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<p>What baffles me about this particular scam is that it differs in
kind from the usual patent or trademark scam where the target is
asked to drop a check into the mail.</p>
<p>For this scam to make money for the scammer, the only choice is
for the scammer to ask for and receive a credit card number. And
then the scammer must actually process a transaction with a credit
card processing service provider.</p>
<p>For the patent and trademark scams where the target is asked to
drop a check in the mail, it is pretty easy for the scammer to do
the duck and run. You open a bank account someplace, deposit a
few hundred checks, transfer the money someplace else, and then
shut down the bank account after a month or two and high-tail it
to some other state. When we see these scams popping up again and
again like a whack-a-mole, it becomes pretty clear that setting up
a new bank account in a new state is not too difficult. And the
entire scam is conducted by means of paper correspondence, meaning
that so long as the physical documents are worded very carefully,
it is probably fairly challenging to prove that an actual crime
happened. (The scammer does publish the patent or trademark in
some meaningless register, just as the scammer promised to do.)
Probably nobody trying to prosecute would ever get their hands on
any human being to try to get them to turn states' evidence
against some other human being. Layered on top of this is that
the victims know perfectly well that there is quite literally
nothing they can do to get their money back. It is gone, gone,
gone. <br>
</p>
<p>But the credit card scam is conducted with live human beings.
Many of us have gone through the process of getting set up to be
able to get paid with a credit card. That process involves some
amount of vetting. Not only that, the victim that manages to
catch on that it was a scam can file a dispute with the victim's
credit card company, and this could be done a week later or a
month later. And there's a chance the victim would actually
manage to get the money back. One of the points here being that
the credit card processing service provider that got suckered into
agreeing to process charges for the scammer might very well get
wise to the scammer being a scammer within mere days of the start
of the relationship.</p>
<p>Cycle time for "high-tail it to another state" for the
check-based scam is very likely on the order of months, as may be
seen from the fact that the scam letters often use the same post
office box address for several months in a row.</p>
<p>Cycle time for "high-tail it to another state" for the
credit-card-based scam is very likely on the order of only a week
or two, surely never better than a month. <br>
</p>
<p>The number of banks that the scammer might move to next is in the
tens of thousands.</p>
<p>But in the world of credit card processing, there are actually
only a few dozen distinct wholesale credit card processing service
providers. They are visible to the public through retail
presences that number in the thousands, but the number of
underlying service providers is quite small. When you go to your
locally owned bank or credit union to see about processing credit
cards for your business, it turns out they outsource everything
about the actual credit card processing to Alliance Data or any of
a few other companies.</p>
<p>So the scammer using credit cards might only be able to do a few
"whack-a-mole" high-tails before the scammer had used up every
possible credit card processor.<br>
</p>
<p>I cringe to think how the high-tails actually get accomplished in
real life. What must surely happen is that the scammer is
constantly recruiting shills to do the actual opening of the bank
account or the opening of the credit card processing account. The
shill is somebody who has little or no money, and the thing the
shill brings to the table is that they have a Social Security
Number and (until now) an untarnished reputation. The scammer
pays the shill a thousand bucks (with promises of future riches
that never actually arrive) to set up an LLC and to open the bank
account or credit card account. When the high-tail out of town
happens, the shill is left holding the bag, so to speak.<br>
</p>
<p></p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/11/2023 4:41 PM, Jessica R.
Friedman via E-trademarks wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:BL3P223MB0273F10B7951BED23D31A472A58FA@BL3P223MB0273.NAMP223.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM">
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<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#1F3864">That
does sound more urgent because a nervous client may not want
to take the time to notify their lawyer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#1F3864"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#003366">Jessica
R. Friedman</span><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#003366">Attorney
at Law<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#003366">300
East 59 Street, Ste. 2406<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#003366">New
York, NY 10022</span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#003366">Phone:
212-220-0900</span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#003366">Cell:
917-647-1884</span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#003366">E-mail:</span><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:blue"> <u><a
href="mailto:jrfriedman@litproplaw.com"
title="mailto:jrfriedman@litproplaw.com"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">jrfriedman@litproplaw.com</a></u></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#003366">URL: </span><u><span
style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:blue"><a
href="http://www.literarypropertylaw.com"
title="http://www.literarypropertylaw.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">www.literarypropertylaw.com</a></span></u><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#003366"> </span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:blue"><img
style="width:1.9166in;height:.75in"
id="Picture_x0020_1"
src="cid:part1.aA6YMOax.fRaOASgA@oppedahl.com"
alt="1479430908386_PastedImage" class="" width="184"
height="72" border="0"></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#1F3864"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#1F3864"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div id="mail-editor-reference-message-container">
<div>
<div
style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">From:
</span></b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">E-trademarks
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:e-trademarks-bounces@oppedahl-lists.com"><e-trademarks-bounces@oppedahl-lists.com></a> on
behalf of dbmelnick--- via E-trademarks
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com"><e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com></a><br>
<b>Date: </b>Monday, December 11, 2023 at 6:40 PM<br>
<b>To: </b>'for trademark practitioners'
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com"><e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com></a><br>
<b>Cc: </b><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dbmelnick@gmail.com">dbmelnick@gmail.com</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:dbmelnick@gmail.com"><dbmelnick@gmail.com></a><br>
<b>Subject: </b>[E-trademarks] Spam caller<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">A
client just advised me that she received a call from
someone claiming to be the USPTO, asking her to pay a
fee online to complete the registration. He was
calling from a spoofed version of
<b>571-272-6500</b>, which is a USPTO phone number<b>.</b></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></b><span
style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Calling
the USPTO about this seems futile, but I do think that
this is beyond what we have seen before and I am
considering further action.</span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Diane
</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Diane
Melnick Esq.</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Practus
LLP</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
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<br>
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