"lawyer" (Possibly fake) Sent me a cease and desist order

I think this is fake lawyer and is just the owner of the site, but I took it down temporarily until he emails back.



I replied back that how do I know he is a real lawyer when he uses gmail and wireless verizon internet (I did a check) and he provides no references or site to who he is. The way it was worded sounds funny too. Im on hostgator so I'm not sure how careful they are of checking things so I took off the Post on my site as a precaution, since the post brings hardly any traffic and I can replace it with some other site I expose. Thoughts?



Below is a copy of the email:

************************


Subject: Cease and Desist

Legal Department: Attn: Darren Lowery <dalo*****@gmail.com> wrote: We hereby request that you Cease and Desist publication of your libelous claims against our client www.*********.com or you will be facing a lawsuit. In addition...we will contact your ISP by July 28th 2008 to have your entire site shutdown forthwith. You may remedy this situation by removing reference to our client's website and trademarks by that date. Govern yourself accordingly. Website: www.*******.com IP: 75.208.129.121

 

If you didn't provide full name and address where you can look him up and see if he is legitimate I would leave the site up. I host many sites and had someone try this with me and it was simply the upset party on a wifi connection away from home. How was it signed?

 

It just said Attention Legal Department: His name at the top. Then he gave the message.

He actually didn't sign it with his name or anything at the bottom nor any kind of contact information except his stupid gmail address. Actually his gmail address looks like it was made on a whim too.


I told him in the email back that I wanted answers to his identity etc immediately.



My site is up, I just removed the particular POST I have on my site that he is emailing me about cause im talking about his website. The particular post doesn't bring me much if any traffic from search engines anyways, so it is not worth the risk keeping up (for now until this is settled) because I currently host about 17 sites on this account. If I only hosted one site I wouldn't care and tell him to F off, but with 17 I have to be more careful, especially since I like hostgator.

 

I would bet money on the fact its a fake.. any lawyer is gonna sign their name. It's that simple.

 

I think its probably fake too. OK but what if he contacts hostgator if I were to keep it up? I did say some pretty damning things about the store, but it was warranted.

 

well I would suggest you keep a backup of all your sites.. so to be safe... maybe I am just lucky I have an agreement with my datacenter.. they can't tell me to remove any kind of post from my server unless it is porn or warez.. as far as text.. I am free It will take LEGAL court papers for them to force me to remove any text.

 

That I.P address is tracking to New Jersey (You can check yourself if I did it right).


However I did a check on the whois and his whois is in Florida. Seems possible it could be a lawyer if its being sent from New Jersey if he lives in florida? Then again, maybe he is just up there on vacation.

 

I always keep the latest update of my data and template files everyday because you never know. Im on shared hosting. I don't know how hostgator deals with these things, so Im playing it safe. The site only gets like 1500 unique visits a month and probably a handful from the post in question so its obviously not worth it when I have 16 other sites on my account, some getting A LOT more than that in traffic.

 

Or he has a site hosted there? That he could send from server and it show the server ip. There are so many ways.. case in point.. if he lives in Florida...why would his lawyer be in NJ? He could of simply asked a friend to do it too. NJ may just be the main hub for verizon wireless... when I email from my cell it shows from Cali and Im in Ohio..

 

It traces to myvzw.com Im assuming that means = MY Verizon Wireless and you are right that Verizon is probably just centered in new jersey.

I think its a fake, but its my understanding you don't need to be a lawyer to send one. And perhaps when the site owner contacts hostgator he will give contact info etc. So I don't think its wise to risk it cause hostgator might be pretty flaky and its not worth it.

 

As a host and what my lawyer tells me, not to do anything unless it comes from a lawyer, that legally I am not bound to remove anything without a court order, if you really wander email hostgator, tell them you have someone who is not happy and asks their policy. Just do it in email so you have records I have heard good things and bad things about hostgator.

 

OK Ill email hostgator and see what they say.

 

Let me know I would be interested to see how they handle such things

 

Probably fake but you should contact your own ISP and ask them, even though we know its probably fake you'd rather be safe and have your ISP know about it before they receive some email and immediately assume its true.

 

I will. Might not find out till tommorow cause they are usually slow responding.


Ben, I sort of letting them know by describing it when contacting them, but I don't want to give hostgator direct specifics yet, unless the guy actually did contact them.

 

Wow.. they are a big company I kinda thought they would answer faster then that...

 

I have to confirm my email right now. Seems like they changed their ticket system. Yeah they are slow on support.

 

wow.. they can't look up your name?

 

I finally got in to see the ticket. No reply yet LOL All it was to confirm my email for the ticket system.

 

That does not look like a properly formatted C&D. It certainly does not read like a lawyer wrote it. Legal folks don't make idle threats like that either. Tell him to pass along a phone number so you can call him. I suspect they are full of it.

Nigel