For those seeking ‘copyright’ on their work, Online Investigations Pty Ltd, your preferred Private Investigator Melbourne, warns readers about the website http://www.copyright-australia.com.
In Australia, it is important to understand there is no requirement to register your copyright work as this is automatic upon creation of your manuscript or artwork.
However, it has been bought to our attention that the website copyright-australia.com purports to be a “specialized service of high quality in registering, storage and protection of creative work.”
In order to ‘copyright’ your work, the site requests an initial payment of $49 – $199 with annual follow up invoices received requesting further payment.
If follow up payment is not made threats of legal action begin relentlessly.
With several complaints being sent to us about this site, we decided to take a closer look at how it works and who is behind it all.
Located under the Terms and Conditions of the website, it lists the owner of the business as a company located in France.
Copyright-Australia.com is a service of OBJECTIVE CONCEPT Inc.
RCS PARIS B 500 790 910
91 rue du Faubourg Saint Honore 75008 PARIS
Email : contact@Copyright-Australia.com WebSite : www.Copyright-Australia.com
Searches of Australian company records did not locate any similar named company who are registered in Australia.
The company does claim to have an Australia base though, with their listed phone number and address provided as:
+61 280 155 722
Level 19, 1 O’Connell Street,
NSW 2000
Sydney
Australia
These premises are used as serviced and virtual offices by Compass Offices. These type of services allow users to give the appearance of having an Sydney CBD location, however in reality they can be operating from anywhere in the world.
Taking a surface level approach to this – this company is based internationally, has no true physical presence in Australia yet are offering to assist you with your legal issues here?
With this in mind, more red flags can also be spotted simply by looking at the terminology and content on their website which clearly has been published for an international audience. Located under their FAQ’s page for example:
- Use of American English spelling for terms such as ‘”specialized”;
- Use of the term bailiff in relation to intellectual property
- Use of the Euro instead of the Dollar 9.90€
- Use of the term V.A.T instead of the Australian based GST system.
Unfortunately, despite the significant number of red flags when considering utilising the services of this business, what is even more concerning are the aggressive and relentless emails which users are sent if they fail to renew their ‘annual’ fee.
From: Jane Carter <billing@copyrightapi.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 3 April 2018 7:35 PM
Subject: Payment order The legal process against you has been initiated, to recover the amount of the invoice owed
Order to pay: Legal proceedings are initiated against you!
>> Click here to pay your bill and stop the proceedings <<
Dear XXXXX,
Despite several reminders and warnings, it seems that you have ignored our calls for an amicable solution to pay your bill.
That’s why we initiated the legal proceedings allowing us to recover the funds by the judiciary. This procedure will generate costs much higher than the amount due and you will bear the costs, therefore we advise to take care of the issue.
You can stop the legal proceedings that just started by paying your bill of 149 AUD.
We strongly encourage you to pay your bill immediately by clicking here, in order to stop the proceedings.
As soon as you have paid your bill, the access to your online account will be reactivated.
Without immediate and effective payment by you, it will no longer be possible to stop the legal proceedings against you and the outstanding amount will increase by the costs related to this action (which are very expensive).
We strongly recommend to accept this offer.
Kind regards,
The legal department,
Copyright-Australia.com
Confidentiality note :
This message and any supporting information is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please be notified that disclosing or making use of the contents without permission is prohibited. If you receive this message erroneously, please contact us immediately and delete the e-mail from your system. Rif. D.L. 196/2003
This type of aggressive email is sent nearly every day and in some instances the emails simply roll over again demanding renewal fees. No action is ever taken.
We do not recommend using this site as an Australian seeking copyright protection. There is no requirement to obtain third party services in order to gain copyright for your personal work.
This has been an investigation by Online Investigations Pty Ltd, your preferred Private Investigator Melbourne.
Thankyou for this post, unfortunately I am one of the suckers that signed up with them a couple of years ago and I am still getting the threatening letters. I am still worried that one day a debt collector will come to my door. Can anyone clarify whether I should be concerned?
No need to be concerned Roberto.
Do NOT trust Carter and the socalled Copyright Council.
They will NOT protect your work or stand up for you when someone steals it.
Fact.
Im still getting warnongs to for further payment.
Worse they are now privately texting me everyday as well as got jold of my new email address.
