Dec 16, 2024
11 Powerful Ways to Prevent Brand Jacking and Secure Your Brand
Imagine you have built a successful brand from the ground up. Your operations are running smoothly, your sales are rising, and your reputation is strong. But out of nowhere, your brand suddenly receives negative attention online. Confused, you investigate, only to find that a malicious third party has created a fake website using your business's name and branding to sell counterfeit products to unsuspecting customers. This scenario exemplifies brand jacking, an online fraud that can quickly damage your business’s reputation and bottom line. This blog will help you understand brand jacking and its consequences so you can implement effective brand protection strategies to stop it before it harms your business.
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Table of Contents
What is Brand Jacking and Its Importance
Brand jacking is maliciously or fraudulently using a company’s brand or trademark to deceive or manipulate customers. It can occur across various platforms, such as:
Social media
Websites
Email marketing
In today’s digital world, your brand is your identity. Protecting your identity and, in turn, your brand is an inherent concept. With the rise of technology, increases in scams and fraudulent activity are evermore prevalent. Businesses must be aware of breaches to their brand or brandjacking and how to combat these violations with the evolution of technology.
Brandjacking is the unauthorized use of a brand for harmful or fraudulent purposes. This can include:
Impersonating a brand identity
Name
Logo to spread false information
Increase personal gain
Promote a competitor's brand
Engage in scams
Brandjacking can significantly harm a business’s reputation and lead to customer mistrust.
The Many Faces of Brand Jacking
Brand jacking can come in many forms, though they usually tie back to the same purpose: Someone falsely assumes a brand’s identity to fool:
Customers
Employees
Partners
Suppliers and others
Website and Domain Spoofing
Website spoofing involves creating a fake website designed to imitate a legitimate company's website. These websites often use the actual company’s assets, such as logos and color schemes, to pass themselves off as legitimate. They will usually also obtain a domain similar to the exact company’s. This could involve using “.net” instead of “.com” or picking a domain the target company misspells.
How to Recognize and Avoid Spoofed Websites to Protect Your Personal Information
As Clare Stouffer writes for Norton, “After a person has fallen for a spoofed website, they will likely carry on with their normal behavior without a second thought. This could include typing in their username and password or entering in credit card information, which is exactly what the scammer is hoping for. The scammer can then use your login information to gain access to the legitimate website, or any other website that uses the same username and password. Or they will have saved your credit card info to then go on a shopping spree on your dime.”
In some instances, spoofed websites may also be programmed to install malware on your device. This could allow cybercriminals to gain control of the computer and/or steal confidential information.
Fake Social Media Accounts
Fake social media accounts are often done for parody or comedic purposes. For example, after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, a parody Twitter account with the name BPGlobalPR began posting parody Tweets impersonating BP, the corporation responsible for the incident — and the parody account quickly gained twice as many followers as the actual BP account. These fake social media accounts aren’t always made for laughs — even when they are, they can hurt a brand’s reputation with its customers.
2015, a fake Target Facebook account made headlines after providing snarky responses to customer complaints. Target had to issue a public statement to confirm that the account was not associated with the brand. The consequences can be much worse, though. If someone successfully impersonates your customer service accounts, they could ask customers for confidential information like account log-ins or credit card numbers.
Phishing Emails
Phishing is often used with spoofed websites to obtain confidential customer information. Cybercriminals email customers allegedly from your brand, informing them that they need to update their account or that there is a problem with their payment information. If users click on the link, they will be taken to the spoofed website, where any information they enter will be stolen. Netflix has been a frequent target of email scams.
Customers receive an email with Netflix’s logo and a message that “something went wrong,” telling them they must update their credit card information within three days before their account is canceled. Not only do these emails take users to a website where their data could be stolen, but many also include a .txt file attachment to install malware on the user’s device if clicked on or downloaded.
Cybersquatting
This refers to how a malicious actor registers a domain name similar to your brand’s legitimate domain name, albeit with slight variations, to trick your customers. For example, a brandjacker may add an extra letter (Gooogle.com instead of Google.com) or change a letter’s position (Keloggs.com instead of Kellogs.com) to look like your brand’s legitimate domain name. Domain takedown services like Red Points can protect your brand from cybersquatting attempts.
