We’ve all learned to be on our guard against email scams, but unfortunately, as we grow more wary, scammers grow more sophisticated. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently called for “extreme caution” and highlighted a few ways scammers are targeting trademark owners in new and “improved” ways. We encourage our readers to be vigilant against these tactics.
As we know, scammers have become skilled at mimicking trademark attorneys or trusted authorities such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), WIPO, and European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Emails may use legitimate-seeming addresses and official-sounding departments or legal jargon. In fact, fraudsters may register lookalike domains combining office acronyms with terms like office, official, notice, help, filing, support or payment. These domains are used in email addresses and landing pages to reinforce the seeming credibility of fraudulent communications. Then, perpetrators posing as national IP offices, trademark examiners or attorneys in private practice send personalized emails or text messages that may include details like application serial numbers, registration numbers or other information about your trademark to make the email look official. They may request personal information or the payment of “official” fees. As is typical, these messages often attempt to create urgency by warning that nonpayment may jeopardize the recipient’s rights—for example, by claiming that a competitor intends to file a trademark and time is of the essence in securing protection.
Even more concerning, scams seem to be on the rise and are evolving from low-value fake invoices to significantly higher value hoaxes. As people have grown more vigilant, scammers have discovered that one way to pull off a big-ticket scam is to build trust first and scam later. They do this by demonstrating legitimacy before attempting a higher value scam. For example, they may provide a small legitimate service and then, after building rapport, begin a higher-value fraudulent scheme. One case involved a scammer who completed a genuine trademark registration for an individual and only later impersonated a representative of WIPO to solicit a five-digit payment for an international upgrade. This was not an isolated incident and is becoming more frequent. It marks a shift from one-off small fake invoices or phony trademark applications to longer, more calculated schemes aiming for greater trust and larger payouts.
Additionally, these schemes are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. While obviously fabricated email addresses and a slew of typos used to raise immediate red flags when an email was fraudulent, generative AI now enables production of convincing fraudulent documents across languages, making detection much harder. This expands opportunities for sophisticated email fraud targeting intellectual property users and requires more scrutiny and vigilance.
While organizations like the USPTO, WIPO and EUIPO do a lot of work to raise awareness and to find and eradicate entities misusing their names in fraudulent domains, some authorities describe domain takedowns as a “whack-a-mole” challenge despite general registrar cooperation. Therefore, it’s important that each IP user keep in mind a few rules of thumb in ascertaining the legitimacy of an email proposal: 1) Scrutinize domains, reply-to addresses and URLs for subtle misspellings or lookalikes; 2) Be immediately wary of unexpected deadlines, fee requests, requests to re-route payments or changes in wiring instructions; 3) Don’t rely on logos, signatures or even forwarded chains as proof of legitimacy; 4) Confirm legitimacy through a second channel such as by using known firm or agency contact information; 5) Consider implementing internal controls such as requiring dual authorization for payments or requiring verification of any new vendor or instruction change; 6) When in doubt, consult a professional. Parsons Behle & Latimer’s trademark team is well versed in identifying the latest scams and can quickly advise on such matters.
In sum, scams targeting trademark owners are becoming more sophisticated and more damaging. A cautious verification process may add a few minutes to an ordinary transaction, but it can prevent substantial losses, protect valuable IP rights and help ensure that legitimate payments are made only to legitimate recipients.
