So you're the owner of a small business that sees Digital Media as a smart method to extend your professional network. Unfortunately, some of those new acquaintances could be considering you a prime target for a scam. While we always encourage small-to-medium-sized company owners to utilize social media or digital media as a networking tool, we'd like to use this time to aware you of a surge in cybercriminals utilizing this media as their preferred channel for attacking businesses.
According to recent research from cybersecurity firm Lookout, about 62% of Facebook users face scammers every week, therefore it's time to sharpen your senses to avoid being a victim in the coming weeks. In this post, we will go through each theory behind the scam, what brand safety is all about, and what your business should do to improve its security & keep scammers away.
What is Brand Safety?
Brand safety refers to all of the precautions taken to safeguard a company's reputation offline as well as on digital media. It's all about preventing a customer's loss of faith in a brand. After all, companies are increasingly prioritizing the development of a profile, of identity, almost human in nature, with values, mission, and viewpoints. The idea is to try to get closer to the customer by adopting a friendly attitude. We have a brand compliance problem when brands are connected with surroundings that encourage the complete reverse of what they are attempting to express. The identity becomes fragmented and lacks cohesiveness and transparency to customers. As a result, a restorative philosophy of brand safety is required.
What are the threats that businesses face on Digital Media Platforms?
According to a new survey, one in every five companies is targeted by malware distributed via digital networking sites. But this is just not about that. Phishing, cyber extortion, fake investment schemes, and payment fraud are all common examples of online financial fraud. These types of scams typically involve duping people into disclosing personal and financial information or duping them into making payments to fictitious service providers.
1. Fake Invoices: Scammers construct fake invoices that appear to be for products or services that your company uses, such as office supplies or domain name registration. Scammers hope that the person who pays your bills will mistakenly believe the invoices are for items that the company actually ordered. They know that if the invoice is for something important, such as keeping your website running, you will pay first and ask questions afterward. Except it's all a scam, and if you pay, your money may vanish.
2. Scams in Directory Listings and Advertising: The phone rings as you are well into another hectic day of completing your list of top priorities. After politely answering the incoming call, you are met by a pre-recorded voice purporting to be from Google or some other official-sounding company alerting you that your local business listings are erroneous and must be corrected. If you do not hang up straight away, they will continue to inform you about an issue you were unaware of and how they can cure it for you. As you wait in line, you begin to wonder if there is any substance to this or if it is simply another solicitation wasting your time. Steer clear of this trap!
3. Scams involving Government Agencies: Government impersonators might instill panic in you by demanding money or your social security number right away in order to avoid jail or other issues. Alternatively, they can play the nice guy, offering to assist you in obtaining a free advantage such as a grant, reward, or even back support. Scammers prefer to make the matter so urgent that you can't pause to investigate.
4. Scams involving Technical Support: The first sign of a Tech support scam is a call or an unsettling pop-up message posing as coming from a reputable organization and informing you that your computer security is at risk. Your money, your computer, or both are what they want. You can be asked to pay them to remedy an issue you don't actually have, or they might sign your company up for a pointless or nonexistent computer maintenance programme. Even more sensitive information, such as passwords, client information, or credit card data, may be accessed.
5. Scams involving business promotion and coaching: Several scammers provide fake services for online marketing and business coaching. For those who pay their fees, the scammers falsely claim fantastic outcomes and access to unique market research via fraudulent testimonials, videos, seminar presentations, and telemarketing calls. Also, they could entice you with cheap upfront expenses before requesting thousands of dollars in additional funds. In reality, the scammers dump aspiring business owners with thousands of dollars in debt and without the assistance they wanted.
6. Changing Online Reviews: Some scammers assert that they are able to increase your ratings on review websites or change unfavorable comments about your goods or services. Posting fake reviews is prohibited, though. This is actually a trap. Online reviews can not be altered by investing money. According to us, honest opinions of clients or customers must be reflected in the reviews rather than purchasing them.
How to avoid falling into the trap?
Smaller companies and even high-tech companies have found that digital media is essential to their expansion. Despite having a small team, they are using technology to reach clients and markets. According to PwC's "World Economic Crime and Fraud Study 2022" report, the quick transition to digital in Covid's wake exposed businesses to a new set of dangers related to digital security, employee safety, and misinformation. There are a few measures we highly recommend that should be taken into consideration in order to protect the business from scammers in digital media.
1. For any business wishing to thrive online, we recommend you outsource your all marketing as well as tech needs to a reputable and authentic Tech-Friendly Software Development Agency. They can help you in safeguarding your online business from scammers.
2. A new breed of marketing professionals, the fake ones have emerged in India as a result of the country's growing use of digital marketing. Due to the constant need for digital marketing services, more and more people are pretending to be industry experts in order to make quick money. These shady digital marketers frequently make extravagant claims and promises but offer very few tangible outcomes. After receiving the money, they frequently just vanish and are never seen or heard from again. A thorough background check is a must if you are planning to invest your money in any service provider beforehand.
3. Ask for references. The majority of a service provider’s credibility comes from references or recommendations. Always keep an eye out for the foundation. It's crucial to ascertain whether the service provider you're speaking with about solving your company's challenges is actually a legitimate player in the market.
4. Verification is a boon. Verify their digital presence and website. A competent service provider will maintain an active social media presence in addition to a well-designed website.
5. Avoid revealing sensitive information about your bank or company to total strangers after only one brief conversation.
6. Reading the terms and conditions will provide you with a lot more insight into the service provider you are working with. Maybe you read them to learn how complaints are handled or how user concerns are dealt with. You may get a sense of how you could interact with the service provider after going through the terms and conditions.
7. Once you are ready to start your project you better be prepared to ask your service providers to make a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) ready that needs to be signed by both parties.
8. There are several trustworthy service providers in India that provide top-notch services on digital media. Always try to engage with service providers who can deliver you high-quality work at an affordable cost. Many companies try to find cheaper prices but eventually fall victim to fraud, and the majority of the time the work they receive is of poor quality.
Conclusion:
Sometimes it's simple to fall victim to these frauds, especially for business owners who are just starting out. It's important to scale, which implies maximizing growth while using the least amount of resources possible, therefore occasionally many compromise their standards when evaluating service providers.
This is especially true in the realm of digital media, where there are hundreds of businesses on the hunt eager to grab your money without providing any results and frequently with the intention of using it for laundering money. Sadly, even the most successful company stories have encountered a scammer seeking to profit from substandard services or have fallen victim to a digital media scam. Create the bandwidth to examine and double-check them, even though it could be labor-intensive given that there are more than hundreds or even thousands of businesses online. Don't allow any scammers to diminish the hard work that goes into being a successful company. We hope you be able to follow these above-mentioned strategies in the most fruitful ways to protect your business from scammers on digital media.
Disclaimer: Elevate your knowledge with content from this website that makes complex ideas comprehensible and provides more insight than just mere facts. We provide an impartial platform for people to gain a better understanding of various topics by making available different perspectives from reliable references on the web. The intention is to avoid offending anyone or acting towards any specific group of people, society, gender, creed, nation, religion, or any community from social media platforms. Please refrain from reading the articles if you feel that some of the information could offend you.
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Poulomi Banerjee
2023-09-01 12:42:54
very nice
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2024-02-26 22:50:20
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2024-02-26 22:50:21
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2024-02-26 22:50:21
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2024-04-06 16:17:35
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Sagarika
2023-04-01 05:23:08
This time every business owner will be safeguarded from fraud. Thanks for such a post!
thanx
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