Actually, this notification of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violation is a scam
Odds are you’ve encountered a spam email recently.
It seems that scammers are finding as many ways possible into your inbox.
Around 5am EST, a scammer sent this particular one to me by way of my website’s contact-form:
Screenshot of a contact-form message claiming a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violation
The message contains a link that points to a google-drive-hosted file containing javascript.
Presumably ransomware.
Definitely malware.
Fuck scammers.
There are a few things that made it stand out to me as fake, which I won’t get into a lot of detail here. Among other things, the email’s phrasing and voice are off, to me. Providing a consumer-grade link is also another huge red-flag. There are others; however, I don’t want to unnecessarily provide clues that inadvertently help to make the next one sound more convincing.
You can find numerous warnings (link to Brown University) and blog-posts (link to Trend Micro) on multiple websites (link to Techlicious) that discuss this particular Digital Millennium Copyright Act (link to Topic News) violation scam and are willing go into somewhat greater detail than I am, here.
TL; DR
Don’t fall for an email that looks like the one I received that claims you’ve violated the DMCA in some manner, and don’t click the link (link to Comparitech) contained within the email!
Notifications of DMCA violations are real. There are very specific ways to craft and send them so that they carry legal weight.
This ain’t it.
“adrianfeliciano.com Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Copyright Violation Notice”
From: Domenico [email protected] ( 76.181.145.13 )
What is your website? (If any): slack.com
Message (Required):
Hello,
Your website or a website that your organization hosts is infringing on a copyright protected images owned by our company (slack Inc.).
Check out this report with the links to our images you used at adrianfeliciano.com and our earlier publications to obtain the evidence of our copyrights.
Download it now and check this out for yourself:
[Emphasis mine. I also added extra spaces so it is not a clickable link, but wanted to show what it looked like –Adrian]
http s://storage.googleapis. com/fk9mw3gl3-9ae9e.appspot. com/d/folders/0/public/i/vn39fdbssmvb3.htm l?f=639589534253210748
I believe you’ve intentionally infringed our legal rights under 17 USC Sec. 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages of up to $110,000 as set forth in Section 504(c)(2) of the Digital millennium copyright act (DMCA) therein.
This letter is official notification. I demand the elimination of the infringing materials mentioned above. Please be aware as a service provider, the DMCA requires you to remove and deactivate access to the copyrighted content upon receipt of this letter. If you do not cease the use of the aforementioned copyrighted materials a law suit will be commenced against you.
I have a good self-belief that use of the copyrighted materials mentioned above as presumably violating is not permitted by the copyright owner, its agent, or the legislation.
I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this letter is accurate and hereby affirm that I am certified to act on behalf of the proprietor of an exclusive and legal right that is allegedly violated.
Best regards,
Domenico Mansue
Legal Officer
slack, Inc.
slack.com
10/05/2021
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