Alerting the global community about a new scam targetting existing business websites with fake identity websites

Posted on: Saturday, July 30 2016

Reporting a new form of online identity theft using fake websites.

Cool fake websites identified as the latest method being used by online credit card fraudsters.

It is shocking revelation that while running your online business website, someone else that you do not even know is already running a fake website posing to be you.

You suddenly receive a call from one of your familiar client with complains that the telephone number displayed on your website is not working or tells you that your website is experiencing down times.

You proceed to log on your website using your phone or personal computer to check on these unfamiliar complains. You accidentally mistype your website address in your attempt to confirm about the customer complains.

You are so amazed to find that a website that opens up has been upgraded and has such a cool and attractive look, you even want to initially thank your website administrator or website designer before informing him of callers complains.

Suddenly, you discover an anomaly, wait a minute, the contacts on this website are totally different from your authorized contacts and your supposedly new website has a booking engine with credit card merchant processing agent totally unfamiliar to you. So where is the money collected online going to? Is this an online scam targeting your customers? That is when you get alarmed. After a careful check, you notice that you had mistyped your business website address and retype it correctly. The correct address then takes you to your familiar website. No need to call your web designer, so who registered this site.

Testing integrity of a suspicious site and confirming its a fake website

You are now suspicious that this is a fake website and is steeling your online identity. It even has an online chat and is very loudly asking for bookings and giving special offers if you book early or if you book immediately.

An online chat launches asking you to talk to the owner. You have noticed a scam and you decide to play a victim of the scam so as to test the scammer. You ask for the relationship between this site and the former site by pretending to be a client who had been served by the company last year. Suddenly the chat logs off and you are told to leave a message on the chats web form since the attendant is not available and has gone offline.

There you are, the latest website scam by a spammer steeling from and mistreating your customers.

This is the latest scam that I have just discovered online. Many website visitors are unaware of the scam including the very knowledgeable webmasters. You may also get tricked as a customer to blindly make purchase online on such fake identity theft websites with irresistible fake online promotions or fake offers. You may eventually be the next victim of this online identity scam.

As a website owner, there is a need for you to closely monitor web activity of all domain names or website addresses that closely resemble yours. Make sure that your webmaster is at the top of tracking your websites against identity theft scam.

As an online client, do not quickly start spending online without a genuine website verification.

Do not just buy online on new websites without performing a genuine verification test especially on suspiciously loud websites, targeting your credit cards.

Try a phone number verification procedure on contacts that have been displayed online. Use third party websites for such verification such as Truecaller website. This will help you get details of the person or company associated with the owner which can further be verified by a mobile phone company in some countries via a premium SMS code.

Confirm that the online booking engine and the merchant processing agent has a genuine secure certificate also refereed to as https certificate from a trusted issuer such as Geotrust.

With the emergence of varying methods and ways of popularizing websites online, it is getting complicated to notice activities of such hurting online scams. You will not even discover that such a fake identity theft website associating itself with your brand is in existence and is hurting your business or chasing away potential customers.

The reason why you failed to notice this form of fraud before is because the fake copy of the website is being promoted on channels that you are not aware about.

My expert opinion is that this is one of a very silent and ugly scam that is targeting web customers and diverting potential proceeds online for businesses.

The exact amount of funds so far diverted worldwide and the length of time the scam has been ongoing is equally unknown to me but should be sizeable. That is why I have immediately written this to alert website customers about the scam.

More annoyingly is the manner in which it treats your clients with total disregard. You have possibly taken years to acquire some of this clients through genuine deals, ample customer service and satisfactory and exciting experiences

Pass this post to as many people as possible to be aware of this scam before more businesses suffer online reputation.

Note that an identity theft could be going on by some one pretending to be you without your knowledge.

It will be a while before you receive complains from customers as the numbers that have been published on the fake website are either not functional and customers calls do not go to intended destination.

Their booking channel is also fake and does not have a secure server certificate due to intended fraud hence exposing your credit card to theft.

Can online booking channels be entirely trusted by website owners to grow their businesses?

Many web owners have forgotten to market their websites and are over relying on online booking channels and trusting that all is well. The truth is that all is not well when you fail to personally manage your online brand. Participate in ethical search engine optimisation to popularise your website since you have nothing to loose by show casing your website to the online community.

