If catfishing on dating sites is not sufficiently rewarding, scammers are now catfishing clients of professional service firms. Auckland lawyer James Olsen found his name and photo had been copied on to the profile of another lawyer in what was suspected to be a scam orchestrated out of Nigeria. Getting the site taken down was not straightforward.
Catfishing originated online with dating sites hosting fake identities set up to scam victims. Romance scams have proved the most pernicious; online grooming followed by persistent requests by fraudsters for money to alleviate growing lists of personal and family catastrophes.
In June 2022, Auckland barrister James Olsen learnt of a website having a URL with spelling almost identical to his own, displaying a page containing his name and photo but with the remaining content entirely unrelated to his own business. Visitors to the site were directed to an online source unrelated to Mr Olsen’s law practice. He suspected a scam: his name and photo being used in an advance fee fraud with contacts asked to pay upfront for services which would never be provided. Mr Olsen also found a false LinkedIn profile using his name and photo.
The High Court was told the fake website was registered with US company NameSilo LLC and was hosted out of Belize in central America. NameSilo required an order from a US court before it would take down the site.
In New Zealand, police inquiries identified that the fake site was probably being operated out of Nigeria. Justice Moore issued a take-down order. The website was plainly false and potentially misleading, he said. Perpetrating a fraud appeared to be its only purpose. Enforcement of a New Zealand court order against websites hosted overseas was left to Mr Olsen.
Re Olsen – High Court (22.07.22)
22.127