Organisations are now using Social Media as a main stream communication channel to conduct their business. This has brought about a unique set of challenges with the criminals turning to this medium to target and perpetrate their crime. Criminals can easily set up fake or duplicate media accounts, readily establish trust and act in a fraudulent manner.

Imposters with malicious intent are turning to social media as a simple method of social engineering for a variety of purposes. They would normally regurgitate genuine news and information, to establish trust and gain a large number of followers, before using the fake profile for malicious purposes.

Some potential uses for a fake social media profile are to:

• Direct customers to a phishing site to gain login information
• Direct customers to a drive by download malware site to infect their machine
• Sell communication or a company’s customers (followers) details to a competitor
• Communicate false information in an attempt to influence the share price of a company
• Sell a successful social media profile for a brand back to the legitimate brand owner

The cost of Social Media Brand Abuse

Social media brand impersonation could have financial impact on a company, but regardless of how it’s used, it is likely to do serious damage to a brand’s reputation. The risks of not acting on social media brand abuse are:

• Financial losses
• Damaged reputation
• Aggravated customers

Take control of Social Media

Don’t be caught out by a professional social media impersonator. FraudWatch International provides a comprehensive solution to monitor hundreds of popular global and localised social media sites for fake social media profiles impersonating the client’s brand. Our monitoring and detection will alert the client to a potentially impersonated profile for confirmation by the client prior to it being taken down.