How to prevent social media phishing

Corporate impersonation or brand abuse on social media encompasses a variety of tactics ranging from fake profiles impersonating the brand to the distribution of malicious content under the brand’s name.

What is social media phishing?

In the digital age, social media has become an integral part of our lives and businesses, providing opportunities to connect, share content and interact with diverse communities, including customers. However, this growing dependence has also led to an increase in phishing, fraud and scam campaigns in these virtual environments. These criminal practices have evolved to include corporate impersonation to deceive users and customers in order to obtain confidential information or illicit enrichment. Social media phishing, also known as brand abuse, involves the creation of fake accounts posing as official profiles of well-known companies or relevant individuals. As far as organisations are concerned, impersonators often meticulously copy logos, images and communication style to appear authentic. They often take advantage of active brand communication or promotion campaigns, copying them in order to maliciously lure customers. Their main objective is to trick users into revealing personal or financial information or to damage the company’s image. The consequences of corporate impersonation are often serious. Customers lose trust in the brand, leading to a decrease in sales and engagement. In addition, the organisation may face legal problems if customers suffer financial losses due to the impersonation or if the impersonation has been used to commit other illegal acts.

Threats of corporate identity theft on social networks

The impersonation of corporate identity on social media brings with it a number of threats to organisations:

Falsification of profiles

Profile spoofing is at the heart of corporate impersonation on social networks. Criminals create fake profiles that mimic legitimate companies to deceive users and obtain personal or financial information. These fake profiles can become very convincing and even indistinguishable without research, using logos, images and brand language similar to those of the real company to appear authentic. They often post relevant content to appear authentic and gain followers. Once they have gained the trust of users, these profiles are often used to run a variety of scams. This can include promoting fake offers, requesting payment details for non-existent products, or directing users to fraudulent websites where they are asked to provide personal information.

Phishing through social media

In the context of social media, fraudsters use sophisticated techniques to send direct messages or posts that appear to be from a recognised organisation or institution whose identity they have impersonated. Cybercriminals have adapted these tactics to the social media environment, taking advantage of the trust and familiarity that users have with these platforms. They use social engineering tactics to trick users and obtain the sensitive information they seek. In a typical phishing scenario, criminals create fake profiles or pages that look like those of a legitimate company. They then send enticing messages or posts that may include special offers, contests or fake security alerts to lure users into clicking on malicious links. Once the user clicks on the link, they may be directed to a fake website that looks like the company’s official website. The user is then prompted to enter personal or financial information, which is then collected by the criminals.

Publication of malicious content

One of the most damaging threats of brand abuse on social media is the publication of malicious content.

Malicious content can take many forms, from false and misleading information to links to dangerous websites or malicious software. This content can be used to damage a company’s reputation, sow discord and create conflict, mislead customers and steal valuable information.

Impersonation of services

Impersonation is another significant threat in the context of corporate identity theft on social media. Criminals create accounts that impersonate the brand’s customer service, directing users to fake or dangerous sites or luring them into a scam. These fraudulent services can range from non-existent product offers to false promises of customer support. Users, believing they are interacting with the real company, provide personal or financial information, make payments or make decisions based on incorrect information. Spoofing significantly damages an organisation’s reputation. Customers who have been misled often associate their negative experiences with the real company, even holding it responsible for lack of sufficient vigilance and protection, which can lead to loss of trust and loyalty. There can also be a direct financial impact. If customers are tricked into buying fraudulent products or services, sales decrease. In addition, the organisation may face significant costs to mitigate the damage, restore its reputation or legally prove its lack of responsibility for the crime.

Preventing phishing on social networks

Preventing social media phishing is critical to protecting your customers and your organisation. A good strategy on how to prevent social media phishing needs to include:

Monitoring social networks

By continuously monitoring social media, organisations can detect fraudulent use of their corporate identity on social media and prevent cybercriminals from using the brand with impunity to deceive customers. Continuous monitoring and analysis of the data it provides also helps to identify emerging patterns and trends of brand abuse and proactively respond to the threat.

 

Establish a proactive protection strategy

When an organisation has a proactive social media brand protection strategy in place, the likelihood of the threat of maliciously targeted brand abuse decreases.

The proactive strategy allows the organisation to stay ahead of brand abuse, detecting identity theft on social networks in real time so that the organisation can proceed with its cancellation before it causes significant damage. You may be interested in our publication→ Proactive security: what is it and why use it to prevent and detect threats and cyberattacks?

Being active in social networks

Although it may seem paradoxical, not opening corporate profiles on the different social networks or remaining inactive on them not only does not protect against identity theft, but also encourages it. Having very active profiles on social networks allows users to become familiar with the brand’s own communication and to detect impersonators more easily. In addition, active profiles make it easier to check the veracity of a profile that arouses suspicion among users.

Protecting the brand with advanced technologies

The continued sophistication of cyber-attacks requires organisational protection that is up to the task and uses advanced strategies and technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation to provide the right responses at the right time. Solutions based on artificial intelligence and machine learning identify fake profiles and malicious activity more effectively and quickly than traditional methods. In addition, they are able to automatically track active or latent fraudulent campaigns on social media until they are completely eliminated.

Consequences of corporate identity theft on social networks

Brand abuse often has serious consequences for an organisation:

Financial losses

Social media impersonation leads to a decrease in brand value due to loss of trust, as well as a decrease in revenue due to lost sales to misled or defrauded customers. After a successful social media impersonation, the organisation is forced to invest in powerful communication campaigns to regain some of its customers’ trust. In addition, when cybercriminals use the impersonated corporate identity to engage in illegal activities, fees are generated to cover legal action.

Reputational damage

The reputation of a brand has a direct impact on its value. Corporate impersonation on social media damages the reputation of an organisation and its brand. Fraudsters use a company’s brand to spread false information or engage in unethical or even criminal behaviour that has negative effects on the organisation’s image. When this happens, the corporate image is damaged.

Legal problems

Corporate impersonation raises legal issues when fraudsters use the brand to engage in illegal activities, as the organisation will initially be held liable until it proves the impersonation. In addition, defrauded customers may hold the organisation vicariously liable for the deception due to a lack of sufficient vigilance and protection, and claim restitution for their financial loss from the organisation, either legally or administratively. This also implies a legal or administrative defence.

Loss of customer confidence

After interacting with or hearing about fake accounts that have impersonated the corporate identity, customers perceive that the organisation is not taking adequate measures to protect its brand and, indirectly, them from scams.

They then become wary of interacting with the company on social media, proceed to avoid it and are less likely to remain loyal to it.

Protect yourself from social media phishing with Kartos by Enthec

Kartos, the Cyber Intelligence platform developed by Enthec continuously and automatically monitors the web and social networks to detect domains, subdomains, websites and social profiles identical or similar to those of your organisation. Thanks to its self-developed Artificial Intelligence, false positive findings are eliminated. In addition, Kartos tracks phishing, fraud and corporate identity fraud campaigns detected until they are deactivated, with identification of the countries in which they are active, data and alarms in real time. Since this year, the Kartos platform also offers a Takedown Service for social profiles, domains and fraudulent subdomains, as well as cloned websites detected by the platform. Contact us for more information on how Kartos can help you protect your brand from cloning and abuse on the internet and social networks.