Fraud committed online is a concern for all businesses.
There are many ways to respond when your business is targeted by criminal action. In the recent case of Cargill, Incorporated v Cargill Financial Services International Pty Ltd [2024] FCA 604, the applicant relied on its registered trade marks to force the fraudster to change its name, mitigating the risk of future damage to the applicant.
Cargill Incorporated (Cargill) is a large multinational group. Cargill owns registered trade marks for the word “Cargill”, as well as the domain name licence “cargill.com”.
An individual (unrelated to Cargill) purchased a licence for the domain name “cargiii.com” (rogue address). When the last two letters of the domain are capitalised (e.g. cargiII.com), the domain name looks almost identical to “cargill.com”. The rogue address was used to direct payments meant for Cargill to an unrelated bank account in the name of Cargill Financial Services International Pty Ltd (CFS), a company registered in Australia. Thankfully, the payments were stopped before they could be processed. The risk of ongoing fraud, however, remained for Cargill, prompting it to file proceedings out of the Federal Court of Australia for (amongst others) trade mark infringement.
The Federal Court of Australia determined that CFS had infringed on Cargill’s trade marks. Unsurprisingly, the respondents made no appearance in the proceedings. In circumstances where the fraudster was unlikely to comply with any directions, the Federal Court of Australia made orders permitting Cargill (through its solicitor) to take the necessary steps to change CFS’ name and bank account. Neither ASIC nor the National Australia Bank (CFS’ bank) wished to be heard on the matter, indicating that they likely took no issue with the Federal Court of Australia’s proposed orders.
Cargill saved itself from a significant loss by discovering the fraud and stopping the payment before it was too late. Cargill was then able to rely on its registered trade marks to obtain orders from the Federal Court of Australia permitting it to change CFS’ name and bank account to reduce the risk of further issues arising. This case demonstrates how important it is for a business to remain vigilant of online scams. Often, similar domain names are used as the primary weapon to commit fraud. It is, therefore, important to ensure all domain names (including similar variations) are registered. Further, registered trade marks can be a vital tool in combating online fraud. A business should register its trade marks at the earliest opportunity, to ensure they are available when needed.
If you require assistance or advice in relation to domain names and trade marks, do not hesitate to contact Iain Freeman or Andrew Sutton.
