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Hrm, interesting.

The Cease and Desist letter company looks quite fictitious. There's no contact information, no site maps, and nothing that shows this company can legally do what they are doing.

This could be interesting, because if this is fake, yak, you could actually issue a lawsuit.


EDIT
This is a PI link
http://www.investigators.net.au/?gclid=CILjrtCEi7cCFUYdpQodfCgAYg

i know this is only adding to the conspiract but:

on that site at no point does it reference germany, use german or even use german terminology, secondly there is no actual contact information (address etc) - something required for businesses operating in the EU. Oh and its copyrighted 2013, not many companies keep their website that up to date.

the only britcon i have ever heard of and can find using google is from the uk is an engineering firm from my home town:
http://www.britcon.co.uk/
the only german reference i can find is for a military convention, similar to adepticon but for dressing up as military figures etc

i also note (after receiving one of these mysef in the past) the contact details are incomplete, there is no contact number for example, though i acknoledge this may be out of choice. In addition as already pointed out the Ltd is not a german standard. there are too manythings look wrong with this to me. if these details are on the origional then i suggest the mods at Dakka check them.

also as a follow up the postal code from the address is wrong its is 91052 and the actual one is 91058, i appreciate this may be a typo but if so it wouldnt take your to the address of kanalstr 2 when on google maps, and this address appears to take you to a residential address - just with a quick look

finally the only mention of an M duerkop i can find on the net relates to the author of a few documents in the late 70's relating to deviant behaviour or in 1915 where one was prosecuted for trading with the enemy.

there is something very fishy about this C&D, and the legal team in the office agree, but with out a scanned copy showing all detail that cant comment more as they suspect that some details have been left off when posted.

 Doctadeth wrote:
Would it be too much to ask to get victims of Matthew and Jason to actually contact these private investigators and present the evidence of this trio's wrongdoing?

Whilst cease and desist letters fired off at defamatory activity is an easy task, when presented with hard evidence of their employers legal wrongs it would be difficult to recover from.

I have a feeling that the only reason these people in germany were hired, is that they might not be doing all the background research of their clients that might actually be of benefit.

Either the company Britcons is legit, in which case they will not work against the interest of their employer -- Daniel Mandelbaum, associates and Resin Forge LLC.

Or, they are a sham company set up for some odd purpose, in which case they will not be in the business of sorting out refunds for mail order people in the US.

on that site at no point does it reference germany, use german or even use german terminology, secondly there is no actual contact information (address etc) - something required for businesses operating in the EU. Oh and its copyrighted 2013, not many companies keep their website that up to date.

Look at the address on the C&D letter mate, seems you already have!, I do think it is strange and there is no britcons ltd registered in the UK either

MarkyMark wrote:

on that site at no point does it reference germany, use german or even use german terminology, secondly there is no actual contact information (address etc) - something required for businesses operating in the EU. Oh and its copyrighted 2013, not many companies keep their website that up to date.

Look at the address on the C&D letter mate, seems you already have!, I do think it is strange and there is no britcons ltd registered in the UK either

those comments about the address refer to the site not the letter - though thats dodgy too with regards to addressing! there are too many holes but i guess we could all be wrong

As assorted others have posted, the C&D is singularly lacking. One would have to see a scan of the original, but I'd be unsurprised to find out that it's all just made up and codswallop. Not least because whoever sent it evidently knows bugger all about the law.

Given Mr Mandelbaum is resident in the US, one would have expected him to be retaining US counsel. Who would then inform him that the DMCA safe harbour provisions protect the owners of a site from comments made by individuals on that site (so you can't sue youtube because of a posted comment on a video). Or, of course, they don't inform him of this.

Moreover, there are significant legal protections in the US for freedom of speech, and while by no means absolute, courts have a trend to interpret a statement made on internet fora such as 'he is a scammer' as 'in my opinion, he is a scammer'.

In no way is this putting name and descriptor into the same post...

Purely for my own curiosity I went and had a look at the britcons website and it seems very basically designed, in under an hour by the looks and not something you would associate with any company that would be sending out legal threats or advice. Also the source code of the website is quite sloppy. Interestingly the owner of the domain is hidden and they have used a domain proxy company to register the website to keep the owner hidden. Why would a company do this? I just can't figure that bit out.

Also it's a self edited website http://www.squarespace.com/ anyone could register a domain by proxy and setup a site like this in under an hour to seem legitimate.

Interestingly if you do a google search of britcons it comes up with...

BRITCons
www.britcons.com/‎
Welcome to: britcons.com. This Web page is parked for FREE, courtesy of GoDaddy.com. This web page is parked FREE, courtesy of GoDaddy.com. Share a ...