You can easily help identify a fake website attempting to steel your online identity if your web page is already popular online and is well known or is easily available on popular search engines.

Remember to take time and promote your brand and easily publish your selling and bookings terms and conditions for your services and pass over any important messages to your potential clients.

You will also have a better chance to alert customers against fraud. For example, run message such as "our website does not ask you to share your credit card information with anyone. Our merchant processing agent is fully secure and has a trusted seal powered by there relevant agent. Our website is secured by certificate agent issuer" stating their names and web addresses.

More alerts for example reads "If you come across any site with suspicious activities contrary to our terms and conditions and pretending to be one of ours, do not disclose any of your information to them but report its activities to us."

It also important to maintain a website brand that matches what your booking channels are marketing in terms of your facility contacts, website address and facility photos.

Remember that as a business owner, you can loose business reputation and incur unrecoverable losses due to this fake identity scammers if you do not take any actions to help protect your customers. These scammers have become masters of how to ruin a business reputation online and need to be stopped

Online scams are also actively targeting peoples businesses by using fake online channels. Verify your safety.

It is important to know that giving a fake identity online is illegal. When you come across such a website, take the necessary steps to report it. Take the necessary steps to stop it. You will learn how to help curb the crime in our next chapter below.

Online identity theft prevention: What website owners should do?

Website owners guide: Steps to follow to stop online identity theft scam of your website?

If you run a website in a category where your competitors collect money online, be on the lookout. Someone may be actively asking for payments using a fake and illegal website and pretending to be either you or your agent.

Employ a webmaster who will scan for similar website content to yours. You may be surprised to get an ongoing fake online identity theft for your business. The webmaster will help you launch complains and have the website suspended or domain name cancelled by the domain registration company or the web hosting company.

Carry out a whois identity check of the website that is stealing your website identity and get the registrar email for the domain registration company. Proceed to send this registrar an email demanding suspension of the fake website. The registrar will take the appropriate steps if he or she was not aware of the abuse.

Your knowledgeable Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert will use online tools to scan for identical content such as business names. Let your SEO expert do scheduled scans to scan for fake or identical content that spoils your reputation.

Write an email to the sponsoring registrars abuse department and officially launch a complain regarding this scam. Ask them to suspend the fake website and report it as spam.

Engage your legal defense team and seek for a legal advice regarding this if no action is forth coming to help stop activities of a fake website.

Promote you website via search engine optimisation services from genuine SEO experts and run your online alerts to curb existence of fake identity websites steeling your identity.

Run a paid advert on search engines to notify your customers against theft especially on peak seasons.

Send email alerts to your existing customers to notify them against ongoing scams or possible scam.

Evade becoming credit card fraud victim: How online buyers can avoid becoming victims of credit card theft

Online shopping guide: Preventing loosing your credit cards to online identity theft scams

Study the surrounding environment on businesses located nearby from services such as Google Maps and inquire if the company is genuine. Request for their telephone numbers from such contacts.

Visit the latest local online business directories to check on a business official telephone contacts, website addresses and email contacts if unfamiliar with them.

Visit an official premium Yellow Pages in a country for contact information if you feel suspicious.

Look for several third party agents who can help you verify a business on your behalf at a reasonable fee especially if you intend to have a huge expenditure. For example, a travel agent may help you in the process of securing a hotel or establishing a contact with such a hotel.

Use a well known booking channel management company that will handle liabilities of a business whois activities are registered with them. They will handle your money with a money back guarantee especially if the deal is fake.

Use the user experience rating channels if you are an extremely cautious spender. Please note that at times, information posted on such channels may also be untrue. They may give you the wrong impression on the ground as some of these channels cannot confirm integrity of such claims. Lies may also emerge from competitors. If many complains keep emerging from these channels though about a business, then take their ratings as valid and keep off doing business with such businesses.

A website needs to give you full background information, contact information, social media pages, official blog pages where you can track user experiences with ease. A business that is too keen on asking for you to spend and running special offers without much background information and phone numbers that do not work may be suspect. Use other procedures explained above if you are indeed dealing with the correct web addresses and check the integrity of the company.

In conclusion, remember that the best maintained website give better returns to the investors while offering satisfaction to online buyers.

Always maintain a good integrity for your website and help curb online identity theft scams steeling your identity.

Promote your website through Search Engine Optimization services so that you help identify online scams trying to steel your identity.

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