Thanks for sharing about all this. I now know Im not the only one
I’m getting emails saying to renew within 10 day do I just ignore or do I reply advising I no longer wish to continue?
You can’t reason with scammers unfortunately!
Hello Online Investigations I will go a bit further.
I am a victim of this organisation and have been threatened and tricked also. Anyone who is reading this, please give them no money and report the incident to the federal police immediately. You will not be sent to court because its all a SCAM. I am surprised that this website has not been blocked in Australia. I checked their postal addresses, made various phone calls to the owners of the premises and they did not exist, and never did. (They actually have 2 different addresses here in Australia, Sydney and in Melbourne.)
Strangely, the only way to leave/opt out from Objective Concept is via post ONLY. How can you leave/opt out when the postal address does not even exist!! If you have spare time, google the addresses or even use google maps. None of the premises have any advertisement outside of the buildings or even worse the building/floor spaces are up for rent.
This company also is under these aliases just to name a few:
https://copyright.co.uk/ (Under investigation.)
http://www.copyright.in/ (Banned in India.)
https://copyright.be/
https://copyright.es/
https://copyright.it/
https://copyright.com.br/
There are up to 14 websites all hosted by Objective Concept and they are named under ” Jonathan Marciano.” (Which is probably fake also.) The server that hosts these sites is supplied by ovh.net which has an extremely poor rating and poor security. It is easy to sign up with this company with minimal or even fraudulent details.
I personally want to thank you online investigations for doing this review. You will be helping a lot of innocent people. Keep up the good work!
Shawn.
Thanks Shawn. This is all very helpful and i’m sorry to hear to this happened to you.
Thank you so much for this post. I too have been plagued, first with threatening emails and now with daily texts from ‘Jane Carter’. It’s been going on for over three years now. I’ve blocked the texts and diverted the mail to junk, but some of it still manages to get through. It’s very comforting to know this is being exposed. I wonder if someone could be kind enough to tell me how to report this to federal police? Do you just call them – or is there a hotline or email address?
Hi Christine,
Sorry to hear you’re also having issues with this. A good place to report the ongoing emails and messages would be via ACORN (the online cybercrime site) located at https://www.acorn.gov.au/. This is an Australian government initiative and they offer an online reporting portal.
This is certainly some crazy stuff. I am also a victim of this.
I have been to their “alleged” Sydney office personally many times looking for them, no sign of them. I spoke to the Concierge and the Office holders on level 19. No company of that name exists there. , called them for 2 months. No response. Sent many Emails trying to discus it and no response.
I called the Federal Police they said call fair trading and report it to scamwatch
I called NSW Fair Trading and they said Call the ACCC and report it to scamwatch
I called ACCC and they said as the address on the website is from Paris to contact the Paris Fair Consumer Embassy. Who ever they are I don’t know I am still re searching.
I wrote in an Email “How can you expect people to cancel your service in writing when it your business address does not exist.
But ACCC basically said as its an international thing its out of their hands and it needs to be discussed with the consumer protection agency in Paris. If any one knows who that might be or who to contact in Paris please let me know.
I eventually just ignored the emails and marked as Spam/Junk so I don’t really see then anymore until I clear out my junk mail. It’s annoying, but nothing will ever happen.
Hello everyone involved here and a huge Hi to the online investigations team.
I thought I would pop back in and see if anyone else has left any replies.
It saddens me to hear you are all a victim of this “worldwide” scam. But rest assure your not alone and I myself had countless sleepless nights trying to figure how I got into this mess.
And even worse I found that while reporting this issue nobody actually listened or even cared. I got legal representation and they found so many problems with the “billing” and “one sided contracts” that an actual lawsuit would have broken Objective Concept.
With legal advice, I contacted the Federal Police via email through their website and was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply. They told me to cease all contact/correspondence and no longer answer any questions nor send any money at all. They also verified it was a scam giving me some relief and assurance. So please, stop all contact, give them nothing and block any more messages. If they send you another email with a different address just block it again. (Don’t worry they do this also!)
It is vital you do what the online investigation team has asked you to do in the above post and contact ACORN. https://www.acorn.gov.au/ The more complaints the more they have to start paying attention.
