Over the past several months, a sophisticated e-mail scam has been targeting trademark holders in Canada. CPATA has received and responded to over 200 expressions of concerns from our agents and members of the public. We took a robust approach to dealing with this fraud, including responding to all inquiries swiftly, reporting the matter to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and local police, and working with authorities to seek to shut down fraudulent websites. Agents and members of the public have also reported the scams to local authorities and notified financial applications such as PayPal.
Despite concerted efforts throughout the IP sector in Canada to protect the public, the scams have expanded across the globe and now include patent as well as trademark matters. They have become even more sophisticated in the depth of information included in the phishing emails lending an increased apparent credibility to their scams.
CPATA urges IP rights holders to exercise extreme caution if they receive unsolicited e-mails from an unknown source. We invite our licensees to share this article with their clients to increase awareness of the present dangers.
What to Do if You Receive a Suspicious E-mail
- Don’t panic and don’t rush to take action, especially if that involves sending money or personal information to an unknown source.
- Verify if the name used appears as a registered agent in CPATA’s Public Register. In case the sender is impersonating a licensee, verify that their place of employment in the Public Register matches what appears in the e-mail.
- Check if the individual’s name, business or phone number appear on CPATA’s list of names associated with this scam. If the name is not on the list, but you have concerns, reach out to CPATA.
- Compare the e-mail you received to the sample scam e-mails published by CPATA.
- Check CPATA’s Fraud webpage to review recent notices and warnings.
- Look up online the information provided in the email and see if others have experienced problems.
- Review this information from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office about scam notices.
- Reach out to your agent with questions or concerns about communications you receive instead of responding directly to them.
- If you conclude that you are dealing with a fraud attempt, consider reporting it to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
Contact CPATA
CPATA’s mandate is to protect the public, and we take concerns about unauthorized practice and fraudulent activity seriously. Anyone who believes that someone is misrepresenting themselves as an agent or is acting in fraudulent ways may notify CPATA by filling in the form below.
