Website Hosting Scam Targeting ABMP Member Websites

Website Hosting Invoice Scam
"Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Copyright Infringement Notification email" scam

Website Hosting Invoice Scam

ABMP members have recently shared more instances of receiving unsolicited "offers" from various web hosting companies that appear as invoices and imply that members need to pay a certain dollar amount to maintain their website listing as outlined in the news story at www.abmp.com/updates/news/web-hosting-scam-targets-massage-therapists. This confusing “offer” is simply a ploy targeting website domains including www.massagetherapy.com. These web hosting companies include Sunshine Biz Services and Domain Listings.

ABMP members get a free website with hosting as part of membership and never have to pay hosting or domain registration fees.

If you have received this type of correspondence, there are no steps you need to take; you can simply ignore the email, text, or letter.

Here is an example of this type of scam in the form of a text message, as recently reported by an ABMP member:

Here are two examples of fraudulent letters:

"Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Copyright Infringement Notification email" scam

Several members have reported receiving scam copyright infringement emails. These are fraudulent emails, and ABMP strongly recommends ignoring them and not clicking on any links requesting that you download more details. Sample text is below so that you can look out for what to avoid:

Subject: <<your website URL>> Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Copyright Infringement Notification email

Message Body:
Hello there!

My name is Mary.

Your website or a website that your organization hosts is infringing on a copyright protected images owned by myself.

Check out this document with the URLs to my images you used at <<Member website URL>> and my previous publication to find the proof of my copyrights.

Download it now and check this out for yourself:

<<URL>>

I do think you have willfully violated my rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and can be liable for statutory damage as high as $110,000 as set-forth in Sec. 504 (c)(2) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) therein.

This message is official notice. I seek the elimination of the infringing materials described above. Please be aware as a service provider, the Dmca demands you, to eliminate or disable access to the infringing content upon receipt of this notification letter. In case you do not stop the utilization of the aforementioned copyrighted materials a lawsuit will be initiated against you.

I have a strong faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials mentioned above as allegedly violating is not authorized by the copyright owner, its legal agent, or the legislation.

I swear, under consequence of perjury, that the information in this letter is correct and that I am the copyright owner or am permitted to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive and legal right that is presumably violated.

Regards,
Mary Miller

Category: 

Comments

Yes. I got one and ignored it. 

Didn't get a scam email. hope i don't. Thanks for the heads up. appreciate it. ABMP is great. I'm grateful for it. Annette Irwin

Thank you very much for the warning, I am sorry you all got one, I hope I don't get one. Much love to all my fellow therapists

People will attempt in any way to fool people with online scams.

Thank you for this news and warning. It's despicable that this is happening at all. People cheating others to make money.  

Subject:  Question/More Information

First Name:  Joe

Last Name:  Miller

Comment
 TERMINATION OF DOMAIN rockymountainhighmassage.com
Invoice#: 491343
Date: 03 Mar 2021

IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REGARDING YOUR DOMAIN rockymountainhighmassage.com IS
ABSOLUTLY NECESSARY

TERMINATION OF YOUR DOMAIN rockymountainhighmassage.com WILL BE COMPLETED
WITHIN 24 HOURS

Your payment for the renewal of your domain rockymountainhighmassage.com has
not received yet

We have tried to reach you by phone several times, to inform you regarding
the TERMINATION of your domain rockymountainhighmassage.com

CLICK HERE FOR SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT: https://domain-service.ga

IF WE DO NOT RECEIVE YOUR PAYMENT WITHIN 24 HOURS, YOUR DOMAIN
rockymountainhighmassage.com WILL BE TERMINATED!

CLICK HERE FOR SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT: https://domain-service.ga

YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY IN ORDER TO KEEP YOUR DOMAIN
rockymountainhighmassage.com

The submission notification rockymountainhighmassage.com will EXPIRE WITHIN
24 HOURS after reception of this email

Phone #:  +1542384593236

Email:  info@domainregistration.com

Remote IP: 5.181.40.113

I'm getting emails like they are requesting information through my website.  Is there any way to stop this?

Mary, Thank you for reaching out. The best course of action is to ignore requests from these scam companies. Unfortunately, we are not aware of a way to completely prevent spam like this if your website and contact information is available online, which is why we do our best to notify members of the types of tactics used by scammers. —Jed at ABMP

Hi there, 

I have turned off the option for the "Request a Massage" form that is generated on the Contact Page. If you turn that off they will not be able to generate the form with their algorithms. Hope this helps!

I just received an email identical (except web name) to the one Mary H. received above. Thank you for posting this warning notice!

The Federal Trade Commision has a Report Form on line and one can even call the FTC to report telephone, mail and email scamming.  When the Internet became more popular so did Fraud.  I did call the FTC on those scam calls to provide them with the phone numbers, when the phone number is in existance for more than 2 seconds.

It has helped a great deal. 

I received "Website Contact: Appointment inquiry" stating that "your organization hosts is infringing on a copyright-protected images ..." Seems like another SCAM to me to download what they have in the email. I did NOT download it. Be careful!

Thank you ABMP for being so responsive when we forward these scams to you, and for notifying the rest of your clients about these scams. 

I received a email notification yesterday that said "website inquiry--Submit Testimonial" from Derek Haughton, Legal Officer at hubspot, Inc. 9176542903 DerekHaughton@hubspot.comstating that "your organization hosts is infringing on a copyright-protected images ..." and that their would be fines for use of the images if I didn't remove them like some of the others have stated here. They wanted me to download information, etc. I did not. Thank you for posting this information so that I can have peace of mind that this is in fact a scam.