SEO Manipulation
A more advanced form of brandjacking technique, the malicious actor uses SEO (search engine optimization) techniques to ensure their fake websites (or social media profiles) appear at the top of search results to attract more visitors. They may also use black-hat SEO techniques to rank higher faster.
Hashtag Hijacking
Scammers use legitimate brand hashtags or social media campaigns to promote their products or services. This tactic is sometimes called “hashtag hijacking” or “social media hijacking.”
Understanding the Risks of Brand Jacking
It’s easy to see how brandjacking can hurt your customers. If left unchecked, brandjacking can have very real consequences for the actual brands. Brandjacking can directly impact a legitimate brand’s profit margins through:
Lost revenue
Reputation damage
Legal fees
Additional advertising costs
For example, a spoof website might sell fake or counterfeit products using your brand name. Customers think they buy from you, but their money goes to a cybercriminal. These lost sales can be directly attributed to brandjacking.
The Long-Term Impact of Brandjacking on Customer Trust and Business Growth
Brandjacking can also indirectly impact your brand’s reputation. For example, if customers have their credit card information stolen after attempting to purchase on a spoofed website, they will likely associate the authentic brand with scams and fraud. As a result, they will be less likely to do business with that brand in the future and might leave negative reviews.
Customers who come across impersonated social media accounts might not realize that the account is fake and be upset, offended, or misled by the content it produces. In these cases, the brand loses potential future sales because of the harm brandjacking had on its online image. Waiting too long to counteract these brandjacking incidents can result in costly legal fees and advertising expenses.
Navigating the Legal and Financial Challenges of Brandjacking
A brand could file civil litigation for intellectual property rights infringement. Still, this process can be complex and time-consuming, mainly because many cybercriminals operate outside the U.S. Advanced brandjacking efforts could even see the spoof website appear above your own in search engine results.
High marketing costs could be incurred to regain your position in search engine results while also attempting to warn customers of potential brandjacking concerns. If you’re not careful, brandjacking can simultaneously increase operating expenses while lowering revenue — not a position any business owner wants to find themselves in.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Brand Jacking
Cultural Awareness
Writers who long for their characters to take on a life of their own would give their right arm to see their creations appearing on Twitter with their profiles. Lord Voldemort, Darth Vader, Frodo Baggins, and Edward Cullen tweet regularly. Some accounts are more flattering to the original creation than others. At some point, brand managers must decide how far they’re comfortable letting these unauthorized versions take the joke. AMC famously blocked the unofficial (but character-faithful) Twitter accounts of the Mad Men characters, only to backtrack when fans complained.
AMC may have realized too late that social media character-jacking can be a sincere form of flattery and the ultimate proof that your fictional creation has transitioned to cultural relevance.
Identity Jacking
Twitter-jacking isn’t limited to fictional characters. When your name is also your brand, this can be potentially damaging. Celebrities and politicians have had their social media accounts hacked, and there can be multiple fake accounts for high-profile individuals at any one time.
Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Britney Spears, and Miley Cyrus have all been victims of malicious hacking, but some fake accounts are more amusing than malevolent. Many are so obviously fake as not to offend, and some are created for a satirical or surreal purpose.
Bad PR
Creating malicious fake Twitter accounts can be equally detrimental to companies and organizations. There have been many examples of Twitter impersonation in protest of a company’s unpopular policy or handling of an event. Oil companies Exxon Mobil and BP have both been victims of Twitter impersonation and following BP’s handling of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, the satirical @BPGlobalPR has attracted over 160,000 followers.
Leveraging Social Media Feedback for Positive Brand Perception
While this can be seen as a brand disaster, a company wishing to engage in positive PR could use the feedback such channels offer to gauge the public’s perception and respond accordingly. Contrast the endless examples of companies who delete harmful blogs and Facebook posts with the @virginmedia team’s policy.
The company makes a point of responding to every customer online, whether positive or not. In one case, a woman tweeted that her Virgin Media connection wasn’t working, and her two-year-old daughter was upset at missing her favorite TV show, Peppa Pig. Not only did Virgin send an engineer immediately, but he was also carrying a Peppa Pig toy for the little girl. Consider what this response can do for your brand perception, loyalty, and preference!