Which to me seems like the website hasn't long been up and running. All could be innocent and all but doesn't it seem rushed to you guys?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I might add...

http://infoguys.com/directory/ListingDisplayPrint.aspx?lid=3104

Britcons Security Consulting
brambelstr.19
nuremberg 91052
Germany
License Number: N/A
ID# 003104


Isn't that the wrong address?

If you do not comply with this cease and desist demand, my client is entitled to seek monetary damages and equitable relief for your defamation. In the event you fail to meet this demand, please be advised that my client has asked us to communicate to you that he will pursue all available legal remedies, including seeking monetary damages, injunctive relief, and an order that you pay court costs and attorney’s fees. Your liability and exposure under such legal action could be considerable.

If you do not comply with this cease and desist demand within this time period, [CLIENT NAME] is entitled to seek monetary damages and equitable relief for your defamation. In the event you fail to meet this demand, please be advised that [CLIENT NAME] has asked us to communicate to you that she will pursue all available legal remedies, including seeking monetary damages, injunctive relief, and an order that you pay court costs and attorney’s fees. Your liability and exposure under such legal action could be considerable.

Taken from http://minnesotaattorney.com/cease-desist-defamation-of-character-template-example-sample-form/

Second result on google for cease and desist results (First one being wiki), hmmmmmmmmmm


That part is word for word grammer for grammer exact, even the first part is the same ish

Pretty sure that letter has been merely copied from that website and populated with basic details with a few bits swapped around.

Fun fact, that lawyer company he listed are going to very unhappy with him... that's not a legal company;
That's a civil engineering, construction and steelwork contractor based out of Scunthorpe, UK.
http://www.britcon.co.uk/

Guy on Facebook pointed out to me it's even the wrong postcode for said city and street.

Also Ltd is not in use in german companies, its AG AB etc, LTD is a UK name for a limited liability company (of which I have two) and they are NOT on the companies house as a limited company, therefore they are not a ltd company in the UK


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Inquisitor S. wrote:
Guy on Facebook pointed out to me it's even the wrong postcode for said city and street.

C&D letter was probably copied by Yakface, theres a chance it is a typo, so not enough to go on.

Resinforge.com was registered using a UK company, it truly is a multinational affair.

And even the street in Nuernberg doesn't exist.

Oh another fun fact, go to the about us page of the "Britcons LTD" They are security company... They are not a law firm, also every major law firm I've come across tends not to be LTD...
http://britcons.com/about/

And Britcons doesn't show any of the required contact information for a business operating in either the US or the EU.

Of course what are the changes that I grew up just 30 minutes from Nuernberg/Erlangen. Might be able to have some locals check something out for me...

I'm not sure what it means exactly, but the domain Britcons is valid from June 12 2012 to June 14th 2014. However, it says the registry for this domain was updated on the 7th of this month. Registered through GoDaddy so I can't see who actually owns the domain. The dates that the domain is valid might just be how long GoDaddy has the rights to said domain. The server that hosts the website is in New York. I don't know if that means he bought the domain for a short period of time, or what. This is to say if it *were* fictitious. Going back I did find some looking for work type ads for "Britcons" from 2012 on a random page. Like I said, I don't know what it means, but I did as much digging as I could. However, I do find it kind of odd that someone living in Texas would outsource a C&D from a company that is supposedly based in Germany. Who knows.

ETA: I got ninja'd a while back. Thats what I get for going off and doing something, then coming back and posting a reply.

Looks like Britcons prides themselves as a veteran-owned business, and a good number of veterans play wargames.

So it is possible that a veteran who wargames and also knows someone with Britcons liked the ResinForge facebook page and decided to lend a helping hand.

Now just because it's possible.....

Just to throw our 2 pence in, i just googled the address and the nearest match was a construction firm in scunthorpe, UK. No securtiy firm found at all. That and as others have said, Britcons is a british name not a German one, and the LTD is mainly British by use. This whole thing reeks of a last ditch defence by a certain someone.

And even the street in Nuernberg doesn't exist.

Why Nuernberg? I thought Erlangen?

We got the UK, the letter from Erlangen, and their add for a security firm in Nuernberg.

 yakface wrote:


Roughly a week ago a thread was started on Dakka claiming that the owner of the company Resin Forge was none other that Daniel Mandelbaum.

A couple of days ago, I received a Cease & Desist letter sent on behalf of Resin Forge and the owners of the company listed in the letter: Mr. Daniel Mandelbaum, Mr. Jason Martin & Mrs. Kim Hernandez, essentially asking me to stop defaming their clients (which would be both Resin Forge and its owners), claiming that this defamation has led to improper personal information being shared as well as alleged threats of bodily harm up to and including death.

Out of curiosity where was the post mark from on the envelope?

