Type of a scam Fake Invoice/Supplier Bill
Received what appeared to be an invoice for a registration with PTMA of a trademark our company has. Never seen this before. Fine print seems to indicate that you will have your trademark listed in an online database. Visited the site, very unprofessional display of what appears to be other trademarks. Appears to be very similar the Yellow Pages scam that has been around for years, once in their clutches it’s difficult to get out without a lot of hassle. Copy of "Invoice" attached.
Victim Location 54313
Type of a scam Fake Invoice/Supplier Bill
We hold several trademarks and a couple weeks ago, we received invoices for two of them for $725 each. We didn’t want to lose our trademarks, so we paid the invoices from Patent & Trademark Association (P.T.M.A). A week later, we received another invoice for the same two trademarks and dug a little deeper. The invoice did not say that it was a solicitation and that we were under no obligation to pay. And only in very tiny print did it explain that the invoice was for an online directory. We were able to stop payment on the check we sent out and did not end up losing any money.