Assistance with strange email

[crazymama]

The Anti-counterfeit Team <toyourdoors@googlemail.com>

Ive been contacted by these saying i must end all listing today or they will contact ebay and shut me down, i have ended some any idea who they are? there not replying to my email

[rcdrivertim]

What are you selling? We need more info...

[pod]

@googlemail.com??

This is just someone messing with you. Competitor my guess... A company with googlemail? No way

[crazymama]

Originally Posted by pod

@googlemail.com??

This is just someone messing with you. Competitor my guess... A company with googlemail? No way

KIDS PERSONALIZED T SHIRT, they are vero ebay says??? i no ive spent all day and there nothing on the web
i have ended some but i do have 100 listings??? any idea guys the ip address dont shiw either

[crazymama]

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: INFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

We have just visited your ebay site, xxxxxx, and noticed you sell printed t-shirts.

You may not be aware, but the goods you are selling are counterfeit and you are in breach of the Trademarks Act 1994 with various images, logos and designs which you are printing. Reading your listings you seem to be printing them using a transfer method, either through your business or home.

TRADEMARK ACT 1994
SECTION
92. - (1) A person commits an offence who with a view to gain for himself or another, or with intent to cause loss to another, and without the consent of the proprietor-
(a) applies to goods or their packaging a sign identical to, or likely to be mistaken for, a registered trade mark, or
(b) sells or lets for hire, offers or exposes for sale or hire or distributes goods which bear, or the packaging of which bears, such a sign, or
(c) has in his possession, custody or control in the course of a business any such goods with a view to the doing of anything, by himself or another, which would be an offence under paragraph (b).

Breaching the Tradesmark Act is a very serious offence which can result in a prison sentence of between 6 months and 10 years depending on the amount of sales and profit you have made from the sale of goods. Also you can be fined up to £5000. Your feedback currently stands at over 1500, assuming the majority of these sales are counterfeit, this is a very serious matter.

As a new, not for profit company working in parallel with ebay VERO scheme and TRAP (Trade Marks and Rights Holders Against Piracy Limited), we are contacting businesses / sellers on ebay and giving them the option to remove their counterfeit items before taking the matter further. We are giving you until the end of trading on Friday 30th July 2010 to remove any items deemed counterfeit from ebay. If we do not get a satisfactory response, we shall be in contact with ebay to have the items removed and to find out your address details to inform your local Trading Standards. We will also be contacting the relevant trademarks rights holders legal teams to inform them of your breach. If you need any further information on the rights to which you are breaching, may we make you aware of the following website Intellectual Property Office - Welcome to the Intellectual Property Office you will find it useful to determine which designs you are using which are counterfeit. Please be aware the tradesmark database covers English and European trademarks. American trademarks are covered on a separate website which is United States Patent and Trademark Office the US Trademarks and Patents website which also covers Europe.

We will be assessing at regular intervals over the next few months to confirm you have stopped selling counterfeit goods. If you feel you have not breached the trademarks act and you have all the relevant paperwork to prove you are a legitimate, authorised seller, please email us along with an attachment of any necessary licence documents so we may assess you. If you have any questions regarding this matter please contact us.

We hope to give trademark rights holders additional protection and also to give buyers a better chance to purchase authentic products, and make the internet a safer place to buy.

Yours sincerely
The Anti-counterfeit Team

[pod]

Its ⊗⊗⊗⊗ man. And the best they can come up with is a gmail account.... Forget it

[crazymama]

Originally Posted by pod

Its ⊗⊗⊗⊗ man. And the best they can come up with is a gmail account.... Forget it

who is it???? i have ended 30listing in panic???

[pod]

Who knows. just some jackass. Dont end listings because you get a gmail saying too!

[crazymama]

Originally Posted by pod

Who knows. just some jackass. Dont end listings because you get a gmail saying too!

I hope so, ive got 100 listing still going, i did think it was a scam but ebay has confirmed that they are vero??? so im craping it if they close my account

[pod]

Originally Posted by crazymama

ebay has confirmed that they are vero???

You contacted eBay on your items because of this email? And now they are looking at you? That was not smart. You cant take every email you get so seriously. Sorry, tough love, but you freaked out over a gmail.

I dont know anything about your items so cant comment. If they are knock offs, you may now be in trouble. If they are real, move on, sell, be happy

And stop taking emails so seriously. And you didn't inherit 2 million from a Nigerian prince by the way... Just trying to lighten the mood. All you can do is relax. If your items are not knock offs you will be fine.

[MadSam]

Competitor for sure. Real companies always demand payment for breach.

