Spam Alert: Fake DMCA Violation Notice About “Copyright-Protected” Images

Here’s a new spam email that looks absolutely frightening, but is, indeed, completely fake. Have you gotten a message like this recently?

Name: Rick Wellman
Email: rickwellman@intuit.com

Hello,
Your website or a website that your company hosts is infringing on a copyright-protected images owned by our company (intuit Inc.).

Take a look at this report with the hyperlinks to our images you used at [example] and our earlier publication to obtain the evidence of our copyrights.

Download it right now and check this out for yourself:

https://storage.googleapis.com/d03ijdfb3dhj32sdj2.appspot.com/pub/s/folders/d/0/4vj3n93h5vj34v.html?l=802699362277102912

I do believe that you intentionally violated our rights under 17 USC Section 101 et seq. and could possibly be liable for statutory damage as high as $150,000 as set forth in Section 504 (c)(2) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) therein.

This letter is official notification. I seek the removal of the infringing materials mentioned above. Please take note as a service provider, the Dmca requires you to remove and/or deactivate access to the copyrighted materials upon receipt of this notification letter. If you do not cease the utilization of the above mentioned copyrighted content a lawsuit can be initiated against you.

I have a good faith belief that utilization of the copyrighted materials mentioned above as presumably infringing is not approved by the copyright proprietor, its agent, or the legislation.

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is correct and hereby affirm that I am permitted to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive and legal right that is presumably infringed.

Best regards,
Rick Wellman
Legal Officer
intuit, Inc.

intuit.com

12/01/2021

Like many of the other scary emails my clients have received with fake warnings about domain name expiration dates, or stolen images on their websites, this is completely fake and entirely safe to ignore.

Why? There is no legal officer at Intuit named Rick Wellman. Your website does not contain copyrighted images owned by Intuit. You will not be fined $150,000. The link the sender wants you to click on contains really bad stuff that has nothing to do with what the email says.

If you’ve gotten a message like this, DO NOT click any of the links in it. Just click “report spam” or delete the message. Then go about your day safely, and happily, ignoring the scammers and jerks who are trying to ruin your day by sending you scary emails.