Webinar: ‘Tis the season for IP scams
Following a year unlike any other, 2020 is winding down and people are looking forward to the usual holiday season traditions. One group also gearing up for the December-January months is the huge community of online infringers, and this year, they may have a bumper Christmas.
Although the popularity of online shopping was already increasing, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the widespread use of e-commerce and m-commerce (mobile) services “explode”, according to Fred Felman, chief marketing officer at Appdetex. “It’s happening much faster than anybody anticipated.”
Felman joined Russ Pangborn, partner at Seed-IP, to discuss how online abuses are likely to occur and what brands can do to protect themselves in a WIPR webinar in association with Appdetex, hosted on October 29.
Changing habits
After a year that saw huge changes to consumer behaviour and widespread social distancing, the way in which Christmas shopping will likely be different, too, in one big way in particular.
“We’re spending a lot more time at home and we have these very powerful devices in our hands,” Pangborn says. “At a seconds’ notice, when we see something, we can pick up our phone and order it.”
Sophisticated attacks
In the age of e-commerce, social media, and online marketing, brands have endless opportunities to use digital channels to reach consumers. However, bad actors are also able to use these channels to their advantage.
And, as Felman points out, bad actors don’t have the same legal restrictions or institutional limitations as legitimate brands. They do not have to consult their legal team on the wording of a promotion, and they aren’t concerned with federal, state, or international regulations.
In addition to that, these criminals are often smart; Pangborn refers to them as “sophisticated bad actors”.
Felman explains that, when targeting a company, these bad actors first identify brands which consumers know and trust.
Next, they seek to “weaponise” them, using the brand without authorisation in a social media posting, or on a fake website, or on an illegitimate app. They present these actions as legitimate and promote them to consumers in the same way that a well-known brand would.
Consumers then visit and transact on these channels, having been deceived by the process.
For brands, these attacks can appear in many ways.
Pangborn says that brands are having to combat everything from counterfeits, to look-a-like websites and apps, to trademark infringement, unauthorised social media content, and email phishing.
He warns that emails from brands we think we recognise may not always be legitimate. Often, the criminals will use a homoglyph in the email address—the inclusion of a character that looks similar to a letter or number you would expect to be in the sender’s email address but is in fact something different.
Unsuspecting consumers tend to trust the contents of emails when they recognise the senders’ email address and, in scenarios such as this, might be tempted to open an attachment or click on a link in the body of that phishing email.
Be prepared
Felman urges brands to think about what types of abuse they may be most vulnerable to and to build up an understanding of how they might be attacked.
For example, online-only brands will be concerned about cybersquatting, phishing, and malware, whereas sellers of goods will also have to consider things like shipping, Pangborn says.
Once the threats have been identified, it is important to have a plan on how to respond to an attack.
Felman says that this is comparable to a sports team preparing tactics for a cup tie: they need to know what the risks are and, based on those, what type of actions will need to be taken, and who needs to be involved? What lessons can we take from the last ‘competition’?
The need to be prepared is relevant for brands regardless of the industry they are in.
“This is really important and applies across the board, from food and beverage to fashion, to healthcare, to the most sophisticated, hi-tech company,” Pangborn says. “You have to be aware of how your brand is being impacted so that, when infringements arise, you can react very quickly.”
Ultimately, Felman concludes, there are three key things that brands should do: find the abuse, disrupt the abuse, and disable the abuse.
To listen to the full webinar, “Internet Infringement Doesn't Take a Holiday”, click here. You can also find out more about Felman’s predictions for the holiday season in WIPR’s ‘ Five minutes with… Fred Felman, Appdetex’.
If you’re interested in participating in a webinar, please contact Sarah Gooding on sgooding@newtonmedia.co.uk.
Finally, to listen to LSIPR's and WIPR's back catalogue, visit our BrightTALK channel.
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