The scam below is nothing new as anyone who has ever registered a Trade Mark will know. As the trademark registry is open to the public, fraudsters use this directory to make contact with trademark owners under the guise they are from some form of regulatory body.
There is merit in registering a domain name which has your trademark in, but this can be done online for several pounds (if it is available).
The moral is, never agree to anything over the phone and never enter into any contract without first obtaining a legal opinion.
One saving grace is, in my experience, the people that run these scams never have the cheek to actually issue proceedings in court if you refuse to pay.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has issued a warning over the latest domain name scam.
The fraudsters contact businesses by phone claiming to be from an organisation called the 'Trade Marks Intellectual Property Office'. They then try to panic people into buying domain names. Some businesses have then received an invoice for the purchase of the domain registration.
The IPO is asking businesses that receive similar calls or invoices to report this to Action Fraud, an online portal operated by the City of London Police for reporting all instances of alleged fraud affecting UK citizens and businesses.
