Potential fraud activity

ed-xpert

Today i received an email from an individual who has been victim of fraud by someone who is using my business name.

The fraudster is advertising on-line and obtaining business using my business name. What he is then doing is taking cash upfront and not completing the job he has been paid for.

Im grateful to the individual who informed me who was keen to make me aware of it.

I contacted the police and was informed that it is a civil matter and i need to get professional help. I was advised that as i have not lost money, it cannot be treated as criminal activity. Is this true ? Surely, i have potentially lost business through someone who is tarnishing my business reputation. It is unclear how long this has been going on for.

Can anyone point me in the right direction, or give me advise on how best to deal with the situation ? Would i be entitled to sue this individual ? I have all his details from the individual that was affected by his wrong doings. Please HELP !!!

Thanks

chalkie99

The fraud appears to be against the people who have paid money for work not completed and it would be up to them to persuade the Police that a crime had been committed.

Your best option might be to get a solicitor to write a cease and desist letter but if the person in question has deliberately set out to con people then he is not likely to take any notice and trying to sue him is probably just throwing money away.

bris

Do you have trademark to the business name? Anyone can use the same name unless, the name is protected. There is nothing you can do about it if you have no trademark on the name.
You have not been a victim unless the other trader has been passing themselves off as you, neither have you suffered any losses for the police to be concerened about.
You could get a solicitor involved to try and get them to stop using the name or maybe even try and trademark the name, in which case the court route would definatly work.
The police are correct though it is a civil matter and costly legal fees can't be avoided if you are to try and stop the problem.

pitkin2020

It is a civil matter as you haven't lost anything physical as such i.e assets or cash, yes you may have lost business but you can not prove you have lost it.

If these people are setting out to defraud people a cease and desist letter directed at them will be totally pointless. You don't mention where they are advertising online. i,e is it a website, gumtree, ebay etc. Depending on how they are advertising their services you would need to get in touch with the ISP, gumtree, ebay directly and explain to them what is happening. They should investigate and either suspend there site/account. That being said though its the people being defrauded that should really do this as you could just be seen as a "competitor" trying to damage another business as you haven't actually lost anything.

You could go after the people yourself for trading off the back of your name if you can prove they are in fact doing that and actually setting out to mislead people and make them think they are your business. A trademark would certainly help as you could effectively stop them from using your name straight away for trademark infringement, but if you don't have one its still possible, just a lot more costly!!

paddyrg

http://www.ipit-update.com/passingoff.htm
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm/t-about/t-protect/t-protect-unreg/t-protect-passingoff.htm

Hope this is helpful

ed-xpert

Thank you for all you replies, really helpful.

The advert was on Gumtree. I've decided not to pursue soon as the business name is not trademark protected and to finance the process of pursuing the individual will only inflict unwanted financial strain.

Thanks again.

pitkin2020

You should still get the person that contacted you and made you aware of the situation to contact gumtree and explain, I would also contact them to and hopefully they will pull they ads.