Scam: DMCA Copyright Infringement Notification

My client received a suspicious message via their website Contact Us form. It appears this is a new phishing scheme. Have you receive a message like? What did you do about it? Was it legit or not?

Here is what Robert Syring’s DMCA Copyright Infringement Notification looks like, and why I think it is not legit:

Hello,
Your website or a website that your organization hosts is violating the copyright-protected images owned by our company (slack Inc.).
Take a look at this official document with the URLs to our images you utilized at {your-website-address} and our earlier publications to get the proof of our copyrights.
Download it now and check this out for yourself:
https://storage.googleapis.com/nnnnnnnnnn.appspot.com/d/folders/0/public/i/nnnnnnn.html?l=nnnnnnnnnnnnnn 
I believe you have willfully violated our rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could possibly be liable for statutory damages of up to $120,000 as set-forth in Section 504 (c) (2) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) therein.
This message is official notification. I seek the elimination of the infringing materials mentioned above. Take note as a company, the DMCA requires you to eliminate or/and disable access to the copyrighted materials upon receipt of this notification letter. If you don't stop the utilization of the above mentioned infringing materials a legal action can be commenced against you.
I have a good belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not approved by the legal copyright owner, its legal agent, as well as legislation.
I swear, under consequence of perjury, that the information in this notification is accurate and hereby affirm that I am permitted to act on behalf of the proprietor of an exclusive right that is presumably violated.

Very truly yours,
Robert Syring
Legal Officer
slack, Inc.
slack.com

NN/NN/2021

1) Download it now ?

The link (redacted below) provided in the contact form message goes to an application in the google cloud. That application could be doing anything. No way am I’m opening it. If it was a real Copyright issue, wouldn’t they include some actual facts in the message?

//storage.googleapis.com/nnnnnnnnnn.appspot.com/d/folders/0/public/i/nnnnnnn.html?l=nnnnnnnnnnnnnn

2) RobertSyring@slack.com Email Address Does Not Exist

address couldn't be found
Your email wasn’t delivered to RobertSyring@slack.com because the address couldn’t be found

I emailed RobertSyring@slack.com directly to ask him to verify he sent the message. I did not forward or include much detail from the original message. If this is a scammer I do not want him to know which contact he made is getting any traction.

My email to Robert Syring quickly bounced back:
The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the recipient’s email address for typos or unnecessary spaces.”

3) Robert Syring On LinkedIn?

There are 12 Robert Syring’s listed on LinkedIn. None of them are listed as working at Slack: linkedin.com/search/results/people/?keywords=robert%20syring

4) Copyright-Protected Images

There are very few images on my client’s website. The images we do have were purchased from reputable sources like Getty Images.

Is this A Phishing Scam or Legit Notice?

It’s probably a scam.

If you know any more about this please leave a comment.

Published by

Kimball

Kimball is a website designer and developer in Goffstown, NH.

9 comments on:
“Scam: DMCA Copyright Infringement Notification”

  1. My organisation have just received the exact same email through our contact us form on our website from a ‘Luis Sposili’ at Slack Inc. Glad I didn’t open the link and checked first.

  2. We received the same message, this one sent by a “Patrick Krishnakanthan”. We Googled him, with the following result: Try using words that might appear on the page you’re looking for. For example, “cake recipes” instead of “how to make a cake.”

    Nuff said….

  3. Hi all,
    Received one here from Paul Krishnakanthan (at) slack.com. My colleagues were impressed with the tone used. Fortunately they alerted me and I sent a report to slack.

    Cécile (France)

  4. We have received the exact same message from “Scott Flott”.

    Happy to find out that we leveraged same background checks and did not find as well any linkedin profile or googlable person behind this fake email.

    We have additionally analysed URL and found suspicious malwares.

  5. Just got one this morning and have received others before. The last one was from Hubspot.com and I verified it was a scam with them.

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