Resin Forge Store
30 minutes ago
---- News Update ----
Due to the high volume of business, and requests by customers for a Resin Forge Service Number, we can now be reached at 1-214-632-6446, 9am-9pm, US, Central Time, Monday - Saturday. Please have any and all pertinent information and/or documents you may feel will help, when calling so that we can help you in a prompt and professional manner.

As that was a public announcement we'll leave all that up.

Don't do anything daft please folks.

IIRC the C & D was in the form of an email.

I know that they posted their number, but this just seems crazy enough for them to claim "Look, they now poster our number on DakkaDakka, they are wanting people to call me and threaten me!"

Probably better served with something like "Looks like they posted a number on their Facebook now".

That way, if for some strange reason their Facebook post is gone in the future, Dakka doesn't look like we posted a number that they didn't provide.

Edit: Got ninja'd by reds8n...

Possibly so.

As/when/if they remove the info we will, of course, happily do the same.

No problem with me! Just doing my part as a concerned Dakkanaut.

Did a little research of the Britcons website text...

The Britcons home page appears to be generally plagiarized and rearranged from the homepage of the Sharp End International home page text (taken from the wayback machine earlier in the year as that site won't seem to load currently).

A few really good examples are:


-----


The rest of the Britcons site seems to be even more directly ripped off from a variety of private security websites:

The brticons.com About Us page, 1st paragraph:

Compared with the Wayback machine archive of the Sharp End International 'About Us' page from earlier this year:

The brticons.com About Us page, 2nd paragraph:

Compared with the Wayback machine archive of the Sharp End International 'About Us' page from earlier this year:

The brticons.com About Us page, 3rd paragraph:

Compared with the Wayback machine archive of the Sharp End International 'About Us' page from earlier this year:

The brticons.com About Us page, 4th paragraph:

Compared with the DynCorp International 'About Us' Overview:

The brticons.com About Us page, 5th paragraph:

Compared with the Wayback machine archive of the Sharp End International 'About Us' page from earlier this year:

The brticons.com About Us page, Our Staff section:

Compared with the Tactical Solutions International 'About Us' page, Our Staff section:


-----


The brticons.com services page, Consulting & Investigations section:

Compared with this page from the Andrews International services page:

The brticons.com services page, Specialized Services section:

Compared with the specialized services page from Andrews International:

No address or phone number.
No business registration.
No phone number for the proprietor.

 -Loki- wrote:

Creeperman wrote:
I have to admit to being a little concerned about the precedent being set here. In the future, what's to prevent any individual or company mentioned on these forums from filing a defamation case over any negative feedback, no matter how well-deserved? Will those cases also result in removed threads?

No defamation case has been made. This was simply a cease and desist with the threat of one, as unlikely as it might have been actually happening.

yakface made the logical move in accepting it, since it proved 100% what the other thread was all about - confirming it was Mandelbaum. Nothing would be served in doing anything else, because it's mission accomplished.

Regardless of how logical and understandable a move it may be, the takeaway from this for anyone thinking about scamming wargamers is that they will likely be able to get any negative characterisation of their "business" removed from the forums, or at least extremely heavily toned down(note how everything has become legalish; "alleged" this and "improper terms" that), because they know that the person ultimately responsible for Dakka as an entity is on the hook for any potential legal action, and so is disinclined to fight any C&Ds sent unless they're completely outrageous in their demands. Even if those C&Ds are highly suspect and appear to come from a company that doesn't exist in the form described.

And I might be mistaken, but I was under the impression that the other thread was about informing the community of the danger of dealing with Resin Forge, since it was made clear in the OP of that thread that Mandlebaum's association with Resin Forge was already confirmed. "Warning: doing business with this guy could well be a serious mistake" and "This guy who might possibly allegedly have not always fulfilled his orders according to some people has sent us a C&D" both link Mandlebaum and Resin Forge, but are two completely different characterisations of the facts, one of which might be more palatable to a lawyer, but doesn't do nearly the same job in conveying justifiable caution to anyone giving it a perfunctory browse.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
No address or phone number.
No business registration.
No phone number for the proprietor.

Next to no results on searches either for a company that claims to have been operating for 3 years. This implies they're either BS or have been sitting on their hands around the computer trying to figure this whole internet thing out.

I think this sums it up adequately.


I don't think the names being similar even has to be pointed out as coincidental; even that part's lazy. Makes you wonder if they purposely did this because they were cocky or maybe even to try and throw people off since it wasn't as good as the other covers they've made.

It doesn't actually matter if the Britcons is a front or not. The point is that a response had to be made to the C&D.

If it should turn out that the Britcons is a sham, that would be a reason to be suspicious about Resin Forge and its proprietors. However it is not proved.