Author: Olly

Well this was a new one! I heard a ping from my phone and spotted an email about a TV licence – I rolled my eyes and opened it as I dont actually pay for one due to not recieving any live TV or even having an aerial plugged into any of my TV’s, so thought they were trying to trick me into buying a licence – when suddenly, I spotted a few red flags.

1. The date format is wrong, it should read 3/5/2023 for it to be correct in the UK
2. The email address is wrong, that domain goes to a fresh install of WP and not the TV licence website
3. The “renew now” link goes to some random hosted file on a hacked leather website
4. The final bit was the clever/sneaky bit about not being able to reply to that email – it sounds legit but also means you wouldn’t try and reply to the email as then you would see the sender address was incorrect.

I have informed the hacked website they have been hacked, and I have reported the email as a phishing email to Google – please dont click on any links in emails you receive like this and if you are unsure please comment below or reach out to me on twitter and I will help you work out if its legit or not.

Google food;

Ref : [10525279] You’ve just 1 days left to renew your TV Licence. / Ref : [1052528] / 5/3/2023 9:01:35 AM

TV Licence Scam

TV Licencing Scam

TV Licensing Scam

Times are hard right now for many people, and most of us are working together to get through the tough times – however, there are always individuals and/or organisations that set out to make a quick buck at the expense of others. One of those organisations is IPR Protection aka EU Brand Protection.

I am inherently skeptical about these things, so I went to Google to see if anyone had flagged this company as being sketchy – and sure enough, they have. Not only are there other websites claiming these are scams but also their company name is so generic its classed as a keyword when searching – and not a business name – which means you can’t actually find the 5 star Google reviews they claim to have (but for some reason do not link to from their website?)

They do have a Trustpilot if you search hard enough – not particularly glowing reviews, eh!

The website is a free template, and is also used on their sister website EUBrandProtection.com, there is ZERO mention of an official company name, no terms and conditions, no privacy policy, and these staff photos are so obviously generated by AI. its unreal;

I found a company on companies house called IPR Protection Ltd that is owned by a lady called Dayle Lindsey Adams – she also seems to own other random companies from a business card app service, an aesthetics company and some other stuff. All look a bit naff to be honest, like she had a bunch of ideas and just threw some money at them.

She also makes no attempt to hide her ties to all her companies as you can see in the screenshots above. Perhaps she never thought she would be investigated by someone like myself. Schoolgirl error though, Dayle.

IPR managed to scam over £30,000 out of people in 2021, their 2022 accounts havent been submitted yet but I’ll update this article when they come out so we can see how much money they have scammed from people in 2022.

I reached out to Dayle for comment, via two of her businesses – but havent had a response. If you or an associate of yours is reading this, Dayle, please contact me or add a comment below to add your side of the story. I do think it would be wise for you to stop being a scumbag and stop misleading businesses into spending money with you, though. I’d hate for your scammy ways to infect your other business ventures – as despite looking naff, they dont look to be a scam.

So if you are contacted by IPR Protection or EU Brand Protection then report as PHISHING or SPAM within your email system. My email was from Jack Walsh who appears to be a fake name too, but they may use other names too.

Please comment below if you have received an email from these cowboys, please include any names if they differ from the person I was apparently emailed from – as this will help others find this post and avoid being scammed.

EUBrandProtection.com

IPR-Protection.com

GUYS! I R NOW MILLIONAIRE! Haha… ok maybe not. But this scammer would have me believe I am.

Not had one of these for YEARS!

European /African Union International payment Processing Department (EAU)
From The Desk of Dr.Ernest Addison
President African Union Ghana Annex
12/15 Distress Thorpe Accra Ghana.

 

Attention Beneficiary.

 

This is to inform you about the new development that will bring to the successful transfer of your long overdue funds payment Value Twenty Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($20.5Million Dollars). We have finalized every arrangement with an Accredited Financial consultant attached to FIRST SUN-SET BANK in the USA. And with her own arrangement with her (FSB),the Bank has accepted the funds and the deposit has been made into the Bank Escrow account pending when the funds transfer will be finalized upon your response.

 

The agreement was all about how the funds will be transferred into your account through ONLINE BANKING to avoid stoppage.So the funds will be transferred into your account as an investment fund that is being originated from the bank.
The said funds have already been backed up by the Bank (FSB) that will allow your own Bank to accept the funds without any hitch, this is the only way the funds can be transferred ONLINE BANKING to you successfully.

 

This arrangement is because if the funds are being transferred as a contract payment, a lot of documents may be required which may cause a lot of issues arising on the legality of the contract.This decision was made by her based on her experience about funds transfer transactions.

 

So on your acceptance and readiness to the procedure arrangements, you are advised to contact the Financial Consultant on her personal email below to provide you with the information of the contact person in-charge of your funds transfer for further directives.

 

Below is the information of the Financial Consultant contact:

Contact person; Miss.Jenifer George
Email contact; enquiryf674@gmail.com

Always get back to me for further instructions to avoid mistakes.

 

Yours in Service,

Dr.Ernest Addison
President African Union (EAU)
International payment Processing Department.

from: GHANA COMMERCIAL BANK LTD (GCB ) <efccoffice573@gmail.com>
reply-to: customerscaredepat@gmail.com

Needless to say, this is a SCAM.

But I replied anyway 😛

More on this one soon….

I have moved my business premises again, and in order to inform customers, friends and colleagues alike – I did a blog post about it on my company website. Additionally, I posted a link to the article on my business social media. I did all this for two reasons;

1. I did it to inform people, and keep my business blog and socials up to date
2. I also did it because that’s also what we did when we moved into an older office of ours, and it was at that point we got targeted by “sales brokers” for commercial energy.

It’s like they scour Twitter and stuff for “moved office” and things like that… Anyway, I posted it all and then got on with my life…

A day or so later, I got this email from my PA service;

Oh deary deary me.

I called them, obviously, and I got the SAME spiel as I did when I first made contact with the broker last time.

• Emergency rates
• Not on the best pricing
• bla bla

I didnt give them ANY meter references, I didnt even confirm my exact location and yet they were able to magically find my meter and told me they were able to save me money. The chap I spoke to (forget his name, but he was a cocky shitbag) could only go over gas and not electricity, but we can only assume where the conversation would have gone if I had continued to feed them fase info.

Now, I am not suggesting they are SCAMMERS as such, but like we have covered before in other (currently deleted) blog posts, its their wording, approach and sales tactics that are scummy. They scour the web for anyone moving a commercial business and jump on them to try and hopefully catch someone off guard and steal the energy contract over to one of their mates energy businesses.

My advice to you if you have been contacted by someone like this is do your OWN homework, look these businesses up, do they look legitimate? Do their websites look legitimate? google their business name and check reviews;

Tip: Often these kind of shady brokers use really generic names, so that when you search for them you dont find anything. EG Commercial Support Services is so generic, and searching for that on its own doesn’t find anything bad – but if you wrap it in speech marks and add SCAM or SPAM to the end of the search query, you find lots;

And as always, be scam wise! Be on guard!

If you havent expected the call, then assume they are up to no good and hang up.

There is no meter registration department, commercial energy works pretty much the same as domestic and when you move house you dont take a contract off the first scam call you get in your new home, do you?

Please comment below if you have got anything like this yourselves.

Share this article with your connections so they know not to fall victim to these scummers.