February 6, 2017

The domain name fraud involves businesses being contacted by phone from an organisation claiming to be the “Trade Marks Intellectual Property Office”. Their aim is to panic people into buying domain names.

This is a scam.

Some businesses have received follow up invoices such as this copy Domain name scam invoice.

The IPO advises businesses that receive similar calls or invoices to report them to Action Fraud.

Action Fraud is the online reporting portal for all instances of alleged fraud affecting UK citizens and businesses and it is operated by the City of London Police who are the UK lead Force for the investigation of fraud. Attempts to mislead people into buying domain names falls under domain name fraud. Reports are collated and analysed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and depending on a scoring matrix together with an assessment of available evidence, they can be sent to an individual police force for investigation.

The NFIB also sends out industry alerts when new methods or techniques to defraud companies are identified. To read the IPO’s press release, click here.