Posing as a legitimate brand to deceive its customers or partners, using fake websites, social media profiles, emails, ads or apps.
To hijack a brand to deceive or divert attention; often used in abusive or fraudulent activities devised for gain at the expense of the goodwill, brand equity and customer trust of actual brand owners.
A scam in which attackers impersonate an executive, employee or supplier by email to trick the recipient into transferring money or sharing sensitive information.
A marketplace or social media listing that offers fake goods, often copying a brand’s product images, descriptions and trademarks.
The sale of fake physical goods. May occur in the physical world, or on B2B exchanges, auction sites, eCommerce sites, or in spam.
The practice of abusing trademarks within the domain name system. Brand names—spelled correctly or, in a practice known as typosquatting, spelled incorrectly—are used within a domain name, enabling the squatter to divert web traffic meant for a legitimate site to an illicit site which may sell counterfeit goods, utilize pay-per-click abuse, host adult content or conduct other illicit activity.
An online market operating on the darknet where illicit goods, stolen data and criminal services, including counterfeits, are traded anonymously.
A network that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations or authorization such as Tor (The Onion Router) browser. The darknet is a small subset of the deep web.
Un-indexed Web pages that cannot be accessed via a regular browser or search engine.
The use of AI-generated or AI-manipulated audio, video or images to impersonate a brand’s executives, spokespeople or products in order to deceive consumers or employees.
Websites containing a specified brand that appears in visible text, hidden text, meta tags or title in conjunction with other site content that indicates online sales are being transacted on the site.
An app that imitates a legitimate brand’s app, in app stores or outside them, to steal credentials, payment details or data, or to distribute malware.
A website that imitates a legitimate retailer, or invents a convincing storefront, to take payment for goods that are never delivered or that turn out to be counterfeit.
The practice of using a specified brand or trademark in web content to imply a relationship with a company or brand where none exists.
The sale of authentic goods through unauthorized channels. Grey market goods are obtained through a variety of means: theft and discount fraud are common, as is refurbishing damaged goods. The goods are then sold on B2B exchanges, auction sites, and eCommerce venues. Parallel trade, in which goods priced for a specific geographic market are diverted and sold at a premium in other markets, is another widely used strategy.
A form of spoofing that uses visually similar characters, often from different scripts in an internationalized domain name, to imitate a legitimate domain name.
A domain name that closely resembles a brand’s own domain through added words, hyphens, a different TLD or character substitutions, used for phishing, fraud and counterfeit sales.
The use of online advertising to spread malware or to send users to fraudulent websites.
Occurs when an illicit site or email attachment installs malware, viruses, keyloggers or other software that automatically steals usernames, passwords and additional information without a user’s knowledge.
Websites containing a specified brand that appears in visible text, hidden text, meta tags or title in conjunction with pornographic, online gaming or hate content.
Criminal use of email to divert traffic to websites in order to fraudulently acquire usernames, passwords, credit card details and other personal information. The email and websites used in these operations employ “social engineering” techniques to trick users into believing they are interacting with a business or organization that they trust.
The sale of fake digital goods such as music, movies, software and gaming software. May occur on B2B exchanges, auction sites, eCommerce sites, in spam and through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
Paid placement advertising appearing on web pages. Operators of websites hosting PPC advertising derive revenue from ads that are clicked, hence the name PPC. Abuse occurs when a scammer sets up a website to host paid search ads, often leveraging a well-known brand name in the domain name and has loosely-related ads served to its site.
A phishing attack that uses a QR code to send victims to a fake website or malicious download.
Occurs when unauthorized parties use a brand as a keyword in search marketing, triggering ads that divert traffic to sites promoting unrelated, counterfeit or competitive brands.
The use of brands, slogans or trademarks located in visible text, hidden text, meta tags and title in order to manipulate search engine rankings so that the brandjacker’s site can gain a more favorable search engine placement. This type of abuse is also known as Black Hat SEO.
A phishing attack carried out by text message, typically with a link that leads to a fake website.
Creating fake profiles, pages or accounts that imitate a brand, its executives or its support channels in order to defraud or mislead followers.
The sending of unsolicited emails—frequently leveraging well-known brands—in order to divert traffic to illicit sites of every type. To encourage recipients to click through, spammers design their email to imply that their product or service is endorsed or sanctioned by the legitimate brand. Users who do click through encounter everything from pay-per-click abuse to sales of counterfeit or pirated goods.
A targeted phishing attack tailored to a specific person or organization, using personal or company details to appear credible.
The process of having infringing or abusive content, listings, advertisements, domains or accounts removed by a platform, hosting provider or registrar.
The unauthorized use of a trademark, or of a confusingly similar mark, in connection with goods or services in a way that is likely to cause confusion among consumers.
Hijacking a brand to drive web traffic to a competitive or illicit site in order to generate revenue at the expense of the rightful brand owner.
Using brand names spelled incorrectly within a domain name, which enables the squatter to divert traffic meant for a legitimate site to an illicit site which may sell counterfeit goods, utilize pay-per-click abuse, host adult content or conduct other illicit activity.
A seller that is not authorized by the brand owner to sell its products, such as a reseller operating outside an agreed channel, territory or pricing policy.
A phishing attack carried out by phone call or voice message, in which the caller poses as a trusted brand or organization.