[E-trademarks] scammers impersonating the PTO

[Carl Oppedahl]

Thank you for posting.

What's sad of course is that just about everybody who happens upon this 
web page will be a person who just got scammed and is now clicking 
around on the Internet to try to figure out who will help them get their 
money back.  And the web page will be no help whatsoever toward their wish.

The vanishingly rare sequence of events is:

  * would-be scam victim sees this web page,
  * would-be scam victim keeps the warning in mind thereafter,
  * scammer contacts would-be scam victim,  and
  * would-be scam victim avoids getting scammed.

I bet that this four-step sequence absolutely never actually happens in 
real life.

Here is what I wrote yesterday to a client:

    You can see the two TSDR links [that I provided for the two newly
    filed trademark applications].  I invite you to make a browser
    bookmark for each of those links.  A first reason that I am telling
    you about the TSDR links is that this will permit you to check the
    status of each trademark application at any hour of the day or night.

    But a second and more important reason that I am telling you about
    the TSDR links is that anybody sitting at home in their pajamas can
    click around and find these TSDR links.  This means that scammers
    will try to scam you, with communications that look a little bit
    like real USPTO communications.  They will look up your phone number
    on the web and call you up and try to scam you.  Please do not fall
    for the scams.

Again thank you for posting.

On 9/9/2025 8:59 AM, Michael Tobias via E-trademarks wrote:
> This consumer alert about scammers impersonating PTO employees was 
> issued by the Federal Trade Commission this morning.
>
> https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2025/09/scammers-are-impersonating-united-states-patent-and-trademark-office?utm_source=govdelivery
>
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