Europol recently released its 2024 situation report “Misleading payment request fraud targeting intellectual property rights owners”

The report, which is an update of previous research, highlights scammers’ evolving tactics and trends.

It shows a significant increase in fraudulent activities targeting IP rights holders and applicants, such as email spoofing and phishing attacks, impersonation of IP offices and use of EUIPO’s online database and national IP office registers.

The report estimates that the average fee requested by fraudsters is €1,500 and this results in estimated yearly profits of over €26 million. It adds that the use of digitalization and AI tools has made it easier for scammers to exploit technology and support criminal activity.

EUIPO states: “The EUIPO is committed to protecting IP rightsholders and applicants across the EU and bringing those responsible to justice, working closely with Europol, other law enforcement agencies and the Anti-Scam network to combat this type of fraud.” It coordinates the Anti-Scam Network, of which MARQUES is a member.

EUIPO urges all IP right applicants and owners to be cautious when receiving payment requests and to verify the authenticity of the communication before taking any action. If a payment request includes a bank account that is different from the two EUIPO bank accounts held in Spain (Caixa Bank ES03 2100 2353 0107 0000 0888 and Santander ES08 0049 6659 0121 1622 4792), it does not originate from the EUIPO.

More information is available on the EUIPO website here. The full report is published on Europol’s website here.

MARQUES is firmly committed to fighting scammers who target IP rights owners and the MARQUES Anti-Fraud Task Force has developed a portal to collect reports from MARQUES members about paid or unpaid invoices, which is now fully operational.

More information about the portal, which can be accessed by MARQUES members here, will be published in the May issue of the HouseMARQUES newsletter.

The image shows logos used by companies suspected to be involved in the misleading invoice and payment request fraud and is taken from the Europol report