attorney, Rehan N. Khawaja. Khawaja received the letter from one of his clients who recently filed for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy in the Middle District of Florida. Khawaja stated that his client received the attached letter in the mail within days of filing bankruptcy and within the same time period his client was receiving copies of the Petition, etc. from his office. It appeared to the client to be a ‘normal’ piece of correspondence related to her bankruptcy. Thankfully, she did question it enough to send it to her attorney.

It appears to be a new scam using the public information available from the filed bankruptcy petition. It accuses the debtor of nondisclosure of assets and threatens being reported to the UST. As you can see, the author of the letter offers an out by making an amnesty fine payment to avoid criminal consequences.

If you represent debtors in bankruptcy filings, you should alert them to this scam and tell them to share it with you and do nothing regarding the demand. Scammers are always looking for new ways to compromise vulnerable people and educating your clients is the best way to combat this. If you receive anything that seeks to scam a bankruptcy client, please forward to your Chapter 13 Trustee, the UST and/or the appropriate law enforcement agencies to investigate.

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