Fake Amazon Reviews and Tags
Following the popularity of Amazon’s ‘The Mountain Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve Tee’ prank, protesters have begun to use Amazon’s open review and tagging model to highlight unpopular products or issues.
The pepper spray used in the UC Davis Occupy incident has received over 360 tongue-in-cheek reviews on its Amazon page, as well as satirical product images and tags such as:
Tools of fascism
Oppression
Police state
Note that the product is currently listed as unavailable. Similar cynical additions have crept into otherwise serious product pages, particularly books by controversial public figures or products by companies with disputed ethical practices.
Aspirational Branding
One problem facing aspirational luxury brands is when their product is adopted by an undesirable demographic, which can lead to the alienation of their core customers. This occurs most commonly with name-checking by rappers or in popular culture, although it is rarely a serious concern.
The Impact of Brand Image Dilution Through Unauthorized Adoption
A more serious predicament is when the product has such an identifiable design that a mainstream take-over can have a disastrous effect. This happened in the 1990s in Britain to Burberry when its iconic tartan pattern became popularized by soccer players, then adopted by working-class fans who wore cheap imitations to such an extent that its customer base abandoned it in droves.
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Is Brand Jacking Ever a Positive Thing for a Business?
Brand jacking, also known as image hijacking, occurs when an unknown third party takes over a well-known brand’s identity to promote its agenda. While at first glance, this sounds like a nightmare for any company, in rare cases, brand jacking can actually produce some positive outcomes.
The exceptions typically rely on a brand’s established recognition and goodwill. For example, when Corona beer was first introduced to the United States, it was marketed as a Mexican beer for Mexican people. The beer was quickly adopted by surfers in the 1970s who identified with it as a “beach beer.” They helped to popularize Corona among the wider population, and by the late 1990s, it had overtaken Heineken as the number one imported beer.
Walking a Fine Line Between Ethical and Unethical Practices
Brand managers will always want to deal with a negative image, but sometimes, an overreaction can lead to more bad publicity than simply doing nothing. When Stella Artois attempted to move away from their “wife beater” stereotype, which stemmed from their beer’s high percentage of alcohol that was allegedly linked with violence and anti-social behavior in Europe, the company’s attempts backfired.
Their efforts to change the beer’s Wikipedia page to remove the “wife beater” reference were traced back to its lobbying group. This led to a backlash that was quickly picked up in the press. The references were restored on Wikipedia, but the negative publicity had already reached a far wider audience than the original Wikipedia article.
The Benefits of Customer Evangelism
It can be difficult for companies to let go of their tightly controlled image and allow fans to steer the direction of a brand. Fans’ enthusiasm can be instrumental in popularizing products or media. Coca-Cola’s fan-created Facebook page was the second most popular page on Facebook in 2009. Company representatives asked to partner with them rather than demanding to take it down, realizing the power of fan-driven social media.
Many brands create official pages alongside unofficial ones, knowing that heavy-handed attempts to block fan pages can lead to a damaging backlash. A site’s popularity can also be potentially harmful if it publishes unfavorable news or views about the company to thousands of followers.
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11 Ways to Protect Your Business from Brandjacking
1. Trademark Your Brand Name and Logo
Trademarking a name and logo represents one of the first steps organizations should take to protect themselves from brandjacking. This legally safeguards your trademark from being used without your permission and gives you the right to take legal action against anyone who infringes on your brand. To complete this process, you must work with a trademark attorney and follow the application procedure outlined in your jurisdiction.
2. Monitor Mentions of Your Brand Online
Cases of brandjacking occur increasingly online. That’s why monitoring the web for mentions of your organization is critical. Social media is how most brands directly communicate with their customers. That’s why you must secure accounts on all social networks. Just registering your accounts isn’t enough. Even if you choose to stay inactive, it’s crucial to perform social listening.
The Role of Social Listening Tools in Brand Protection
According to PR Week, global food giant Heinz fell victim to a Twitter user who started tweeting in the brand’s name. The messages ranged from selling pitches to buying Heinz products to personal political opinions. By monitoring social media mentions, you can get notified of any suspicious activity as soon as it occurs. The sooner you find out, the faster you can take action to rectify the situation.
