By Amit Relan
Imagine being punished for something you are not aware of. This is the same that happens with brands that become the victim of search-ad phishing. Search ad scams are often executed by scamsters hiding behind the name of a genuine brand. It is a type of cyber threat in which a fraudster impersonates your brand name and runs a sponsored ad on a search engine.
And when a person clicks on the link, they are either redirected to a fake website or app. Generally, fraudsters often fool customers who are looking for a phone number or website of a retail store, insurance company, financial institution, cloud services or utility company.
Types of Search Ad Scams
Brand Impersonation: This is one of the easiest and most common ways for fraudsters to feed on the trust of the brand’s reputation. The scamsters often try to pass themselves off using the name of a genuine brand when running their fake search ads. They often steal the intellectual property of a brand and impersonate them. When a consumer searches for the brand, they land on a fake website and get duped.
Spoofed Websites: Spoof websites are one of the many mediums for fraudsters to steal money from brands. They often scrap content from a real brand’s website and create a replica of the genuine website to fool the loyal customers of the brand. When a consumer clicks on the spoofed website, they are hardly able to recognize the difference and end up sharing their personal information or initiate a payment to the fraudulent website thinking it is the real brand.
Counterfeiting: Fake search ads are also used as a medium to redirect genuine customers to a website where scamsters sell counterfeit products. This means that the scamsters are using the brand’s name to fool customers into buying cheap and low-quality products. Unaware of the fact that it is a counterfeit product, when the consumers become a victim they often blame the brand for the mishap.
What do the brands lose?
Revenue
The search ad scams result in the brand losing its money unknowingly. The con artists use the brand’s name to create fake websites and leverage its reputation to dupe innocent customers. The sales made by the counterfeit sites are redirected to the fraudster’s account and the brand never realizes the loophole until it’s too late. Therefore, it is vital for brands to be vigilant and ensure their brand assets are protected across the internet.
Customers Trust
This is one of the most unfortunate repercussions of search ad scams. The real brands have to pay a price higher than just losing money to the scamsters. When a consumer is diverted to a fake website and duped, they often blame the real brand. After all, the majority of these fake search ads are run using the brand’s name. This further aggravates when the victims of the scams give poor reviews and negative comments about the brand on social media. This can further strain the situation and ends up putting the brand in a negative light.
Brand Reputation
One of the biggest impacts of a fake search ad using the brand’s name is that it put a stain on the brand’s reputation. Consumers put their trust in a brand and on the basis of that they make their purchase decisions based on social proof like customer reviews. According to a report by Trustpilot, almost 90% of consumers read a product review before making a purchase. However, due to fake search ads, the brand’s reputation is at stake, and it can put doubt on a potential customer and scare away the current customers. To ensure that their brand reputation is not tarnished, the brand owners need to have the right solution to fight back against these infringement attacks.
Way Forward
When present in the digital world, brands need to pull up their guard and ensure they are not a victim of rising fraudulent activities. To ensure that, the first step is to create a bond of trust with the end users and educate them to identify your brand among a pool of fraudulent websites. The further step is to safeguard the intellectual property of a brand presence online and ensure that it is not part of a fraudulent chain. Being vigilant and taking the right action is the key to advertising fearlessly with search ads.
The author is the founder and CEO of mFilterIt, ad fraud detection and prevention company.