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What are fake profiles: learn how to protect your brand
branddi ·
Fake profiles have gained more and more attention from brands aware of the digital market. This is because, in addition to the financial losses, fake profiles also affect the credibility and authority of defrauded companies.
It was with this reality in mind that we, at Branddi, created this guide on what a fake profile is and how your brand can protect itself against this threat in a strategic and definitive way. Let's go?
What is a fake profile?
Have you ever searched for your company's name on search engines and social networks and found a profile that does not correspond to your brand's official ones? This reality is becoming increasingly common and is not exclusive to your company.
In short, we call social media pages that use elements from legitimate brands to promote fake offers and products a fake profile. Thus, with the image of established brands, fraudsters are able to generate high profits with unrelated products or offers and services that will never be delivered to consumers.
To better understand the extent of this, we can take as a basis a survey by Adyen with the Center for Economic and Business Research (CEBR). According to the survey, in 2023, fraud resulted in average losses of R$8.5 million per company in the e-commerce sector.
But have you ever stopped to think about why these profiles grow? Understand better in the next topic!
The growth of fake profiles
Also according to the research we mentioned previously, the number of victims of online scams has increased by 70% compared to previous years. However, although they seem obvious, the reasons that lead to the growth in the number of fake profiles go far beyond the simple intention of generating dishonest profits.
This is due not only to the clear objective of these profiles to take advantage of brands' reputations, but also to the ease they find in promoting themselves in the digital environment. Proof of this is that more than 250,000 domains are created on the internet every day, a vast space for the fertile creativity of fraudsters.
And it is in this scenario that these individuals find gaps: with companies that are unable to monitor all cyber threats in real time. As a result, they suffer losses not only financially but also in credibility.
How do fake profiles threaten legitimate brands?
Now we know what a fake profile is and how this type of fraud finds room for growth in the market. However, we still need to delve deeper into how they really harm legitimate companies.
In addition to financial issues, as we said previously, these fake accounts also threaten brands' reputations. In other words, once a consumer is deceived by a service promoted by a fake profile, for example, it is the official company that suffers from the increase in complaints, the loss of consumers and reliability.
But that's not all: there are still many negative impacts caused by these fake accounts. Understand more about these losses in the next topics!
Damage to reputation
When we talk about damage to reputation, we are also talking about brand dilution. After all, from the moment the deceived public reports the scams suffered, the legitimate company needs to deal with the negative reviews and all the consequences that involve them.
In other words, this includes legal proceedings, reimbursements, new communication strategies and the increase in operational expenses of strategic teams such as legal and IT. In the midst of this atmosphere, the company comes to be seen as a low-quality and fragile brand.
Sales theft and diversion of organic traffic
In the financial area, a false profile can steal sales and harm the legitimate company by diverting organic traffic. In this case, paid campaigns and SEO strategies that managers fought so hard to consolidate end up becoming inefficient.
As a result, the company needs to deal not only with a drop in sales, but also with expenses that do not produce results. elements of your brand's intellectual property. To do this, they replicate logos, fonts, domains and visual identity, making offers and products appear legitimate.
However, as we said previously, more than 250 thousand new websites are launched every day. In other words, this makes the process of monitoring actions carried out on behalf of your company laborious, costly and time-consuming, leaving it even more vulnerable to fraudsters.
Loss of narrative control
Loss of narrative control is an element that may be overlooked by companies that are not yet investing in digital protection. However, when threatened, this control threatens not only your sales, but even your brand's authority.
For example: with negative reviews, a large part of the target audience is stolen. Thus, new potential consumers fail to recognize the excellence that the brand builds and come to know it through the actions of fraudsters.
Security costs and litigation processes
Finally, we cannot talk about the consequences of fake profiles without addressing the costs of litigation processes.
It is understandable that many companies decide to opt for the legal sphere when they discover fraudsters in your name. However, in addition to being time-consuming, the processes require time and investment that could have been better used to prevent these cases.
To do this, however, you need to know how to protect your brand against the actions of these fraudsters. But, after all, is there a way to prevent the proliferation of these fake profiles?
How to protect your brand from fake profiles?
Brand protection, although it is indeed difficult and challenging, is not impossible. And it was with this in mind that Branddi brought some practical tips so that you can prevent and eliminate fake profiles that could be threatening your credibility.
See more below!
- Count on a structured plan for crises
In the corporate world, any sign of a crisis is a real nightmare for managers and employees. Still, the big question about these challenges is that most of the time they could be avoided with preventive actions.
Digital crises, especially those caused by fraud, are just another case of problems that could be eliminated with strategies and consistent planning.
This is because, through this structuring, it is possible to establish an effective step-by-step guide on how to act during these situations. Remember: many companies, when caught off guard by fraud such as fake profiles, act reactively, that is, they only respond after being attacked. id="">At this point, preventive action can also be the key to preventing your consumers from falling for scams. After all, with a well-structured and consistent language, companies are able to build a strong and difficult to replicate ally: their culture.
Thus, if your employees, partners or consumers notice profiles that break these standards, they are already suspicious of fraud, preventing the proliferation of this content.
- Count on the support of a specialized partner
Support from a partner with expertise in the subject becomes essential for fraud prevention. After all, this work requires time, investment and specific resources that not all companies have at hand.
That's why, in these cases, the support of a partner like Branddi can be a key tool to create personalized protection, according to your brand's needs.
In the case of fake profiles, we act on three main fronts:
- Active monitoring of profiles on social networks: we actively invest in the analysis of these platforms, keeping an eye on every sign of suspicious behavior involving your intellectual property;
- Sending notifications and reports: we send friendly and extrajudicial warnings to the registrars, servers or platforms on which these pages are hidden;