As for the Paris consumer protection, contacting them would be a waste of time because I think this scam even uses Paris as a fake address. You see everything about Objective Concept is a lie and it has been able to operate for quite some time now without being caught.
I think another way to expose this would be through the media like a current affair etc. Perhaps that should be our next step to protect other people from these scammers.
Shawn.
Hi SHAWN, I was trying to contact the Federal Police but couldn’t find and contact email from their website.
I will appreciate it if you can share the link.
Just send Jane carter a reply email with this webpage as a link. They’ll stop sending you stupid emails.
https://www.onlineinvestigations.com.au/scam-warning-for-authors-seeking-copyright/
I’ve started getting threatening emails from these people, but they have slipped up. They are addressing their letter’s to a person that doesn’t exist. Somehow their server has got my name wrong and under these circumstances, any legal action they wish to launch would simply fall over on the first day. On top of that, when companies refuse to send letters of demand via regular post, they lose their ability to pursue anyone through the courts. For example banks, these days commonly use e-statement’s or electronic bank statements, but they will also write proper letters that arrive in the mail if there are any real problems. The banks know that if they don’t send a hard copy letter, that they simply don’t have a legal case.
I am one of the people that signed up with them a couple of years ago and I am still getting the threatening emails. they threaten me if I don’t pay $AUD189, they will take legal action. I would like to report it to police to protect myself.
Hello Why Me.
Please don’t stress or worry, everything is okay. If you are truly concerned Contact ACORN at https://www.acorn.gov.au/ and report your problem. Also Block or ignore their emails. Most of all do not pay! You are not the only victim so your not alone.
So relax and enjoy life Why Me. They can’t do anything legally to you especially since you cannot contact them nor resolve the issue. They did the exact same thing to me but unfortunately for them I had some good legal advisors.
Take Care! (Sorry about the late reply!)
Hi,
We are the “company” you described like a scam one but it’s not the true.
Copyright-Autralia.com is owned by an European Company based in France and we never hided this fact, our address in Australia allow us to get some physical letter and have
a local communication with our customers.
Our company provide digital timestamping for creation by sending all creation submitted to a ministerial officer in realtime public notary or bailiff located in France, the officer making certain date on the deposit of any customer and conserve a copy of the content for 30 years at his office.
This certified date emitted by a public officer of a country member of the Bern Convention give to the creator and if the creation is original : “A proof of anteriority on the creation” it’s a “copyright on the creation”,
To be more clear, any member (country) that signed the Bern Convention have legitimity to give this kind of document, and the proof emitted and certified by official minister (public notary bailiff) is valid in all these countries.( List of countries here : http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?treaty_id=15).
The Berne Convention formally mandated several aspects of modern copyright law; it introduced the concept that a copyright exists the moment a work is “fixed”, rather than requiring registration. It also enforces a requirement that countries recognize copyrights held by the citizens of all other signatory countries.
The Berne Convention deals with the protection of works and the rights of their authors. It is based on three basic principles and contains a series of provisions determining the minimum protection to be granted, as well as special provisions available to developing countries that want to make use of them.
The Appendix to the Paris Act of the Convention also permits developing countries to implement non-voluntary licenses for translation and reproduction of works in certain cases, in connection with educational activities. In these cases, the described use is allowed without the authorization of the right holder, subject to the payment of remuneration to be fixed by the law.
The Convention relies on the concept of “country of origin”. Often determining the country of origin is straightforward: when a work is published in a signatory country and nowhere else, this is the country of origin.
However, under Article 5(4), when a work is published simultaneously in several signatory countries (under Article 3(4), “simultaneously” is defined as “within 30 days” , the country with the shortest term of protection is defined as the country of origin.
Although the Berne Convention states that the copyright law of the country where copyright is claimed shall be applied, Article 7(8) states that “unless the legislation of that country otherwise provides, the term shall not exceed the term fixed in the country of origin of the work.
The Berne Convention authorizes countries to allow “fair” uses of copyrighted works in other publications or broadcasts.[8][9] Implementations of this part of the treaty fall into the broad categories of fair use and fair dealing.
Autralia and France have signed this convention so a public notary based in France can act a legal timestamping that is recognized in Australia too.
The email that not many customers receive are email of collection because they did not pay the renewal of the service. Our service is based on annual contract that can be cancelled
Hi “Jane”
Thanks for finding our article.
