Retirement? SUCCESS! Goodbye FRAUDULENT “LOW FEE” SCAMMERS – An emotional breakdown of a $6,999 scam by Trademark Crafty and Secure Mark USA tag team.

Good Sunday Morning Client,

ok I am not a great artist. I dated one once, but she’s a long lost story…

This art is the ART OF THE SCAM. How to sucker someone in with a “low fee” $299 offer. Then the “party” (for them) begins.

The first ones to Trademark Crafty charged by SalePush.

Day 1 for 299.00

Day 2 for 1,400.00.

Day 60 for 1,050.00

Day 240 for 1,750.00 (See image below —–>)

These went to Secure Mark USA

1 Year, 1 Month for 1,500.00

1 Year, 3 months for 1,000.00

= $6,999

for 2 trademarks.

OMG. I’ll spare you from the book I could write about how Elita here was scammed.

Here’s the summary.

1) Trademarks take 10 hours, and cost ~$200 each in database costs. A Trademark cannot be done for a mere $299.

2) Secure Mark USA didn’t do ANY legal research whatsoever, let alone comprehensive clearance legal research, as needed, as recommended by any reputable trademark attorney or service.

3) Elita’s trademark is in and filed in just 1 class, not 4 classes as charged. This means $350 in USPTO fees were due. NOT $1400.

4) After 2 months, Elita’s LOGO design was added to the mix, for another $1050 fee. Mysteriously although again in just 1 class, and filed in just 1 class, 3 classes were charged $350 x3 = $1050. (Someone at Secure Mark USA is in trouble for missing that extra $350 they could have reaped. Seriously.)

5) Eight months later came the star of this post, the ABOVE ridiculous FAKE SCAM “Official USPTO Office Action (Official Letter) Trademark Application”. More like a ransom letter demanding $1750 IMMEDIATE 48 hours to PAY UP or be held “in abeyance, and you mark XXXX will not move forward for publication”.

FYI, we are talking about a Federal Trademark being issued at the USPTO. Saying any trademark “is now under consideration for publication under the laws of 50 States” in the first paragraph, then in the 4th paragraph threatening “If the applicant does not respond to this notice within 48 hours of the issue mailing date, or responds by expressly abandoning the application. the process will be paused, and the mark will not be published under the laws of the 50 States”, is just a mish mash of the English language. The USPO is FEDERAL. They do not report, or are concerned with any of our 50 States, let alone ALL of the 50 States. Vice versa!

So, the ploy worked and Elita said “Goodbye” to her $1750.

6) Additional fees of $2500 were charged for worthless monitoring services. I say this because they were unnecessary for Elita’s cat sitting business in North Dakota, even for how widely she is known throughout the State.

Trademark monitoring services are needed for products who need to keep on top of their valuable brands or big enough services to justify the cost. Normally a comprehensive protective search is all that is needed every few years, certainly at the 5 year renewal points – NOT every day as Trademark Crafty / Secure Mark USA and SalePush sold Elita here.

$1750 DEMAND LETTER

From: attorney office <attorneyoffice2003@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, Xxxxxxx xx, xxxx 12:02 PM
To: Xxxxxxx <xxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com>
Subject: Publication Notice Issued By The USPTO for XXXXXXXX.

Dear Elita,

Hope you are doing well, I would like to inform you that your application for the trademark Family Loans Of Temple, bearing the serial number XXXXXXXX, is now under the process of publication. We have received a notice of publication from the USPTO, which I have attached for your reference. Consequently, we are required to pay a publication fee of $35 for each state to the USPTO in order to publish our trademark and secure its registration in all 50 states.

I will now request my finance department to forward the invoice of $1,750 to you. Upon payment of this publication fee, your application will enter the publication phase. Within 30 days from the publication date, any party that believes they may be harmed by the registration of the mark has the right to file a notice of opposition (or request an extension of time) with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. If no objections are raised, a registration will be issued.

Regards,

Nicholas XXXXXXXX

POSTSCRIPT

Trademark Crafty http://trademarkcrafty.com/ disappeared, as we see quiet often

Secure Mark USA https://securemarkusa.com/ is still in business. Watch out!

SalePush seemed to be the merchant service who processes all the charges.

Nicholas XXXXX is a legitimate attorney whose name was usurped by Trademark Crafty.

It is common practice for scammers to pose as real, retired or deceased USA attorneys, stealing their Bar # to gain your trust. Beyond the initial FRAUD, when they sign your trademark application, they then effectively INVALIDATE your new $6,999 trademark because they are not really a USA based attorney.

Their forgery will not hold up in court, nor can Elita ever enforce her trademark against any future infringer. Yes, she’ll still have first use Common Law rights. Nothing can change that. But without the trademark, those rights are NARROWER in sound, appearance and meaning AND shrink to her immediate North Dakota trade area only. Maybe a 20 mile radius of where she advertises. No national rights.

Please see my August 5, 2025 article about what the USPTO does to find and terminate these FAKE applications – https://conta.cc/45b5773.

BEGINNING LETTER FROM ELITA

Hello – just got this email from you. It was in my junk mail folder. Attach find email correspondence from the beginning. I think I got a letter in the mail about someone wanting to use my business name and that I should take the steps to set up a trademark.

I thought the same thing, who would do this? Someone wants my business name,? I’m your basic one-man, shotgun, store front office. Small business office – figuratively AND literally. My office space is around 310 sq. feet, including break/conference/supply/bathroom.

I checked out the letter as best I could. The figures and steps involved in this process stated in the letter were accurate. There were no derogatory reports that I could find. I thought the name of the legal office was strange, Trademark Crafty. Nicholas XXXXX was the only person I spoke with. He contacted me.

You’ll see from the paperwork. I’m forwarding what I have in a file on my computer and will then look in my physical files for what I have.

I just hate this crap – in June this year someone came so close to getting $200,000.00 out of my bank account. My office girl got one of these scam emails telling her she had a 750.00 charge on her paypal account that he was going to help her get back, blah, blah, blah. She was to call an 800 number, and she did. How do these criminals get away with all of this???? I’ll bet that guy’s boss was not happy with losing out on that deal that day. I sent that bank teller a huge box of gourmet cookies. More than you ever wanted to know, right? I’ll get on this now and send what I have.

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We appreciate anyone willing to step up and provide us a little information so we can pass it onto the USPTO. These people are literally saving hundreds of future small business owner from being ripped off.