Spam Emails - MYSERY COUPON? Quite right!

We’ve all recieved them, just how many often depends on the commonality of your name (and surname) and importantly whether your name is out there in the Internet ether. Spam emails are indiscriminate – its estimated that 90% of all emails sent are spam - sent on the hope that a few unlucky people might take the bait, but there are ways (alongside the sometimes helpful Junk Filters) to reduce the deluge ending up in your Inbox.

We recently received the following email offering a MYSERY COUPON which is quite apt for a spam email. It made us laugh, especially being received by us working in the anti-counterfeiting industry!

However, this serves as a good example to those who may be interested in applying for that job, buying fake drugs or clothes, or requests for assistance by the King Sultan of the Bank of CEO West Chestershire to help him shift his recent inheritance of $100,000,000,000. All spam emails are to be avoided at all costs.

So, what to do about Spam emails?

- If you’ve received what looks like a Spam email try to avoid opening the email and clicking on any links in the message and do not open any attachments such as .jpg or .zip files.

- Don’t reply to or buy anything from a spam email. If you don't recognise the sender (especially if you don't bank with them or send via DHL) delete it or mark it as spam.

- Avoid posting your email address online, on forums, on website pages and even on Facebook and other social networking sites. ‘Spambots’ regularly trawl the net looking for email addresses to add to their databases.

- If you do need to post your email, trick the ‘spambots’ by breaking up your email address so it can be understood by a human and not a computer, for instance info (at) cerberusip (dot) com.

By following the above tips, you'll reduce the chances of your email being detected as active and thus being sent even more spam. Spam filters are getting more effective, but are not fool proof. You may still receive spam in your inbox and genuine emails in your junk folder so it’s best to actively manage these by specifying what are safe email addresses and those that are junk when this occurs.

If your business is being affected by rouge spammers using your IP, get in touch with us today and find out what can be done.

Safe emailing!

New IP for Cerberus

Not only does Cerberus covertly buy domain names and trade marks for our clients, but we also do it for ourselves.

Last month we secured cerberus.biz to use on any future website projects, or even migrate our current site and email to the .biz extension.

We have also been fortunate to be given use of the domain name intellectualproperty.co.uk to compliment our website. We hope to use if for a new blog to provide the latest in IP related matters in the coming months.

If you are interested in covertly buying a domain name or trade mark, please get in touch today and we will talk you through the process. We operate a fixed fee structure which is very competitively priced, regardless of how hours we put into the negotiations and purchase.

Happy New Year from Cerberus!

Another year is here and everyone at Cerberus would like to say Happy New Year for 2012!!

Last year was our most successful yet: We launched of the new BITE program to identify, then aggressively takedown IPR infringing goods sold on hundreds of auction websites across the globe and by the end of 2011 had removed over 50,000 infringing product listings.

Cerberus Turkey moved into new offices in Istanbul and expanded to have seven employees. This has enabled us to meet growing demand for investigation services in Turkey by both local and International clients. From the tracking of 130,000 counterfiet items to a lock up in Istanbul to covert trademark purchases, Cerberus in Turkey offer a comprehensive range of investigation servies to protect Intellectual Property.

Duncan Mee worked on the programme Exposure: On The Run which was shown in October about the tracing of criminals who have skipped bail or have even absconded abroad. We already have a number of other programmes in the making so stay tuned for updates on upcoming releases.

2012 will see Cerberus attend INTA in Washington DC in May and further expand with the opening of a new office to consolidate our international reach. We look forward to working with you in the meantime.

As ever, if you have a trade mark investigation or counterfeiting problem, get in touch today via info@cerberusip.com and we will be happy to assist you.