[E-trademarks] Successful(?) victory over a trademark scammer!

[voyer@keganlaw.com]

I noticed their business card uses the non-USA phrase “Trade Mark Lawyer.”

Daniel Kegan
Counsel to Counsel™
We identify, develop, and protect intangible business assets and
counsel other professionals on legal issues.
Balanced Counsel for Smart Clients®
Kennett Square PA 19348 USA
<dkegan at BhhLawFirm.com>

> On Jul 21, 2025, at 9:52 PM, Stephen McArthur via E-trademarks <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:
> 
> About a week ago, I started getting numerous work phone calls and work emails from people I’d never met either referencing previous communications that never happened, or warning me that a scammer was pretending to be me and soliciting them to send money for supposed trademark work. This scammer was targeting owners of trademarks on the USPTO trademark registry that weren’t represented by an attorney, and sending them very scary sounding emails about how they would lose all of their trademark rights unless they sent him several hundred dollars to file something with the USPTO on their behalf to assert their rights. He would send increasingly urgent and scary looking follow up emails until they would respond.
> 
> This scammer identified himself as “Stephen McArthur, trademark lawyer” and had at least 3 different legitimate looking websites set up that seemed to be IP law firms. He had a local LA phone number.  I’ve attached one of the business cards he used as his email signature so you can see for yourself.
> 
> <image003.png>
> 
> 
> I called the number and someone with a South Asian accent picked up the phone and identified himself as trademark lawyer Stephen McArthur. I told him that I was the real Stephen McArthur and asked him to stop using my name to scam people. He laughed at me and told me to kill myself. The next morning, I got another email from someone referencing a phone call that had just occurred with fake Stephen McArthur asking them to send money for trademark work. This means that even after my phone call with the scammer the day before, he was still using my name to scam people.
> 
> I wasn’t really sure what to do. I brainstormed a few ideas, but it’s not actually easy to get some anonymous person from the internet to stop scamming people. After much brainstorming with my colleague, Tom, with mostly defaulting to filing a lawsuit and subpoenaing the website hosts and phone companies for the owner’s personal information, which would take MANY many months, effort, and money, we came up with a different solution that was effective.
> 
> It was very simple and low effort. So, if anyone else finds themselves in a similar situation, here’s what I did:
> 
> (1)    I found the hosts for the scammer’s websites and filled out forms they had to report fraud at a domain they hosted. Each of them emailed me back asking for more information, and I wrote up a few paragraphs explaining it and attaching 4-5 emails from people alerting me to the scammer and forwarding me emails from him. The website hosts then shut down his website. This won’t stop him from finding a shadier website host… but it does slow him down. His websites still aren’t back up several days later. And maybe he’ll choose a different lawyer next time?
> 
> (2)    I looked up his phone number and found it is from T-Mobile. I called their customer support fraud department and spent about an hour on the line with them before concluding that there was absolutely nothing they could do. They told me I’d need to talk directly to their lawyers, but they wouldn’t give me any contact info whatsoever or transfer me. So, customer support was a dead end. 
> 
> I ended up going to T-Mobile’s terms of service and finding their DMCA email address that goes straight to their copyright attorney. I emailed them and said I had an IP issue I needed to discuss, and asked for their phone number. A real copyright lawyer responded and said I’d need to fill out the DMCA form properly to get a response. I replied with my screed about the fraud, attaching all evidence. They responded 2 days later saying they had worked with their fraud team to successfully shut down the number.
> 
> So now his websites and phone number are shut down, yay! Hopefully, if he puts them back up, he’ll choose someone else to impersonate.
> 
>  
> The McArthur Law Firm
> Stephen Charles McArthur
> 8383 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 800
> Beverly Hills, CA 90211
> (424) 258-6815
> www.smcarthurlaw.com <http://www.smcarthurlaw.com/>
> 
> This email, including any attachments, may contain material that is confidential, privileged and/or attorney work product for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, reliance or distribution by others without express permission is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not the intended recipient or if you received this message in error, please notify us and delete all copies. Sender reserves and asserts all rights to confidentiality, including all privileges and IP that may apply. Thank you.
> <image003.png>-- 
> E-trademarks mailing list
> E-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com
> http://oppedahl-lists.com/mailman/listinfo/e-trademarks_oppedahl-lists.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://oppedahl-lists.com/pipermail/e-trademarks_oppedahl-lists.com/attachments/20250722/84dba732/attachment.html>