FRAUDSTERS FAKE BEING LAWYERS TO ACCUSE OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT, WARNS THE CZECH BAR ASSOCIATION

Today, the Czech Bar Association (CBA) has issued another warning against people who pose as lawyers or act on behalf of law firms. The new trend is for scammers to accuse email recipients of intellectual property or copyright infringement. They pretend to be Czech Television, Warner Music Group or Sony Music Entertainment lawyers.

While the CBA recorded six reports from attorneys regarding the misuse of their identities two years ago, last year there were 37 such reports and seven more were filed in the past week alone. Currently, CBA warns, for example, against the misuse of data of law firms such as PRK Partners, KVB or Kocián Šolc Balaštík. “The sender, acting on behalf of KŠB or one of its attorneys, pretends to be a legal representative of a prominent film studio or entertainment company, warning the recipient of an alleged copyright infringement on their Facebook page,” described Radka Felgrová, an attorney from the latter law firm.

According to the CBA, the scammers are trying to “defraud people or scare them”. The CBA has recommended that recipients delete such emails immediately and not open attachments, as attorneys do not communicate in this way. The sender’s e-mail address, particularly the part following the at sign, can be a warning signal - law firms have their own addresses and do not send emails via seznam.cz or gmail.com.

In case of any doubts, the public can check the name of the lawyer or law firm via the search engine on the CBA website, find the relevant contact there, contact the lawyer personally and make sure that the e-mail was not fraudulent. The CBA also publishes notifications from lawyers whose data has been misused by fraudsters in the website’s News section.

Source: ceska-justice.cz