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Amazon Was Tricked By a Fake Law Firm Into Removing a Popular Product, Costing the Seller $200,000 (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tricked-ya dept.

Eugene Kim, reporting for CNBC: Shortly before Amazon Prime Day in July, the owner of the Brushes4Less store on Amazon's marketplace received a suspension notice for his best-selling product, a toothbrush head replacement. The email that landed in his inbox said the product was being delisted from the site because of an intellectual property violation. In order to resolve the matter and get the product reinstated, the owner would have to contact the law firm that filed the complaint. But there was one problem: the firm didn't exist. Brushes4Less was given the contact information for an entity named Wesley & McCain in Pittsburgh. The website wesleymccain.com has profiles for five lawyers. A Google image search shows that all five actually work for the law firm Brydon, Swearengen & England in Jefferson City, Missouri. The phone number for Wesley & McCain doesn't work while the address belongs to a firm in Pittsburgh called Robb Leonard Mulvihill. The person who supposedly filed the complaint is not registered to practice law in Pennsylvania. One section on Wesley & McCain's site stole language from the website of the Colby Law Office. The owner of Brushes4Less agreed to tell his story to CNBC but asked that we not use his name out of concern for his privacy. As far as he can tell, and based on what CNBC could confirm, Amazon was duped into shutting down the seller's key product days before the site's busiest shopping event ever.

3 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Swearengen by Dancindan84 · · Score: 4, Funny

    all five actually work for the law firm Brydon, Swearengen & England in Jefferson City, Missouri.

    Cocksuckers!

    --
    "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
  2. Re: There needs to be an DMCA review with fines pa by LocalH · · Score: 3, Funny

    >Anonymous Coward
    >I guess what we really need is a non-anonymous internet

    gud1

    --
    FC Closer
  3. Re: Sue who? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 3, Funny

    My apologies. What I had intended to baselessly assert was that you're a no-good Commie intent on the destruction of our wholesome, American values. After all, every decent American hates the DMCA, so it's clearly responsible for the evils being perpetuated here. The fact that you would dare imply otherwise suggests you're the sort of treasonous person who enjoys clubbing baby seals between attending Nazi rallies and crafting your next astroturf post against net neutrality.

    A pox on you and your kind, good sir!