In follow up to your rambling explanation can you please advise the following:
– How your business adds any value to an individual when copyright is automatic upon creation
– How a France based business with no Australian presence intends to support Australian individuals when their work has been copied/infringed
– Why your customers have gone to your registered address (a serviced office) in Sydney only to be told you do not have an office/presence there
– Why several clients have alleged you do not respond to requests for assistance when their copyright has been breached
– Why “Jane Carter” does not appear to be a legitimate individual
– Why your business has received multiple warnings, including from Government authorities, that you do not offer a legitimate service
– Why your business sends daily emails threatening legal action if your customers don’t pay however offer no reasonable solution for them to cancel their subscription
Can you also provide valid Australian contact details including a true physical address so the Police can follow up the criminal complaints they have received against your business.
I was stupid enough to copyright my logo and business with these people thinking I was getting protection seems like I was scammed a few years back luckily they only got 2 payments out of me so no more after reading this and I will be blocking future emails, I’ve started getting threatening emails from these people, but they have slipped up. They are addressing their letter’s to a person that does not own my business. Somehow their website changed names from me to my husband and after several attempts on 1st registration they did not retify. I understand that under these circumstances, any legal action they wish to launch would simply not hold up. On top of that, when companies refuse to send letters of demand via regular post, they lose their ability to pursue anyone through the courts. The fact that they don’t send a hard copied letter, that they simply don’t have a legal case.I have pursued for 2 months now with emails and tried to phone etc but nothing, but the constant general email demanding payment.well no more Im done
Hello online investigation team. How are you!….(Oh I see a “Jane Carter” was here!)
Denise Campbell don’t worry they cannot do anything to you. Rest, put your feet up and take care. Have a hot cup of tea and smell the roses. You are safe and I wish your business for the best in the future!!
(Now…..)
Dear Jane Carter or whoever you are.
I have a few thinks to say to you so you can reassure us people here that we are working with a legit business.
(1) Would you please be kind enough to leave a legit address here so we can contact you via post or a telephone number that is “Not Redirected” when called. If your honest you would have read the posts here and left us a legit address or some form of contact, which you did not. (If you look at google earth, look at the address you provide us in France via your website, your business in non existent and has no advertisement. You didn’t think of this carefully did you.)
(2) None of your addresses here in Australia exist and never did. Ive contacted the people who rent and own the buildings for the last 20+ years. Therefore you lie on your website of your address unfortunately giving us the impression you are a scam. Would you provide us some information proving your addresses here exists? Can you give us an updated address of your office here? A photo? A postcard? Did you know it is illegal to have a business address here in Australia and not actually be there? That is fraudulent.
(3) I have a friend who is very good in “It” work. They traced your IP address and informed me you have many, many websites. Even one in India that has been BANNED! And even more, your more than likely not based in France. Can you prove me wrong?
(4) The federal police have told me you are a scam and not to contact you anymore via my personal email. I gave them all the details like addresses, copies of my emails and your IP address. Are you willing to say the police, who protect us daily of my country are liars? Can you give them a call and reassure them that your legit please? Can you email them and demand to why they told me this? Please?
(5) Some bills you sent to me via email have misspellings and dead links that do not exist. Not very professional therefore if we cannot trust our invoices we are crazy to send money to the company that cannot do billing correctly. Even our own government tells us not to deal with overseas businesses that do this. Jane Carter, are you willing to go on national television and prove your innocence to my government?
So Jane, please, provide us a legit address or at least show us that you have a office here in Australia so we can contact it. Actually I got a better idea. Please show us at least 4-5 cases where Objective Concept has taken someone to court and won a copyright case. Can you do that? Please? Can you? Otherwise please stop bullying innocent people who thought they were getting copyright protection but really are victims of your fraudulent business. Most of all it is extremely important I need a legit address from you so I can send my lawyers in the correct direction. You see, if I made as much money as you doing what you do to people, I would also have the “audacity” to try and show that I am “legit”. (Do you understand what I’m saying?)
Have a nice day “Jane Carter” or ” Jonathan Marciano” or whoever you are.
(Awaiting your reply via this site forum.)
Shawn
(Keep up the wonderful work Online Investigations!)
I have also been scammed by these guys! I feel like such a fool.
