MarkMonitor

These people as one user mentioned hide behind the vero programm, they ignore your messages if you question them. They have an insider who they are not reporting, they allow him to sell malwarebytes which is a product for a company who do not allow resellers on ebay.

This company's ownership has been passed from one organization to another, now newfold.com. They facilitate sending mass scam/spam emails, such as alleged expiration of Norton anti-virus subscriptions, Geek Squad, etc. You deny any responsibility. There is no phone number to call to speak with anyone at this fraudulent company. One can forward emails endlessly to *******@markmonitor.com, *******@markmonitor.com, without response or resolution. I have been reporting each and every one of these spam/scam emails to the FCC, and anticipate they will be fined into oblivion.

I wouldn't trust a company who's trying to profit by reselling domains, it's just too low. Besides, what they really do? Managing domains? Do yourself a favor, learn some basics about domains, and you will realize they are charging you for trivial stuff really.

My direct experience with the company was while we (our company) was supporting the website of a regional importer for one of the companies that Markmonitor was "supposedly" protecting. Without doing any due diligence they initiated procedures to claim that the local company was infringing on copyright while also promoting counterfeit goods. It was of course absolutely ridiculous because the regional company was the authorized retailer.

Even after the mother company informed them that the regional partner was actually authorized it took almost a month to move on with the procedures that would allow the domain to be released again. Absolutely horrendous response from this company and totally incompetent in making the correct determination. My only hope is that the mother company dropped them after the stupid mixup they created.

These people are a disgrace to honest people trying to sell original products on ebay. They come in and shut you down without any investigation to whether the goods are real or counterfeit. They hide behind the Vero program and when their tactics and trademark vioaltion claims are brought into question they ignore you.

Sure the internet is full of scammers and ripe offs but these guys are not the good guys. They go around shutting everytone down without question or repucutions.

Shame On Them! Use them at your peril - they are not protecting brands, they are hurting them online.

Host spammers and rejects email to required abuse@ address (RFC2142). Block on sight and don't do business with their customers. Given that they appear to 'montor marks' YOU are the mark, and 10:1 they sell lists you never opted into to their spammers.

I wouldn't trust this company with a dime of my money. They come off like they're selling something unique. But the closer you get, the closer you'll come to finding out they're full of it.

Same as everyone else, non stop spam from this hosting company, her is the latest reply to spam abuse from them.

Greetings,
We are in receipt of your request. Please submit your abuse report associated with a Microsoft owned domain via this link: https://msrc.microsoft.com/report/infringement

Please be advised that Markmonitor is the Registrar for the domain and is not the Registrant of the domain name. As a Registrar, Markmonitor registers domain names on behalf of our clients who, as the Registrants, are responsible for the content of such domains (including the domain that is the subject of your notice). Markmonitor has neither control nor responsibility over any of the content of such domains including any related email or website content. Further, Markmonitor neither manages nor operates the servers on which such content is hosted.

For public WHOIS information (e.g. Registrant contact information), please use the form located at the link below.

https://domains.Markmonitor.com/whois/

Sincerely,

Markmonitor Inc.
2150 S. Bonito Way
Suite 150
Meridian, Idaho *******
*******@markmonitor.com
www.Markmonitor.com
*******520

Spam SPAM SPAM SPAM, all markmonitor.com has to offer is SPAM Emails! Any time of the day, any day, all it offers IS SPAM!

Excellent service for all. Only wish China would be more responsible about policing counterfeits.

MarkMonitor is a company which should be of interest to many SJ readers, since it operates on behalf of trademark owners in enforcing their rights and ultimately shutting down sites and sellers that trade illegally in counterfeits or unauthorized products.

Obviously the methods employed to achieve these ends aren't going to be explained in great detail on the website. However, they will tell us that they use an automated monitoring system involving proprietary algorithms and analysis techniques to identify the culprits, followed by more automated enforcement procedures that can lead to shutting these people down. And hooray for that.

One of their highest profile customers is Deckers Outdoor Corporation, owners of, amongst other things, the Ugg Australia brand - one of the most counterfeited brands in the world. Results, according to the published case study, are pretty impressive, with $4.35 million in illegally advertised goods taken offline in a 90-day period.

Although the site is squarely aimed at commercial brand-owners, there's useful information for general readers here too, if you nose around a bit. For example, according to a press release from just a couple of days ago, a study on sports clothing by the company

"... identified more than 1,300 e-commerce Web sites selling questionable jerseys featuring one or more of the five brands in the study. The sites attracted more than 56 million annual visits and sell an estimated 800,000 units annually. The vast majority of these sites were linked to Chinese domain name registrants or registrars.

"The study also discovered more than 4,000 individual, unauthorized suppliers that appear to be offering phony merchandise on twelve B2B exchange sites. This supply chain consists of suppliers who are based predominantly in Asia and are estimated to sell 300,000 jerseys annually.

"Along with their distribution prowess, these fraudsters display a high level of sophistication in promoting their sites and attracting traffic. During the study period, we examined almost 480,000 paid search ads, triggered by more than 280 keyword combinations and found almost 28% of these ads promoted suspicious goods, driving an estimated 11 million annual visits."

Possibly no surprises there, if you're already aware of the counterfeit sports jersey trade, but maybe a useful wake-up call to those who still think those bargains out there really are bargains.

This company also recently acquired another, DtecNet, who are specialists in detecting piracy and the weapon of choice of the RIAA, the music industry's guard dog and bane of the torrent websites.

Even if you aren't a corporation and don't own a brand, you're likely to be a buyer sooner or later. This site gives you an insight into the dangers out there, and some of the behind-the-scenes players who are in the business of meeting those dangers and neutralizing them.