Bogus copyright infringement email

[astrocan]

Don't know if anyone else has had one of these already but I have just recieved a bogus demand for payment as I have apparently been infringeing copyright.

The gist of the message was that the sender had evidence that I had been downloading music from 'Emule' which was in breach of their copyright. They attached a list of files I had downloaded and suggested that prompt payment would be cheaper than waiting for them to take me to court.

I didn't open the file and imediately deleted the message as aspects of the message made me suspicious and a scan of their list got my anti-virus very excited.

Just thought that others should beware as it taps into stories about ISPs withdrawing service and copyright infringements being pursued through courts.

 

[Riverman]

definitely sounds like a scam to me. Bloody chancers!..

 

[Ian H]

Putting the frighteners on is a good way of conning money out of people. This particular scam often mentions porn downloads, then asks for a relatively modest sum on the grounds that many people will be too embarrassed to query it and will just cough up. I know this because it was on the radio not long ago.

 

[Globalti]

See my post about parking fine extortionists.

 

[dellzeqq]

bogus e-mails aside, do please check before downloading pictures for your parish newsletter - or, indeed, CycleChat. Getty will send you a bill for £600 if they find that you've used one of their pictures.

 

[ufkacbln]

There was a similar scam a few years ago with porn films. The idea was that people would not fight it as it would be embarrassing - even for those who had never downloaded!

 

[ColinJ]

A few years back I owned about 100 domain names (abc.com, def.net, xyz.co.uk - that kind of thing) and started getting very official-looking letters for each one telling me that their registrations urgently needed to be renewed or I would lose them. I was supposed to sign the attached forms and pay about £20 per domain. The company sending the letters was not the one I used to buy them and the going rate at the time was about £7 a time so if I had just paid up as demanded, it would have cost me an extra £1,300!