Avvo.com lawsuit.
Avvo.com has won a lawsuit it filed against the Chinese operators of an elaborate phishing scheme.
A Federal Court in Arizona delivered a $2 million dollar judgement against hackers who created a spoofed web site, that copied the well-known legal review web site.
Randazza Legal Group, PLLC represented Avvo in this successful lawsuit.
In Avvo, Inc. v. Chang Liang, et al., the defendants engaged in a “phishing” scam, and created fake websites that copied these Avvo profiles entirely, in an effort to trick consumers and lawyers into revealing personal or confidential information.
According to the lawsuit, the Defendants Chang Liang and Huang Shaoqing operated a website located at wyhes.com, t6t7.net, and potentially other domain names.
The fake Avvo web site was a complete “rip” of the Avvo.com content.
Website ripping is the process of copying an entire website, including all of its text, images, videos, and its underlying code, so that the entire site is a complete duplication of the original website.
“We are delighted that Avvo had the confidence in us to handle such an important matter,” said Managing Partner, Marc Randazza.
“The Court not only awarded damages and costs for prospective corrective advertising, but also granted full attorneys’ fees under the Octane Fitness standard.
Avvo stood up to protect privacy, fight against phishing, and got a significant judgement.”
According to the press release by the Randazza Group:
The Lanham Act permits fee awards in “exceptional cases” and the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Octane Fitness that an exceptional case is one that “stands out from others.”
Here, the District Court specifically found that this case is “exceptional” under the Octane Fitness standard because the hackers’ fake website blatantly and egregiously duplicated Avvo’s intellectual property for nefarious purposes.
Merely winning a case is not enough to qualify as “exceptional” under the Lanham Act. The phishing scam and the degree of proof made this case exceptional.
Randazza and the attorneys at Randazza Legal Group hope that this case will serve as a warning to hackers and thieves who engage in phishing scams.
You can read the court order document below:
Note: The Randazza Legal Group is an advertiser on DomainGang.com. This article was compiled from public information sources, and additional information provided by the Randazza Legal Group.
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