I did it on behalf my employer and just had to cancel the work credit card as I had paid them $330.
I have reported them to the federal police, scam watch, westpac and cyber.org as well.
I am grateful to Arts Law for putting me straight about Copyright Australia.com. I sent a registered letter to Jane Carter in Sydney only to receive it back a couple weeks later. So I rang Aust Post and asked them why it was returned. After following my tracking number they told me the receiver “Jane Carter” was not known at that address and so Copyright Aust was not accepting the letter. To me this was just an excuse for Copyright Aust to go ahead with threats of legal action since they didn’t receive the registered letter. I have poor health and I didn’t need the extra stress, so thank you Arts Law.
Hello everyone, here are some updated links below if you wish to report your issue if you are still concerned. Most of all don’t worry about the threats you are receiving. I know it can be frightening but you will not have any legal proceedings taken against you.
Apparently, Jane Carter has contacted this website with a post but has not supplied us with a legit address yet but we patiently and respectfully await any reply. We would be extremely grateful if they could or would leave us some details here of their current Australian location. Or yet still, any current “verifiable” location.
Thank you so much Online Investigations for this post and your investigation towards this company. Thank you all to who posted here and raised your concerns. You are not alone.
Report International Scams: https://www.econsumer.gov/
https://www.acorn.gov.au/ has now moved. The new link is: https://www.cyber.gov.au/report
Take Care.
Shawn.
Hey guys, I have deposited my logo with them and thought I would pay once and that was it. I received the incessant emails from Emma Courtois through the copyright.be website and I even contacted them once regarding the renewal which I did not expect. They told me no problem your copy is yours but we will not host it anymore. I thought okay fine I can live with that. and now they send all those emails with inconsistent dates. now they told me I should pay for 2019 and I have not paid anything since October 2017. Now I received legal threat but since it looks so fishy I scoured the internet and found this website. Looks like I am safe not to follow up on anything 🙂
Hi All,
I too have fallen victim to this illegitimate online scam. In an attempt to discuss their threat of legal action for non-payment I wrote emails and tried calling, all to no avail. At each dead end it became more suspicious that Copyright Australia (or the Australian Copyright Office as the the automated and 24/7 unattended phone support line calls it) was a scam. I reported it to Westpac and included a link to this post. Thank you for keeping this post up so others have a way to assess the level of risk.
Oh good grief! I too have fell victim to this. I have reported it to the ACCC (who said it “warranted an investigation) and am waiting for the QLD Office of Fair Trading to re-open on Monday to scan through 26 pages associated with this “company”. A big THANKYOU to the investigating team and a big CONDOLENCES to the other people who got caught up in this also. Cheers, Wendy
Maybe we should all unite and take a class action out against this?
Hi Wendy! Hope you are doing well.
Jonathan I can guarantee you cannot be sued by this scam, don’t worry, don’t follow up!
Peter glad you contacted Westpac and reported it.
Hello Online investigations and look how many people you have helped, well done. (Plus thank you for allowing my posts to be public.)
We are “still patiently and eagerly waiting” for (ahem) Jane Carter to provide us a legit address. If they have nothing to fear they should have no problems providing it. Sadly, the postal/office address in France is fake, just like the addresses in Sydney/Melbourne are 100% verified as fake. Their phone number is redirected when called also so that is irrelevant too.
To anyone reading this and wanting to help or put a stop to it, visit/write to your local member of parliament and ask to have the Copyright website blocked/removed from Australia and investigated. That would be a great start.
One final time…..Jane Carter please reconsider and rethink the service you provide. Or please provide a legal address to prove all of us wrong.
Peace and good luck,
Shawn.
Hi Shawn. Thanks for all of your input. QLD Office of Fair Trading have advised me to ignore this “company” and now have a file on them. Not sure what the ACCC did with their end of the investigation. The certified mail I sent to Copyright-Australia.com was sent back to me as not known at this address (in Sydney). Can only hope not too many more people get scammed by them! Cheers, Wendy
Hey friends, I added a Block sender plugin in my Gmail (free), so now all their emails go straight to the trash.
I did too but to no avail; Google just forwards them as “junk” mail.
Yes Indeed Martin, it does not stop the flow of emails coming in.