Experts recommend investing in a social listening tool. Then, your team will have access to all the conversations about your brand on every platform.
Key Takeaways:
Create accounts on all social media platforms.
Use social listening tools to monitor your accounts.
3. Keep Tabs on Emerging Alt-Tech Social Networks
Most companies already conduct web surveillance on the largest social media platforms (e.g., Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, etc.). However, bad actors have increasingly migrated to lesser-known, alt-tech social networks that promise less moderation and fewer restrictions on speech.
Unfortunately, few businesses monitor these communities. In many cases, these new sites have emerged as havens for counterfeit goods and other types of brandjacking. For that reason, security teams shouldn’t overlook alt-tech social networks in their web monitoring efforts.
4. Exploit Web Monitoring Tools
Manual web monitoring is a common practice among security teams. Employing analysts to troll forums and social media is time-consuming. And only some companies, even the largest enterprises, have enough resources to conduct this type of surveillance effectively. As a result, organizations can overlook many instances of brandjacking, jeopardizing their firm’s reputation.
To overcome this issue, consider investing in web monitoring tools to automate routine tasks. These technologies represent a force multiplier for security leaders, allowing organizations to stretch limited budgets. For analysts, monitoring tools enable teams to watch broader web segments, reducing the chance they will overlook a critical threat. These technologies also allow teams to focus on investigation and case resolution rather than manually searching through web forums or social media posts.
5. Educate Your Customers About Brand Abuse
Take steps to educate your customers about brand abuse. For example, this could include detailed information about how to spot counterfeit products, fake web pages, or account impersonations. These measures will go a long way toward protecting your customers from being victimized by fraudsters.
6. Don’t Overlook Brand Abuse in Different Languages or Regions
When conducting web surveillance, analysts tend to focus on their native tongue. And for most U.S. businesses, that means conducting queries and searches primarily in English. Unfortunately, most cases of brandjacking occur in other languages analysts often overlook. If you’re tackling issues like counterfeiting or content piracy, expanding your search beyond just your first language is crucial.
Instead of solely searching for your company’s standard product names or descriptions, use translation tools to check for brand infringement in other communities. Consider locations beyond where your company and distributors typically operate. For example, even if your firm conducts business mainly in the U.S., it often pays to monitor online marketplaces in regions such as:
Asia
Africa
South America
7. Purchase Brand-Related Domains
Purchasing domain names is another technique to protect your business against brandjacking. This will prevent others from fraudulently disguising themselves as you. Invest in website names that sound or are spelled like your business.
For example, www.googel.com redirects to www.google.com. You’ll also want to register your domain name using relevant domain extensions. Did you know that www.apple.store redirects to www.apple.com? Or that www.amazon.tech redirects to www.amazon.com?
Strategic Domain Registration for Brand Protection
Suman Das, brand manager at .STORE and .TECH. He offers insight: “You should look up the domain extensions that are directly relevant to your business and register your domain name on those. Also, check the keywords in your domain name. If your website is www.brandnameonline.com, register www.brandname.online as a way of brand protection.”
Consider registering the following new domain extensions:
TECH (technology, startups)
STORE (eCommerce)
FUN (media, entertainment)
PRESS (news), and SPACE (outer space)
Key Takeaways:
Register similar brand domains.
Register domains on relevant extensions.
8. Create a Crisis Management Plan
You’ll want to create a crisis management plan since you’ll never be 100% protected against cyber attacks. A timely response is crucial in brandjacking, and you want your team to be prepared to handle any mishaps.
Effective Crisis Communication Strategies for Brand Recovery
Start by training your support staff to interact with customers quickly during these situations. You’ll also want to designate a team lead in each department and delegate specific duties; then, the entire company can work towards minimizing the impact of the crisis. Communication is key to maintaining a positive public image and retaining current customers.
So, it’s helpful to publish a blog post explaining the issue in detail. You may create a short video featuring your company’s CEO. For customers, you’ll want to send an email outlining if and how the attack impacts their shopping experience.
Key Takeaways:
Develop a plan with your entire team.
Communicate with your customers promptly.
