We have been alerted to a new scam going on that involves business websites. This phishing scam looks as if it were sent from a professional photographer that is incensed about a photograph on your website. The full text is shown below:
“Hi there!
This is Melonie and I am a certified photographer and illustrator.
I was baffled, to put it nicely, when I came across my images at your web-site. If you use a copyrighted image without an owner’s license, you should be aware that you could be sued by the copyright owner.
It’s against the law to use stolen images and it’s so wicked!
Here is this document with the links to my images you used at rentlubbocknow.com and my earlier publications to obtain the evidence of my copyrights.
Download it now and check this out for yourself:
Website removed for safety.
If you don’t remove the images mentioned in the document above during the next couple of days, I’ll file a complaint against you to your hosting provider letting them know that my copyrights have been severely infringed and I am trying to protect my intellectual property.
And if it doesn’t help, you may be pretty damn sure I am going to take it to court! And I won’t give you a prior notice again”
It is important to remember that anytime someone sends a link to any other site in your website forms it is normally just spam. In this case it goes to someone attempting to steal your information. The first step you should always take is to contact your web designer so they can address it.
In this case one of JLM Communications client contacted us and we were able to address it without any damage to the client. We were able to inform them that all stock images are purchased by us and we hold rights to the image so there was nothing to be concerned with.
If you do not have a web designer or you have designed your own website, be sure to know where you obtained the photographs and there is no chance of a copyright issue. Second you can contact a web designer and they may be able to take a look and see if there are any issues with your site (there may be fees for this service). Ultimately you can also contact an attorney to let them look into the situation.
Here is some more information from the F.B.I. website click here.