I got screwed as well. I received a notice from “Jane” recently and straight away replied with the URL for this very page. It may make no difference in the end but I’ve been left alone for the rest of the week anyway. Their emails go to my SPAM folder now. I hope these people are found and stopped. Surely someone can at least shut them down. How can this continue? Thank you for putting this up for the rest of us to find.
I too was dumb enough to sign up with these clowns not knowing any better. Blocking them does no good with Google email as Google still bloody forwards them to your junk folder (instead of keeping them away).
I have dozens (close to 100 or more) from these mongrels and am sending all of them to SCAM WATCH at the ACMA, the ACCC, and any Federal MP associated with commerce and/or communications.
Thanks for this article; I just wish I’d seen it BEFORE I threw away money!
I’m really glad I found this article. Since 2018 I have been harassed by an “Emma Courtois”. The email often comes in French and threatens legal action if they don’t collect my 49.00 CdN. Late winter of 2017 I discovered a website called Scopyright and they were “based” in Montreal. I wanted to copyright a name for my company and specifically a product. However, after filling out the form and even paying the 49.00 I felt I wasn’t getting what I asked for. After trying to get a cancellation or refund I went through PayPal and was successful in getting my money back after disputing the charge. Shortly after I received emails from them. Here is the English translation:
“Despite several reminders and warnings, you have seen fit to ignore our amicable appeals for payment of your bill.
This is why we are initiating the legal procedure allowing us to recover the funds by justice, this procedure will generate costs significantly higher than the amount due and you will bear the burden, our counsel now takes the case in hand.
You can interrupt the legal process which has just started by paying your invoice of 49 CAD.
We strongly encourage you to pay your invoice immediately by clicking here in order to stop the procedure.
Access to your online account will be reactivated after payment of your invoice.
Without effective payment from you within 24 hours, we will no longer be able to stop the legal action against you and the amount to be paid will be increased by the costs associated with this action (these are very expensive).
We ask you to accept, our best regards.
The litigation service,
SCopyright.ca”
I have sent each and everyone of these emails to my junk folder. I did block the email…but would love to permanently have the emails removed- any advice would be welcomed.
For me, since I registered through the Belgian website, it is this “Emma Courtois” as well, I have tried to block them with a filter (it goes to the trash straight away), but you can’t stop them from sending the emails,…
I fell victim to this scam last month, believing the fee was to register international protection for a logo, lifelong. Apparently its only a timestamped paper, which expects renewal annually! The terms and conditions document, when I stumbled accross it later, were incredibly illegal and not according to Australia’s Consumer Laws. According to WIPO no international registration exists, and copyright is free and automatic in Australia and the Berne convention countries. Upon reciept of the document we immediately saw it was a scam as there were typos, Bern nor Berne for one thing, and furthermore they wrote my husbands name as the owner but Istanbul as the address. A copyright document is to prove ownership, the wrong country is a massive error. We contacted paypal immediately and after being told to supply evidence and police statements they finally closed the case in my favour and refunded the money today. I wanted to thank the author of the article for being very helpful as evidence of the company being a scam, we found the website straight after realizing our error and were horrified to see how many other innocent people had been deceived by this and stressed with ongoing harrasment. I wanted to post this to say at least one story has a good ending, so anyone else who falls victim and finds this page, as soon as you can, dispute the charge, I won and you should too, it is a scam and the banks and paypal have to honour that and refund you. There may be a timelimit but certainly try! I expect the alleged ‘contract’ is broken, by paypal refunding me, I expect I had better not recieve any threats at the one year mark, if Jane Carter is reading. Companies here MUST honour Australia Consumer Law. Know your rights and be refunded! If you need to convince the bank, we emailed the Australian Copyright Council who confirmed it was a scam, and printed this whole webpage, article, comments and all, and took it in with us. If we won you can too!
My son, 19 wanted to copy right his music and fell victim to this! Can I ask you who you bank with. I paid for his 1 year subscription and we are with Westpac. I hope they will consider a refund. Thank you!
