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.
The date format is wrong, it should read 3/5/2023 for it to be correct in the UK
The email address is wrong, that domain goes to a fresh install of WP and not the TV licence website
The “renew now” link goes to some random hosted file on a hacked leather website
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
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?)
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.
Dayle Lindsey Adams
Image from her app website, showing a demo screen with her other companies referenced
Another app screen
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.
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
I actually wrote this three years later than the date suggests – I have done this on purpose so that this is documented but not initially found or maybe never found. Its here though.
So I have just come out of a 3 year relationship with a wonderful girl. I won’t mention her real name cos ya know, search engines n stuff.
We met on Bumble and she stood out as we had actually briefly interacted about ten years prior to that. We met, we got on, one thing lead to another and before you know it we were in each others lives.
During that first year of us knowing each other, I was a bit dishonest about the fact I was still speaking to and going on a few dates with other people after we had said we werent going to do that. I shouldnt have lied, and whereas in the big picture this is insignificant it was little things like this over the 3 years we were together that kind of eroded all the trust.
Anyway, we sorted that initial thing out and then carried on. We had lots of lovely memories, did loads of cool stuff, and things were mostly good. During this period the only mistakes I made really were keeping bits of info from her as when I learned the info the timing wouldn’t have been right (time of month etc) and by the time I would get round to saying something it would appear like id known ages and just been keeping it from her for no reason. It was very hard to know how to manage myself in this relationship at times.
Then we tried to have a baby. It felt right at the time, but I soon got cold feet as I panicked thinking I would have to look after this baby all the time on my own as she needed so much staring at the wall time etc. I can’t apologise for how i felt at the time, but I am sorry if how this came out in the moment upset her.
Then to be honest, things were great for a while aside from monthly hormonal issues – it would really mess her up each month and make all the little things I mentioned accumulate into this huge thing and WW3 would erupt for literally no reason.
My circumstances changed quite a bit, and this made planning for the future tough and my focus was shifted as it involved my children. She wasnt able to see past this and wasnt happy with me just wanting to exist for a bit and stop constantly trying to plan things and think of the next thing and the next thing. I wanted to just be in the moment, and pause, and live life here and now. Not in 3-5 years time.
So, I am 42 years old and I am on my own again.
I have my dogs, my kids my mum and my friends. Oh, and my land rover.
