Just what we need for an AI-enhanced Happy New Year: AI-enhanced scams, data breaches involving everything a "population health technology company" has on millions of patients, trademark scams from scammers pretending to be lawyers, untouchable data brokers...
So, my earworm for today is "Can't Touch This" in all its jolly, ironic glory.
For writers, blogsite owners, and website owners, it's that time (which comes around every two or three months) to update your passwords on the U.S. Copyright Office DMCA Designated copyright agent directory.
More annoying and depressing, if you write under the protection of an LLC, you should know that the laws are changing, and LLC owners' social security numbers and drivers license numbers are going to be a matter of public record.
One of many bottom lines is that, if you have an active LLC or Corporation and do not file a BOI (Beneficial Ownership Information) report, you could be fined, imprisoned, and your bank may refuse to do business with your business.
It's not a scam. My Norton 360 seems to think that a link on the topic with reference to Homeowners Associations and Condominium Owners Associations is a harmful link, and I surmise that Norton's AI systems detected an offensive word for a male member or a male barnyard fowl within the name of the respectable Massachusetts law firm and flagged it.
I think that is hilarious.
Now I will turn to scams.
Legal blogger and associate lawyer Lisa Bollinger Gehman for the intellectual property law firm Baker Hostetler reports on the increasingly sophisticated trademark email scams.
Some writers own trademarks, so this might be of interest. As you may know, trademarks have to be renewed with the USPTO something like every five years. Also, like copyright agent registrations, or website ownership information, anyone can search the database and send official-looking letters and emails aimed at tricking the trademark owner into sending them a huge fee. Usually, in my experience, if you read the fine print with a magnifying glass, they are selling SEO registration, or spurious trademark registration in a foreign country.
Lisa says:
"Trademark owners should be wary of official-looking email solicitations from attorneys or law firms that claim to specialize in trademarks and are masquerading as Good Samaritans who wish to aid in protecting the company’s brand against another company that has contracted that firm to register the same mark."
Among other valuable advice and insights, Lisa points out that email scammers may forget to spoof the official .gov domain extension. Maybe one cannot spoof dot gov.
Now, the scammers claim to be specialist trademark lawyers, and their pitch may attempt to outrage and panic their target by saying that someone else is trying to register the same trademark or business name.
More information about trademark scams can be found on the USPTO’s website:
Also of interest, a large group of bloggers for the law offices of Troutman Pepper including Molly S. DiRago, Robyn Lin, Natasha E, Halloran, Ronald I Raether Jr, James Koenig, and Kim Phan compiled a very comprehensive round up of privacy laws, breaches, and violations.
Their article More Privacy Please is compelling reading, discussing topical issues with a health care company that filed to adequately protect DNA data, and made misleading promises to potential clients about how their privacy and data would be respected and securely stored; also discussing tax preparation companies that share clients' information without permission; also revealing issues with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).
"Data brokers are entities that knowingly collect and sell to “third parties the personal information of a consumer with whom the business does not have a direct relationship.” Cal. Civ. Code §1798.99.80(c). This likely includes entities that receive personal information received from third parties and compile that data into a form that can be used to enrich data sets of third parties, such as by adding data appends to a third party’s data set for marketing purposes."
Finally, after all this talk of data leaks, breaches, and legal selling of personal information, class action law firm Shamis Gentile has a fascinating breakdown of what your data is worth to the first seller: https://shamisgentile.com/class-actions/data-breach-lawsuit/
While your social security number might sell for as little as $1, your medical records could be worth $1,000. Scroll down the page to see what everything else about you might cost a crook.
All the best,
Rowena Cherry
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