[Avamander]

You don't just need the VMC itself, you have to get a registered trademark, which is also probably up there in the thousands.

> I do not know how valid the paper trail concern is; I haven’t gone through the VMC procedure(s).

You can currently steal a credit card, lie to a registrar and start your phishing campaign. Having to have a legal entity for a phish paints a nice target on your back.

[pnpnp]

I haven’t been through the trademarking process myself, but I would assume that a LOT of them exist.

Would it be possible to register a trademark that looks similar to another company’s and impersonate them? I can’t imagine the process would be 100% effective.

Sure the company would probably notice pretty quickly, but not before you’ve spear phished a couple clients.