Email Spam for Backlinks

[computathug]

One of our clients received an email last week which he forwarded over. Basically the email is declaring a copyright infringement on behalf of one of their clients but if we add a link to the clients website no further action will be taken. Now I have seen a few but this one goes a step further. In fact they have even set up a bogus Lawyer website to make it look even more convincing. ( Reminded me of someone else doing this quite some time ago )

Subject: DMCA Copyright Infringement Notice

Dear owner of (link removed/make-time-personal-wellness/,)

My name is Clare Baker, I am a Trademark Attorney of James Parker Anderson Legal Services.

I am reaching out to you as your website features content that has infringed on one copyright image owned by our client, Wooden Earth Ltd.

The use of this image - (link removed) is featured on your web page - (Link removed/make-time-personal-wellness/),
without proper image credit attribution.

The Wayback Machine - (link to web archive), a permanent public archive of the web, shows the image being used on your website.

Our client, is happy for their image to be used and shared across the internet. However, proper image credit is due for past or ongoing usage.

The image credit to Wooden Earth Ltd must be added underneath the image or somewhere appropriate on the offending page with a link to (link removed)within 7 days. Otherwise, we are required to take legal action.

I have assigned case ID #0604 to track this dispute, which should be quoted in all correspondence. Once you have added an image credit to the page, the case against you will be dropped.

This letter is an official notification under Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (" DMCA"). If this is unresolved immediately we'll have to proceed with filing a DMCA legal case.

I am providing this notice with authority to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright(s) involved.

Regards

Clare Baker
Trademark Attorney

James Parker Anderson Legal
469 7th Ave
New York, NY 10018

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clare@jamesparkeranderson.com
www.jamesparkeranderson.com 

At first i did check the way back machine and for 0ne, that image was never used. I dug a little deeper and found the image they were claiming copyright was and still is available as a free image since 2015 so even if the image had been used it was not in any violation.

Next I checked the company name on Google with the address.... YUP you guessed! No business registered to that address or telephone number. The telephone number could be a high rate telephone number which charges extortionate prices. So although the website can be found with an exact search of the url there is nothing saying they are a registered company and certainly no mentions on any other website which pretty much screams out SCAM!!

Normally I just ignore these but this time I have decided not to!

Reverse domain check brought up 4 different domains.

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jamesparkeranderson.com newshunt360.com premium142-4.web-hosting.com www.jamesparkeranderson.com

IP address came back as Name Cheap.

My initial instinct was to contact the hosting and explain the situation and see if we can get them closed down but then I thought, hang on a moment, what about the unsuspecting clients .... Either their SEO company or the company supplying them back-links are acting on their behalf and probably charging them an extortionate amount of money for thee back-links so am halfway through putting an email together explaining the black hat tactics that are being used.

You never know, I might just land another client from this.

I will update when i get any further

[bad_brain]

( Reminded me of someone else doing this quite some time ago )

the law firm of the very honorable Max Goldstein is totally real, how dare you... also the last name is totally not a reference to Emmanuel Goldstein from Orwell's "1984"...

as you know one of my clients got a similar one a little ago, took me a few hours to have that "waaaait a minute" moment. told the client to simply ignore it.
this one is more extensive tho and someone has put even some work into it (even if the site is an awful crapfest), so I'll do some digging too:

host 162.0.232.231 is obviously located in Toronto, owner is AirComPlus with a solid 1.5 stars rating in google reviews (lol).

phone number belongs to Jay Suites, an office space provider, scroll down to the blue contact info box:

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https://www.jaysuites.com/grand-central-office-space-nyc#/

website itself is of course WP, core version is recent 5,8,1 so auto-update is most likely enabled.

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---theme info---
https://www.jamesparkeranderson.com/wp-content/themes/mai-law-pro/style.css?ver=1.3.0.71020210718

/**
 * Theme Name:          Mai Law Pro
 * Theme URI............https://maitheme.com
 * Description:         Mai Law Pro is a custom child theme for The Genesis Framework.
 * Author:              Mike Hemberger, BizBudding Inc
 * Author URI:          https://bizbudding.com/
 * Version:             1.3.0
 *
 * Template:            genesis
 *
 * License:             GPL-2.0+
 * License URI:         http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php
 */
 

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---user enum---
https://www.jamesparkeranderson.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users

[{"id":2,"name":"davroblaw","url":"","description":"","link":"https:\/\/www.jamesparkeranderson.com\/author\/davroblaw\/","slug":"davroblaw","avatar_urls":{"24":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/948e0a8d762e72bf28272110a6239d13?s=24&d=mm&r=g","48":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/948e0a8d762e72bf28272110a6239d13?s=48&d=mm&r=g","96":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/948e0a8d762e72bf28272110a6239d13?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesparkeranderson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesparkeranderson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users"}]}},{"id":1,"name":"thornsimslaw","url":"https:\/\/www.jamesparkeranderson.com","description":"","link":"https:\/\/www.jamesparkeranderson.com\/author\/thornsimslaw\/","slug":"thornsimslaw","avatar_urls":{"24":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/809f7b8f140696c336fe726149073185?s=24&d=mm&r=g","48":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/809f7b8f140696c336fe726149073185?s=48&d=mm&r=g","96":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/809f7b8f140696c336fe726149073185?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesparkeranderson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesparkeranderson.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users"}]}}]

might fire some DMCA complaint into their directions on the weekend...I'm sure they are using plenty of unlicensed stock images...

[bad_brain]

same WP users, same shitty site "style", just different domains:

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https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/
https://www.davisrobbins.com/

[computathug]

This scam is probably raking in $$$$. Companies are charging anywhere between $100-$1000 a link depending on the Page Authority or Domain Authority.

[computathug]

Add another to the same list.

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https://www.smithmartinlewis.com/

[ayu]

So I wrote this tool recently, that I built for taking down phishing sites.
Anyway, let me know.

[bad_brain]

So I wrote this tool recently, that I built for taking down phishing sites.
Anyway, let me know.

*lets ayu know*

[Haskyni]

It seems like you've come across one of those sneaky copyright scam emails, which are unfortunately becoming more common. They often try to pressure site owners into adding links in exchange for avoiding legal issues, but setting up a fake lawyer website takes it to another level of deception.

When you receive something like this, it's best to be skeptical right away. First, you can always check if the claim holds any merit by reviewing the content they reference. Often, these claims are either completely fabricated or involve stock images that anyone can legally use with proper licensing. If you’re uncertain, a broken link checker tool can help identify if they’ve inserted any shady links into your website as part of their scam.