Copyright scam

This should only affect anyone running a website or media operation – but with scammers you never know who they’ll target next.

We were contacted just before Christmas by a company, based in Germany, claiming to represent a photographer, whose copyright work they claimed we had published.

This item related to the birth of endangered birds at Chester Zoo – posted at  https://www.ilovemacc.com/2021/11/09/rare-birds-hatch-at-chester-zoo/

The company, Copytrack-legal’s, e-mail wasn’t the usual scam we’ve all become used to. It was professional, literate, detailed and couched in what appeared to be pretty hard-hitting legal language.

Having spent a number of years in the newspaper business I believe myself savvy in terms of copyright and would always to my utmost to avoid breaching someone’s copyright.

Copytrack were demanding a not unreasonable sum of £300 to settle the claimed breach of copyright – but as the potential ‘breach’ had emanated from Chester Zoo we were confident of our case and challenged their claims.

After several exchanges of email it became evident that they wouldn’t change their position and were intimating court action – which could prove to be very expensive.

As ilovemacc has a long-standing relationship with Chester Zoo, after the Christmas period we sought their input, in the form of confirmation that the images used were authorised by them or their own suppliers. Bear in mind the ‘breach’ had been posted over three years ago so we couldn’t be overconfident of anything.

Things took a turn when Chester Zoo advised us their own staff photographer had produced the images and we had full authorisation to reproduce them. Not only that, the scammers had also contacted Chester Zoo accusing them of the same breach, perhaps not realising that Chester had produced them internally.

Whether we will now lead the scammers on a merry dance hasn’t been decided – but it’s a warning to all that scammers are becoming more clever  – and literate. 

Be safe out there.