Description

I submited a trademark application to the real US Patent office, apparently that is public information once submitted. I received a very official looking email shortly there after explaining next steps of my application process with a requirement to call the "examining attorney" at an assigned date and time. The email contained everything related to my trademark application and full details of the requirements for my scheduled phone call. When I made the phone call I was greeted by a "lawfirm" and "attorney" Parker Howard - phone number 571-560-4924, appointment number 9892. We went through my "application" and the other categories I had to pay for plus the registration time frame of 5 or 10 years along with the associated costs. I opted for the 10 year option. Today (the day after) I woke up suspicious and followed up with my application and learned that my case has not even been assigned to a case worker. When I followed up with my credit card company I learned the the transaction is pending - need to wait until it is posted to file a dispute. Also when I went back through the email and the associated website I was made aware they had a Gmail address listed for customer service - for me this confirmed it was a scam. Followed up on the US Patent office website and read the details of how the public information is used by scammers. https://usptopayment.com/pages/about-us was the fradulent site when I searched online based on what they sent, there is no contact information posted.