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2020 CG Documentation Scam Identification

Christian Williams

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I actually called the number. I think the new scam "Attention final Notice" is more official-looking than in previous years. I was suspicious because a young man answered immediately.

"Hey, is this the scam I have reached?"

"Oh no, sir!"

"What is the charge for your service?"

"$75, sir!"

Yeah, well, it's really $26 flat of course and you pay the US Treasury, not "Vessel Documentation Portal."

Old news, but it almost got me this year.

. CCI08272020.jpg
 
1911tex

1911tex

Sustaining Member
Jeewhiz...this shi_ never ends...almost a daily enterprise in innumerable venues that must payoff profitably if enough suckers get sucked in. This crap needs to be forward to the appropriate channels for legal action! These crooks are the slugs of life (not the sailboat mast variety).

I almost got sucked in by such an enterprise when I received a phone call from a law enforcement officer stating my grandson was under arrest across the country...needing bail money...a young persons muffled voice came on "grandpa I need help"! My grandchildren call me Pappy! I got the info to send a money order...and forwarded it to the FBI.
 
N

nquigley

Sustaining Member
I receive a nice reminder letter from USCG about a month before renewal was due. I paid the $26 on-line, and received the new document about a week later. - easy peazy.
 
markvone

markvone

Sustaining Member
I got mine about two weeks ago and was going to post. What tipped me off was how early it arrived compared to the typical USCG letter and the not .gov website.

Mark

Non USCG Documentation Form.jpg
 
Loren Beach

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
This barely-legal scam has been mentioned here before and BoatUS publishes warnings about this every year to its members.
(sigh...)

They just keep at it. :( They must figure that there are enough new & gullible boat owners to lure in.
 
Tin Kicker

Tin Kicker

Sustaining Member
Moderator
A bit of a tangent, but since a couple of you others have web-sites and blogs too, it may be worth sharing a shake-down I'm currently struggling with. When setting up my site, I used photos of things I'd been involved with and one was of an airplane after a foreign accident. I'm pretty sure I took the photo and definitely was a part of the Government investigation. As usual, the Govt provided a lot of our photos to the press because media are not allowed on accident sites and while the Govt does not copyright photos and retains usage rights, the press MAY copyright them when they do distribution. When I made my site, I used a copy of that photo off the web and knew enough to not use one with a copyright marking.

Fast forward and I recently got a copyright infringement notice with a claim for $710 from a Canadian company called PicRights. While first thinking this is a scam, checking closer after their 3rd notice and threat of legal action by their partner Higbee & Associates, it turns out this is a very legal shake-down. PicRights has a web-crawler that searches for use of photos published by Agence France Press (AFP) and AFP had published the same Govt photo I used. It doesn't matter to them if mine has no marking or not, they have claimed copyright and I just joined a long list of other victims of this.
https://copyright-demand-letter.com...t-letters-making-noise-in-the-us/#comment-839

These guys are so prolific that there is a competing legal group just to fight them, which is crazy!
https://copyright-demand-letter.com/higbee-associates-copyright/

As a result, I ended up re-populating my website with almost entirely new photos that I can show source on, mainly from Government dockets or my own personal photos. I've also asked the foreign Government for a release on the photo to hopefully negate this whole claim, but if they can't get back by the due date, my other half who is a lawyer says that I probably just ought to negotiate a settlement (guessing around $350-400?), pay up, and move on.

Bottom line is to be extremely aware of the photos you are using on your web-sites and blogs.
 
1911tex

1911tex

Sustaining Member
Tin Kicker said:
A bit of a tangent, but since a couple of you others have web-sites and blogs too, it may be worth sharing a shake-down I'm currently struggling with. When setting up my site, I used photos of things I'd been involved with and one was of an airplane after a foreign accident. I'm pretty sure I took the photo and definitely was a part of the Government investigation. As usual, the Govt provided a lot of our photos to the press because media are not allowed on accident sites and while the Govt does not copyright photos and retains usage rights, the press MAY copyright them when they do distribution. When I made my site, I used a copy of that photo off the web and knew enough to not use one with a copyright marking.

Fast forward and I recently got a copyright infringement notice with a claim for $710 from a Canadian company called PicRights. While first thinking this is a scam, checking closer after their 3rd notice and threat of legal action by their partner Higbee & Associates, it turns out this is a very legal shake-down. PicRights has a web-crawler that searches for use of photos published by Agence France Press (AFP) and AFP had published the same Govt photo I used. It doesn't matter to them if mine has no marking or not, they have claimed copyright and I just joined a long list of other victims of this.
https://copyright-demand-letter.com...t-letters-making-noise-in-the-us/#comment-839

These guys are so prolific that there is a competing legal group just to fight them, which is crazy!
https://copyright-demand-letter.com/higbee-associates-copyright/

As a result, I ended up re-populating my website with almost entirely new photos that I can show source on, mainly from Government dockets or my own personal photos. I've also asked the foreign Government for a release on the photo to hopefully negate this whole claim, but if they can't get back by the due date, my other half who is a lawyer says that I probably just ought to negotiate a settlement (guessing around $350-400?), pay up, and move on.

Bottom line is to be extremely aware of the photos you are using on your web-sites and blogs.
Click to expand...
Tin Kicker: Try to find a Pro-Bono copyright attorney (with benefits retained by your attorney) to sue PicRights on your own, contiguous with the competing legal group. This drives me up a wall!
 
Tin Kicker

Tin Kicker

Sustaining Member
Moderator
1911tex said:
Tin Kicker: Try to find a Pro-Bono copyright attorney (with benefits retained by your attorney) to sue PicRights on your own, contiguous with the competing legal group. This drives me up a wall!
Click to expand...

After doing some research, somebody else has done just what you suggested, lost, and PicRights has now increased the stakes by suing them.

I have the attorney literally in house. While Karen believes that since I can prove the person who claims rights is not the original "artist" and that this was a Government photo so should be covered by a Federal law known as 105, the $400-ish is not worth going to court over. Yes it sucks to be robbed.
 
Christian Williams

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Does your in-house attorney think anybody will go to court over $700? What court would it be and what jurisdiction? How would enforcement occur? What is the effect on credit rating?

Somebody is making a commission writing lawyer letters. I'd throw the letters away.

It's wrong to use copyrighted photographs without consent, of course. Accidental use should be taken down, and I sincerely doubt any claim thereafter would be successful.
 
1911tex

1911tex

Sustaining Member
"Somebody is making a commission writing lawyer letters. I'd throw the letters away." Yep.

I would put "incorrect address" or "No one here by that name/return to sender" on the envelope and I'll bet they would not spend the time/energy/postage to try to correct and file 13 the returned letter. Might make you feel better.
 
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