Hi Adele, sorry I didn’t reply sooner! I don’t have notifications set up and just thought of checking this page today. I was with Commonwealth Bank, but I’m sure that doesn’t matter, Westpac should have a scam refund policy too. I’m so sorry to read you and your son were impacted, and I hope you were able to be refunded! It’s terribly deceitful. Copyright is free and automatic in Australia however you can lodge certain works of literature with NED, the national edeposit scheme. This gives a datestamping equivalent to what the copyright scam offered, but legitimately. More info can be found here: https://ned.gov.au/ned/ I’m not certain if they take music but that could be worth looking into. My husband lodged his short story there and it was free to do. It links to the National Library of Australia. If that’s not the correct place then an email to them might help point you in the right direction. Kind regards!
As I looked for ways to copyright designs in Canada, I ran across Scopyright. They offered various plans that seem to fit what I was looking for. Since then, I’ve tried to look them up on Quebec Yellowpages, Chamber of commerce, Reverse lookup their phone number, etc. All unsuccessful. Then I found these post, which confirm to me that they are scammers after your money and not doing anything to protect your IP. I’ll register directly with Canada Intellectual Property Office instead.
So you say that it is not convenient to pay them?
They are responding to me via email.
On every site they have fake photos, and they don’t have a real address though.
Hi, I unfortunately fell into the same trap just recently and although I do care about the money my main concern is what they are going to do with my project. To your knowledge do you know if they have stole ideas in the past and produced them as their own? Because this project is my baby and I would be absolutely heart broken if some stole or corrupted it.
Hi, I unfortunately fell into the same trap just recently and although I do care about the money my main concern is what they are going to do with my project. To your knowledge, do you know if they have stolen ideas in the past and produced them as their own? Because this project is my baby and I would be absolutely heart broken if someone stole or corrupted it.
Hello fellow victims and a massive hello to Online Investigations and once again I/we are all full of gratitude that you exposed these scammers.
First, Alex don’t worry. If you can prove it is your work you have yourself an easy cheap lawsuit. So rest assure you should be safe and they would be insane to pass your work on as for it will trace who is doing this. Even this very scam if produced in court will prove you tried to copyright your work. (Thanks Jane Carter, Emma Courtois, Jonathan Marciano and whatever fake names you use.)
If anyone here is unsure do this:
(1) Email your work to yourself or a sample to a close friend or friends so it has a date.
(2) Post (Mail) two letters to yourself with a sample of your work in it so it is stamped and do not open it. Leave it sealed unless a law suit is required.
(3) Visit your local police station and respectfully ask a police officer to stamp or sign your work and date it as a witness.
OR Visit your local member of parliament/government and do the same.
OR Visit your local court house or law company (A small fee may apply) to stamp and witness your work.
OR have a Judge/Justice of the Peace view and stamp a sample of your work.
(4) Take a photo of you/witnesses holding your work and have the photo time stamped in the camera/phone settings.
(5) If your work is really good and close to being published do a local story with the editor of a newspaper or website.
By doing any of these it is much more easier to prove you are the lawful owner of your work.
A few years later I see that they have changed their tactics. They are thieves and their profits are from lies and deception and one day they will get caught. They are not safe and eventually karma does and WILL get you if you are not an honest person.
Here is a number of things to do if they are continuously harassing you. I know it is time consuming but let’s help each other and potential future victims. After all I am dead set on making it hard for them as they did to me. They should never have threatened any of us even “after” stealing our money.
(1) If you found the link in google report the link to google as a scam. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/report-spam
(2) Use Whois or ICANN Domain lookup. Add the scam link, find the domain, owner and the provider and report the link as a “SCAM” to the “DOMAIN PROVIDER/WEBSITE PROVIDER HOST” that will be in the details of the domain lookup.
Domain Lookup Sites:
https://who.is/
https://lookup.icann.org/
(3) Report the link to the scam warning provider of your country.
(4) Most of all report the link to your local copyright company of your country. If fees apply to that company and a scammer is taking potential customers away I am sure they will warn other people of the problem. (This should not cost you any money to do.)
(5) Stop replying to them and delete any emails. Don’t read them, don’t open them, don’t acknowledge them.
(6) Can’t help yourself, your angry and need to reply? Send them a link to this site. (But please ignore them.)
(7) Contact a youtuber who scams scammers and send them a link to the website. (Last resort if nobody helps you. A gmail account may be required)
Best of luck to each and all of you. I am so sorry you had to go through this. It is very upsetting but as time passes you will get over it but please let’s help each other shut them down.
Peace and good luck. Keep doing the good work Online Investigations.
Shawn.