Fighting illegal business is like a game of chess: for every move a brand makes to protect itself, cybercriminals also make a move. Activities such as counterfeiting or brand impersonation are continually adapting to new market possibilities and consumer habits. In their sights are the brands most recognized by users, those that invest in advertising and e-commerce to expand their reach on the Internet.
There are several types of illegal activities depending on the channel used and the format of the fraud. In this article we detail what each of them consists of.
Counterfeits on marketplaces and other websites
The counterfeiting business is present in various types of e-commerce, from marketplaces, such as Amazon or Alibaba, to websites that imitate the official brand. The behavior of cybercriminals is different in each case:
Marketplaces
Going back to the chess game analogy, counterfeiters know which ecuador whatsapp data moves will put them in danger and which are safe. For this reason, counterfeit products do not appear on marketplaces with the name of the brand or the product, nor with images on the main page, since they would be quickly detected. On the contrary, cybercriminals try to hide counterfeits as much as possible by promoting them only on social networks and often by making the user go through several websites until they reach the product.
In both search engines and e-commerce, counterfeits are found using keywords such as the brand name and other terms like “outlet” or “discount.” However, the volumes of data are huge and it is difficult to analyze the results to discern which links lead to a counterfeit and which do not. To illustrate, consider that our Smart Protection platform rejects on average 98% of the links it finds in a first crawl as part of the analysis of the information captured.
To classify the detected links, matching or elimination criteria are applied, such as image recognition or prices well below the brand's recommended retail price (RRP). It would be impossible to cover volumes of Big Data without the help of machine learning algorithms and automated computer vision techniques , a scientific discipline aimed at processing, analyzing and understanding images and whose recognition algorithms allow us to find similar images, even if they have been changed (for example, a distorted logo).
Once counterfeits sold on marketplaces have been identified, their removal is requested by documenting the legal rights through the copyright protection systems available on these types of e-commerce sites. This process is automated and validated by the agreements that Smart Protection has with the main online sales platforms.
When it comes to dealing with illegal businesses, it is important to take into account the number of visits each marketplace receives in order to prioritise those counterfeit searches that may have the greatest negative impact on brands.
Websites that contain counterfeits or are fraudulent
Marketplaces are not the only space where we find illegal business, but brands with a strong e-commerce face an even greater threat: rogue sites . “Rogue” is defined in English as subjects who behave in a way that is harmful to others. Rogue sites are websites that use identifying features of a brand to market counterfeits. Their target is users who are loyal to the brand and who in many cases are not aware that they are buying on a fraudulent website. As in the Marketplaces, products are promoted on social networks with an attractive image and price.