After McDonald's and Hindustan Unilever, Kajaria Ceramics Limited was the recent target to fall prey to the scam of cyber phishing. The latest variant of the scam, wherein ‘Scammers’ or ‘Phishers’ create fake websites of popular companies using deceptively similar domain names. These scammers use trademarks and copyrighted content of the popular brands and replicate the look and feel of the brand’s original website on their phishing websites.. Thereafter they offer fake dealerships and franchises to the aspirants and dupe them of their hard-earned money. Once duped by such scammers, these aspirants take actions against the original brands, who are completely unaware of such scams being done.
Kajaria is a reputed manufacturer of ceramic tiles. The cause of action arose when Kajaria came across an Imposter through a phishing website by the domain name of www.kajariadealership.com which was offering fake Kajaria tiles dealerships. Therefore it filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell Badarpur Police Station, New Delhi in January 2021, which is being investigated.
Source- Screenshot from Google Search on 24/01/2022
Kajaria thereafter approached the Delhi High Court seeking a decree of mandatory injunction restraining the imposter/phishing website from infringing its registered trademark ‘KAJARIA’ (TM Application No. 1035596), its variations thereof, copyright in its brand logo
and misusing its domain name, website, etc., and other ancillary reliefs.
*We claim no copyright rights in the above images. They have been used for representational and academic purposes only.
Kajaria claimed that the said website was a replica of its genuine website www.kajariaceramic.com and that the imposter has copied all the distinctive features from its website with the intention to defraud the general public. Kajaria further claimed that the imposter/phishing website is charging INR 10,00,000/- towards the grant of fake dealership of Kajaria and duping innocent dealership aspirants.
The Court held that Kajaria has established a prima facie case in its favor. The imposter/phishing website is defrauding the public by deceiving them into believing that it is associated with Kajatia and authorized to grant dealerships on behalf of Kajaria. In addition to this, the imposter/phishing website is also seeking personal documents such as Aadhaar Card, PAN Card, bank accounts statement, etc. from dealership aspirants, which can be misused further in defrauding such people. Therefore the balance of convenience also lies in favor of Kajaria and irreparable harm and injury would be caused to it, if the interim reliefs are not granted.
Having observed that the essential elements in Order 39 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 standing satisfied, the Delhi High Court granted a temporary injunction in favor of Kajaria restraining the imposter/phishing website from infringing Kajaria’s registered trademarks and variations thereof, copyright in its brand logo and website content, and from using any domain names, website, emails Ids, business paper, corporate stamps, business listings, social media accounts, etc. or any other similar business identification.
The Domain registrar GODADDY.COM LLC (companies that facilitate the purchase and reservations of domain names.) was directed to suspend the domain name kajariadealership.com from its server and was also directed to disclose the complete identity of the registrant of the impugned domain name kajariadealership.com from its records including, the names, address, phone numbers, email Ids, billing, and payment details.
Furthermore, the bank cccounts that the Imposter/ phishing website was using was directed to be immediately frozen and the banks were also directed to disclose the identity of the beneficiaries of account nos., file their complete bank account opening forms, KYC documents, bank statement from the date of the opening of accounts, and disclose if any other bank account has been opened based on same Aadhaar Card, PAN Card, in any of its other branches.
Finally, the mobile network providers were directed to immediately disable the two mobile numbers used by the imposter/phishing website and directed to disclose the identity of the holder of the two mobile Numbers.
The matter is now listed for hearing on 06th July 2022.
It is important to understand that if one happens to be an owner of a brand, then he/she has to be vigilant with respect to such phishing websites with deceptively similar domain names. Similarly, if one happens to be a dealership or a franchisee aspirant then he/she should check the validity of the concerned dealership thoroughly before investing your money in such dealerships.
