pistonheads.biz - I've got the same problem.

[jconsta6]

Hi All,

I've noticed pistonheads.biz have a message saying people are spoofing as them, well I've got a similar problem.

So where do I stand?

I'll use the company name "company" to explain whats going on....

I am the MD/founder/owner of "Company" Ltd.

I own company.co.uk company.com company.net company.org

Another company has set up doing something not really that similar but have bought the URL company.biz

This in itself doesn't worry me that much however today they have just done a spam campaign to who knows how many xxxxx people with the spofing as [e-mail] i.e. I get all the grief as they don't own the company.co.uk domain, which means the grief and replies fling straight to my email.

I've double checked all my logs and my email servers don't relay, and nothing has gone from mine to any of the addresses that have bounced. Thats how I knew about it becuase I've had over 150 bounced emails for out of office replies etc.

Is there anything that can be done?

Is it worth trademarking my company name "company" so that they have to close down company.biz? From their web site there is no mention of a company name but there is an address.

I really don't want my name being asssociated with spammers like this and it has really Ped me off.

Any thoughts/ advice appreciated.

Cheers,

JC

[Mekon]

My webhost recently told me that there was nothing I could do, other than switch off email "catch-all" so that I don't have to go through the bother of deleting the bounced messages. If there is a better solution, I'd be interested to hear too.

[Fer]

Mekon said:

My webhost recently told me that there was nothing I could do, other than switch off email "catch-all" so that I don't have to go through the bother of deleting the bounced messages. If there is a better solution, I'd be interested to hear too.

I was told the same thing.

[Plotloss]

Its true.

With the right mail client you can make an email appear like its been sent from anyone.

Legal controls and registration dont make a shit of difference unfortunately.

Its annoying but its life.

[jacobyte]

Plotloss said:

Its true.

With the right mail client you can make an email appear like its been sent from anyone.

Legal controls and registration dont make a shit of difference unfortunately.

Its annoying but its life.

You can do it from Outlook.

[AlexB]

I would ask a Specialist Solicitor or Trade Mark Agent whether you could claim that this is a form of Passing Off as people are being confused and your company reputation is being damaged. In any event I suspect that an official looking letter threatening an action for Passing Off and asking for damages may prevent future problems - if the company is legit.

It is always worth trying to register a trade mark for your company name - it isn't (in the grand scheme of things) terribly expensive and can really help in situations like this - although you say that they are in a different business sector, so possibly not in this particular case as trade marks are limited to particular goods and/or services.

There may be other ways to prevent further problems by the 'creative' use of trade mark applications, but it is best to seek professional advice if you want to go down that route.

Alternatively, the domain name dispute resolution service may be able to offer some support www.icann.org/udrp/ - you may actually need a trademark for this to be any help!

Hope you get it sorted!
Alex

[burnt]

I sometimes even get spam from myself!!

I think if you've had a domain/email address for over 2 years then it's going to be used for spam.

It winds me up to think that people think my company is spamming...not a lot you can do about it....yet.