What action (if any) can I take against a firm of Solicitors for false accusations?

DVardysShadow

You really are missing the danger here. This is some solicitor acting on behalf of a trademark owner, who is rightly aggrieved that fakes of his product are being sold. This is not a solicitor acting for someone who has been conned out of £20.

So, the risk is that the trademark owner will be sufficiently aggrieved to sue your son. The solicitor is playing you for all it is worth to try and get an out of court settlement - and you are falling into it by getting aggrieved. But it is not the solicitor making the accusation, it is probably a firm of private investigators acting on behalf of the manufacturer.

Just think for a moment, the letter probably IS justified if your son is selling fake goods. If that last sentence makes your hackles rise, read it again and realise that you may be bristling too much. Of course, I accept your son is not doing this.

I would suggest that you take a more cooperative line and acknowledge their clients concern over the fake goods and offer to cooperate in dealing with the person who hacked your son's account.

This one will run and run, I think and may potentially go to court. You need letters on record now to help fend this off. As I think you have gone in with the wrong tone, it may be better tactically for your son to deal with the correspondence from now if you agree that a different tone is required..

Yes, I do understand that you are rightly aggrieved. But don't lose the bigger plot by playing the smaller game.

DVardysShadow

worried_jim wrote: »

Just put them in the bin. If a case ever arrives then just take your evidence and hey presto sue for costs.

No, this could turn nasty. All correspondence should be kept as should copies of replies.

Tozer

OP - a little 'legal' tip if you wanted to fire something potent back at the solicitors.

Google "threats actions Trademarks Act".

Assumes, of course, that the solicitors continue to make groundless threats when you have pointed out the apparent error of their ways.

Anihilator

So how did your sons ebay account get activated? What else has the hacker done?

A cynic might suggest your son knowing he would be out the country and with a defence entered into a joint enterprise with a friend to commit a crime.

neilmcl

Has you son made any effort to contact ebay and get his account shut down?

DVardysShadow

Anihilator wrote: »

So how did your sons ebay account get activated? What else has the hacker done?

A cynic might suggest your son knowing he would be out the country and with a defence entered into a joint enterprise with a friend to commit a crime.

Anihilator goes where cynics fear to tread.

soolin

neilmcl wrote: »

Has you son made any effort to contact ebay and get his account shut down?

Forget all the rest, you have hit the nail on the head here.

Someone using the son's ID has been selling fake items, the solicitors have acted on the information that they have to hand probably supplied by ebay. So the question should be 'can your son prove that he has taken steps to recover use of his account and get rid of the hackers?' If the answer to that is yes, then he can defend any claim, if he has let it drift then he will need to come up with something to show he is not actually the one using the account..

That is the problem with identity theft, it is you until you can take reasonable steps to prove otherwise. Ebay act immediately on hacked accounts so don't just let this slide.
Also if someone has hacked his ebay accounts get over to the techie board and ask about a complete PC clean to make sure there is nothing nasty lurking. If it isnn't a virus then son has either compromised his account by responding to a phishing mail or has let someone else access it buy being insecure with logging on or with a bad password.

Oh and lastly, if ebay have handed info over to solicitors they may well have handed it over to HMRC as well for tax purposes, so get this sorted ASAP.