[jeffweico]

I wouldn't worry about it. If this were real, it would:

1) Contain a link to an ACTUAL WORKING WEBSITE for the group.
2) Contain an EMAIL address NOT from Gmal, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.
3) Contain the contact name of a PERSON.
4) Provide you with a PHONE NUMBER to call.

This happens to Amazon sellers all the time. My stuff on Amazon is 100% legit, and I get these emails at least once a week or so. They are from others trying to sell the same thing, who think they can scare the competition away by making empty threats. I guess it has spread to eBay now.

No REAL organization or rights holder is going to hide behind a GMAIL address, or any other free email provider. They will provide a phone number, contact name, link to their website, etc. Not just a few generic links to general information on trademark and copyright law.

And, most likely, they would NEVER send an email. The letter would arrive certified mail via your postal service. If they either KNEW or were reasonably sure that your items were ⊗⊗⊗⊗, they would purchase one from you for analysis, then file a lawsuit against you.

And no private company has the right to DEMAND that you turn over supplier information, etc. to them.

I also tried googling them. There is ONE hit in ONE free business directory for them, at a website I never heard of. If they were REAL, you would find their information all over the place. There is no such thing as a SECRET rights enforcement organization. They all WANT publicity and news storiies.

In the US, the FBI, Customs Service, MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and all levels of law enforcement issue press releases every time they prosecute someone, or start a new campaign. Why? They want PUBLICITY as it sends a message to people not to engage in such activity. They NEVER HIDE what they are doing.

[Stigger]

as above

google mail ?? not from a professional .

all the same if you i was you i would start again from another account and let that one go dormant, i wouldn't touch it again to be honest.

you have contacted ****, posted on here about the problem "with your user name" and ended half you listing almost,

A lerning curve if nothing else .

[forummember]

I've had a similar message in the past. Was it sent on an 'ask a question about this item' link?

[rsot]

Hate to keep rehashing everything else said here - all wise comments - but c'mon, you freaked out over a gmail e-mail? with trash link? AND YOU CONTACTED EBAY?

Geez - you have to research before you even start selling....sad but it's tough love around here.

Hope you don't get fazed and eBay doesnt auto-shut you down but live and learn. Welcome to Capitalism and Competition.

I really hope your account goes without trouble but learn that eBay is not your friend - simply a gateway to profits. Other people WILL try and cause you problems...the marketplace is not lovey dovey.

Start with Stealth and don't give out real info.

All the best.

[forummember]

Search that email address in Google and see if it's affiliated with anything.

[crazymama]

Hi, i no ive had plenty of them but i always get violated even when ive tryed to convince ebay that this is a scam
ive had so many and always some how they do get there own way.

Im sure i no who it is but really have no proof, however another ebay member has just emailed and he had the same email 2months ago and got kicked of !!!

[forummember]

How was the message sent?

[pod]

Just wait it out now. Take NO actions and reply to NOBODY on this unless its ebay. Just leave it alone. Forget the email and do not reply to it.

Again, do nothing! Leave listings up and see what happens. All you can do.

[rsot]

Side note though - and I say this keeping in mind the whole enterprise of marketplace and sales...

That e-mail, while shady, sure is creative. It gets rid of all the innocent little fish trying to peddle their goods ha. It's actually laughable but catches then unaware off guard.

All that is missing is a "reparation fee" i.e. send over 100 or so bux/pounds/etc. in "good faith". Man, you got to love entertainment at times!

No offense to you crazymama but I am not taking sides. I have been screwed around with before and it is what it is.

[jeffweico]

A google search for this email provided the following link for this address:

Car Bodywork Rust Repair Water Based Custom Paint 8 DVD

Their post states:

Here we got must have 8 DVDs for all
professionals and DIY enthusiasts

total running time 473 minutes!

Then it links to their eBay listing:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Car-Bodywork-R...om-Paint-8-DVD

The item is no longer available, of course, but that tells me they are on eBay. Apparently, they were unsuccessful selling car repair DVD's, so they want to sell t-shirts.

Here is another link to a DIY forum posting, also hawking the DVD's:

how to repair a car

Every case like this I have investigated is similar. The email owner THINKS he is smart, but does not have any idea as to how to cover his tracks. And there almost always are leads to be followed.

Had this been a REAL threat, my google search would have turned up endless postings about the organization, their work, their successes, their location, etc.

[rsot]

Nice search work jeffweico. This is what you need to do crazymama before you start to freak on ANY email. Just solid advice.

If this gmail guy had been real smart, he could have done it in other ways.