AI is powering a new wave of online abuse—and brands must adapt

AI and automation have transformed brand abuse into a high-speed, high-scale, and multi-vector threat, one that traditional siloed defences cannot contain. The only way to win is to build whole-of-business systems that make deception unprofitable, says Tony Kirsch of the Brand Safety Alliance.

Automation and AI aren’t just transforming productivity, they’re transforming deception. Across the internet, fake websites, cloned profiles, and AI-driven scams are multiplying faster than brands can respond.

For years, brand protection has sat with IP and legal teams. Meanwhile, cybersecurity and fraud prevention operated in parallel silos, each with separate budgets and responsibilities. That structure made sense when risks were slower and more predictable.

But that model is now collapsing.

AI and automation have amplified the speed, scale, and sophistication of brand abuse beyond the capacity of traditional departments to contain. The result is a new kind of threat, one that no single team or budget can handle alone.

This moment calls for a fundamental rethink.

Are current strategies truly fit for purpose? Or is it time to treat online brand integrity as a whole-of-business responsibility, demanding cultural change, not just operational response?

Evolving landscapes require evolving mindsets

Today’s IP owners can no longer solve every problem. Brand protection has become an exercise in constant triage, prioritising limited resources and budgets against a rising tide of threats.

In an interview with the Brand Safety Alliance, Marc Trachtenberg, chair of Internet, Domain Name, eCommerce and Social Media Practice at Greenberg Traurig, explains the shift: “Online brand abuse is a multi-dimensional issue that affects every group and department in your business.” 

With more than two decades advising global enterprises, Trachtenberg says the threat model has changed dramatically.

“Modern abuse is multi-channel and multi-vector. Traditional defences no longer hold up because threats are faster and more connected.”

Instead of isolated attacks, scammers now run circular operations—fake domains, imposter emails, and counterfeit social accounts all interlink to create an illusion of legitimacy.

“We’re seeing a surge in Voice-over-IP numbers connecting victims to fake call centres, dynamic social engineering, and even coordinated fake followings, hundreds of accounts boosting fraudulent brand pages to appear authentic,” he says.

Automation at criminal scale

Consumers have grown savvier, they check domains, follow verification steps, and often spot fakes. But AI-powered automation is now attempting to circumvent human scepticism and is doing so with incredible success.

Trachtenberg warns, “Bad actors have become way more sophisticated. They’re leveraging free tools, and agentic AI is driving their costs down to almost nothing.”

AI agents can operate around the clock, using templates across industries, swapping brand names and launching thousands of attacks simultaneously.

David Barnett, brand protection strategist at Stobbs and author of the recently published “Patterns in Brand Monitoring”, agrees: “The rapid emergence of new technologies has driven huge increases in scam volumes, and will continue to do so. Generative AI has dropped the technical entry barrier for bad actors, and has also created the potential for entirely new forms of infringement.”

The economics of abuse have shifted permanently. With automation, scale costs nothing and legitimacy can be faked in seconds.

Follow the money: The ROI of fraud

Faced with such scale, most businesses can’t hope to stop every attack. The smarter move, Trachtenberg says, is to disrupt the economics of crime.

“The motivation for abuse is purely about money. Scammers are running a business like anyone else, they have accountants and they care about ROI.”

In other words, brand defence isn’t a profit centre, it’s risk mitigation. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s making the brand an unprofitable target.

“Our defence efforts don’t generate return; they reduce losses. To do nothing is to surrender and risk eventual destruction,” Trachtenberg warns.

By relentlessly shutting down domains, fake profiles, and VoIP numbers, companies raise the cost of doing business for criminals, forcing them toward easier prey.

“You want to be the annoying one,” he adds, “the brand with lower ROI so scammers just move on.”

From silos to systems: Building resilient defences

The sheer volume of attacks means not every issue can be solved—but every company can minimise harm strategically.

Trachtenberg advises leaders to rethink priorities: “Discard the lens of defending your favourite assets. Focus on triaging incidents by destructive impact and invest accordingly. And at a minimum, monitor for domain registrations and look for proactive ways to stop domain-related infringements, it’s inexcusable not to.

Barnett echoes this, noting that as the internet becomes less siloed, monitoring must become more holistic, particularly in view of the rapid rate of emergence of new technologies: “We’re already seeing tens of thousands of domains registered with keywords like ‘ai’ or ‘crypto.’ The next wave of new extensions from the upcoming second phase of the new-gTLD program in 2026 will only accelerate that trend.”

He argues that cross-functional collaboration is essential: “Brand protection should involve legal, marketing, technical, and financial stakeholders. Only then can workflows, budgets, and ROI metrics align to protect both revenue and reputation.”

Barnett also notes that this collective defence is no longer optional: “The rise in social-engineering-based cyberattacks, many exploiting brand identifiers, is a clear illustration of why organisations must act together.”

A whole-of-organisation imperative

Modern-thinking leaders should consider all-of-organisation solutions, with every department challenged to understand how brand abuse impacts them.

The age of automated abuse demands but also something deeper: a cultural shift. The next generation of brand resilience will come from integration, not bigger budgets or faster takedowns, but from shared accountability and smarter systems that make deception less profitable, less scalable, and less worth the effort.

The brands that thrive will be those that act now, not to chase every attack, but to build organisations that can out-adapt automation itself.

Tony Kirsh is the commercial director and cofounder of the Brand Safety Alliance, a GoDaddy initiative dedicated to improving online trust and security for businesses and consumers.