Wins cybersquatting dispute against domain used in fraud — Linklaters LLP
Fraudster used domain to request payments from law firm’s clients.
The law firm Linklaters LLP has won a cybersquatting dispute against the domain name linklatar .com, which was used in a scheme to defraud the firm’s clients.
Linklaters is a sizable firm with regarding 3,000 lawyers and global revenue of over £1.5 billion.
It discovered that on November 27 of last year, the owner of linklatar .com sent an email to one of the firm’s clients telling the client that it had an unpaid invoice. The signature on the email stated that the sender was a “Senior Associate at Linklaters, Linklaters LLP”.
This is a common scam in which someone registers a domain similar to a legitimate firm and then impersonates that firm to trick people into sending money.
As stated by a notice on the firm’s website, scammers have also been spoofing Linklaters’ phone numbers and using the domain link-laters .com in WhatsApp messages.
Linklaters filed the cybersquatting dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization in March, and panelist Warwick Smith rendered his decision ordering the domain to be transferred to the law firm this month. The domain owner did not respond to the dispute.
