Spotlight::IP

Protect Your Brand

Scammers are aware of the importance of branding to the success of businesses.  Knowing that businesses will invest in protecting their trade name, trademarks, and domain names, scammers use bogus claims of protection or maintenance to target businesses.  There are a number of regularly used scams that business owners should be aware of.

Trademark Protection Scam

With this scam, a targeted business receives a polite, unsolicited email from an official-sounding domain name registrar, such as, “Internet Registry of Canada”, “Domain Registry of Europe”, and “Asian Domain Registration Service”.  The scammer advises the business that it has been requested by another entity to register a domain name similar to the targeted business’s trade name, trademark, or domain name. The scammer asks whether the targeted business authorized the registration or has any relationship to the requesting entity, and encourages the targeted business to respond if it is concerned with the proposed domain name registration or the possible unauthorized exploitation of its trademark.  If the targeted business responds, it is urged to purchase several domain names pre-emptively to prevent registration by another entity.  

Domain Name Expiration Scam

In this case, the targeted business receives an invoice or expiration notice advising that the targeted business’s domain name registration is about to expire unless it is renewed.  The targeted business often pays to renew the registration without noticing that in doing so it is also agreeing to transfer the registration of the domain name from its legitimate domain registrar to the scammer.  In a worst-case scenario, a business could lose control of its domain name.

A variation on this scam involves sending the targeted business an invoice for renewal in which the domain name listed is very similar to the targeted business’s domain name but is incorrect by one letter or has a different top-level domain name.  A busy administrator may just pay the bill.

Trademark Registration Scam

With this scam, after having applied to register a trademark, the targeted business receives a notice regarding fees for the registration of the trademark in an international directory.  Many targeted businesses simply assume that the fee is part of the application process and pay it.  A variation of this scam involves fees for a trademark monitoring and notification service sent to owners of registered trademarks.  The scammers use a variety of official-sounding registry names, such as, “European Register of Brands and Patents”, “World Patent and Trademark Index”, and “Register of International Patents and Trademarks”.  

Protect Yourself

Fortunately, you can protect your business from such scams by checking the details of any unexpected notices or invoices carefully.  Check the name of the sender.  A scammer may be using a fake website with a similar name as your domain registrar.  Check the trademark or domain name the notice or invoice refers to.  Is it spelled correctly?  Is the correct top-level domain name used?  Read the fine print!  Ensure you understand the terms and conditions and what you are paying for.  Advise your accounting department to be on the lookout for these scams and limit the number of persons at your business authorized to pay invoices.

Scams work by sending to thousands to dupe the few.  Fortunately, they are generally well documented on the Internet.  A name search of the sender will often confirm a suspected scam.