Scammers impersonate legitimate trade mark agents in sophisticated fraud campaign
A sophisticated scam targeting Irish businesses and brand owners has culled real details of legitimate trade mark agents from a public register in a bid to make their pitch more convincing, the Irish Independent has learnt.
A number of business are understood to have been contacted by email in recent weeks with “urgent” messages claiming to be from legitimate trade mark agents and attorneys – whose names appear on a public register maintained by Intellectual Property Office of Ireland (IPOI), the state agency responsible for the administration of intellectual property (IP) rights.
The unsolicited messages claim a business name, brand or logo is at risk of being lost to a competitor because of an attempt to register it with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
The scammers appear to have homed in on owners of business names correctly registered with Ireland’s Companies Registration Office (CRO) and are attempting to cast doubt on the strength of their legal rights to those brands at an EU level, in an effort to extract fees for bogus legal work.
“Using your business name and logo for years, or being registered with the CRO/IPOI, only protects you in Ireland. However, EUIPO is a higher authority, once this applicant will register your business name and logo with the EUIPO, they will gain exclusive rights across all of Europe, including Ireland, and no longer need protection from the IPOI,” one example of a scam email seen by the Irish Independent claimed.
It said only acting swiftly will prevent the potential loss of IP and the need for retrospective legal action that “can cost €20,000-€30,000 with no guarantee of success”.
This bogus claim is signed in the name a legitimate Irish solicitor whose name appears on the official Register of Trade Mark Agents. The Irish Independent has confirmed with the solicitor that they had no involvement with the email and they have reported the impersonation to both gardaí and the IPOI.
An Irish business named in the email, which is not a law firm, is also believed to be unaware of the correspondence issued in its name.
A number of variations of the same basic claim have been seen by the Irish Independent, each purporting to be from a named trade mark agent and each sent from a different entity.
The Law Society, the representative and regulatory body for Irish solicitors, confirmed it is aware of the scam emails, and published an advisory notice on its website in late July.
However, the scam campaign appears to have intensified in recent weeks.
The Law Society said it has also brought this matter to the attention of the Legal Service Regulation Authority.
The IPOI has also published a note on its website. “The agents mentioned in the emails are not affiliated with the company details contained in these emails and they would appear to be fraudulent,” the notice said. It warns potential victims not to respond directly to the approaches and says emails related to European trade mark applications should be reported to the EUIPO.
Fraudulent emails should also be referred to a local garda station, it said.
Read the full story: https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/scammers-impersonate-legitimate-trade-mark-agents-in-sophisticated-fraud-campaign/a1594722870.html
Credit to : Irish Independent