A Fake Law Firm Making DMCA Threats

Apparently there are a bunch of fake lawyers on the internet

Based in Phoenix, Commonwealth Legal Services is composed of knowledgable and highly experienced attorneys who represent their clients in a variety of legal claims. Except that they don’t. Commonwealth Legal Services, and their legal team, are about as legit as a three-dollar bill.

Here’s their website https://www.commonwealth-team.net/ (archived link: https://archive.is/vd8dZ), and here is one of their AI-generated fake lawyers https://www.commonwealth-team.net/attorneys/alan-young/ (archived link: https://archive.is/uVo9D).

Why ask when you can have a fake lawyer issue a threat?

Those with a little experience in online marketing will be familiar with backlinks and how they work. Basically, a backlink is created when someone links from their website to your website, and search engines such as Google consider this to be an endorsement of your website. You want quality backlinks if you want to grow your website’s status online.

Sometimes people ask others for a backlink. It’s also common for people to buy backlinks (like when a lawyer pays for a profile on Lawyers of Distinction). Note that Google does not like the practice of buying backlinks, and they have been known to punish those who do it. In the case of Commonwealth Legal Services, someone is making threats via this fake firm, and they’re offering to avoid litigation if the target creates a backlink to a particular website. Specifically, they are threatening a DMCA action if the target does not make a link to a shady website that the scammers are trying to promote.

Recent targets include a writer by the name of Ernie Smith (he describes his encounter here: https://writing.exchange/@ernie/112180217732787648), and a website known as Specky Geek (https://speckygeek.com/copyright-notice-phishing-emails/).

Stay safe out there

Are you familiar with fake lawyers online? Have you seen this type of scam lately? If so, we’d love to hear about the details.

Thanks for reading, and let’s stay vigilant online. The internet is only going to get more wild and crazy with the proliferation of so-called Artificial Intelligence!