9. Legal Measures
Conducting legal measures allows businesses to rebuild after being victimized by brandjacking. Protecting trademarks, ordering cease-and-desist letters, and pursuing legal action are different and effective ways to combat brandjacking. These measures vary in size and scope and depend on the amount of damage and business resources.
Trademark Protection
Businesses can protect their brand name and logo through trademark protection laws. If a company uses a business’s logo without permission, trademark infringement laws protect businesses wishing to pursue legal action and claim damages.
Send a DMCA Takedown Notice
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a process for copyright holders to request the removal of infringing content from websites. If you discover that your copyrighted content is being used without your permission, you can send a DMCA takedown notice to the website hosting the content.
Domain Dispute Resolution
Suppose the brandjacker has registered a domain name that infringes on your trademark. In that case, you may use the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) to resolve the dispute. This process allows trademark holders to dispute domain names used in bad faith.
Cease and Desist Orders
Cease-and-desist orders are businesses’ first line of defense against brandjacking. They demand that phishers stop infringing before legal measures are taken. Cease-and-desist orders also serve as warnings against brand hijacking and aid in ceasing counterfeit products and other types of brand hijacking. If cease-and-desist orders are ignored, businesses can pursue legal action.
Legal Actions for Brand Protection: Trademark, Copyright, and Domain Disputes
Companies can file:
Trademark infringements
Copyright violations
Domain name disputes
These lawsuits allow businesses to seek injustices and claim damages. Pursuing legal action depends on the size and type of brandjacking but can ultimately help protect the business’s brand and reputation while holding the culprits accountable.
10. Proactive Brand Protection
Businesses can also protect themselves from brandjacking by investing in brand, domain, and trademark monitoring tools. These services track online activities related to the company’s identity and raise any red flags that could be due to brandjacking. With the ever-changing nature of new technology, businesses are continually susceptible to brand hijacking.
Implementing Security Measures to Protect Your Brand: DKIM, SPF, and Ongoing Audits
Conduct continuous security audits, stay informed about new prices, and collaborate with law enforcement if brandjacking occurs. Companies can safeguard and protect their brand through authentication and verification features. Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an email-sending identification tool to protect businesses and their recipients from spam or forgery. Sender Policy Framework (SPF) also prevents email spoofing, ensuring emails are delivered securely and that recipients can verify authenticity.
Building and Rebuilding Trust After Brandjacking: Protecting Loyalty and Reputation
To reduce the risk of a brandjacking attack, monitor subscribers and audience engagement and stay updated on email security and best practices. While loyalty is a trait many strive to achieve, it can be forever tarnished when trust is broken.
Brandjacking comes in many forms and can quickly destroy loyalty, ruining a good reputation. Businesses must understand how brandjacking can occur to protect their brand mentions, learn how to safeguard solutions, and rebuild trust simultaneously.
11. Collaborate with Partners
Working with partners represents another key step in protecting your brand. This can include collaborating with local and national law enforcement agencies to crack down on counterfeiters and other parties engaged in brand abuse. Industry associations and trade groups can also help raise awareness about the issue and advocate for stronger laws to protect brands.
Collaborative Strategies for Combating Brandjacking: Leveraging Cross-Departmental Support
By sharing information, businesses can become much more effective at ending brandjacking than if they each work alone. Corporate security teams should also leverage internal stakeholders within their organization. For example, marketing teams can help security teams monitor online activity related to a company’s brand, including social media channels and websites, to detect and mitigate brand abuse.
Human resources can assist in developing employee training programs to educate staff on recognizing and reporting potential brandjacking attempts. By working collaboratively, different silos can create a proactive approach to prevent brandjacking, protecting a company’s reputation and customer trust.
Find and Take Down Copycats with One-click Today
Hackers can steal your website's content overnight, and the impact on your brand can be devastating. If they copy your product descriptions, for example, Google will see their website as more relevant to your products than yours and get your hard-earned traffic. If they use your images, they may even get sales from your products—before you know it, your customers are buying from a copycat instead of you.
And if they mimic your ad content, they can siphon your sales and ruin your reputation, all while appearing to be you. It can take time to get your content back and restore order, and during this period, you can lose significant revenue and suffer irreparable harm to your brand.
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