Digital Brand Protection in the Age of Impersonation

Online fraud remains a significant and rapidly expanding threat in today's cyber threat landscape. According to the FTC, consumers in the U.S. lost a staggering $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% surge from the previous year. The most commonly reported category? Imposter scams. This difficult-to-intercept form of fraud alone accounted for $2.95 billion of those losses.

Online fraud is not just a consumer issue; it’s a direct reflection of the evolving tactics fraudsters use to exploit trust and destroy a company’s reputation. Today’s online criminals are sophisticated brand impersonators, dismantling digital trust through convincing typosquatted fake websites, AI-generated deepfakes, and widespread social media impersonation. And when your customers get caught up in this onslaught of online fraud, not only are they at risk, but so is your brand’s reputation.

Digital brand protection is now more important than ever, and defending against online fraud requires organizations to take specific steps to harden their defenses. In this blog, we’ll cover how these modern fraud techniques operate, their profound impact on business, and what forward-thinking companies are doing to detect these threats.

Understanding the modern online fraud landscape

The modern online fraud landscape has come a long way since the relatively static field of predictable scams. The new landscape is a dynamic and rapidly evolving battleground, so organizations should first understand how these threats have changed and the new ways attackers are now targeting businesses and customers alike.

The shift from data theft to trust exploitation

The main goal of cyberattacks was once fairly straightforward—breach systems and steal valuable data, like credit card numbers or personal identification information. While data theft is still a significant concern, we are now seeing a critical evolution in attacker motives: exploiting the trust customers place in the brands they commonly interact with. Instead of just stealing data from the backend, cybercriminals are now focused on manipulating brand perception and tricking customers into harmful actions by impersonating legitimate businesses.

Digital trust is an incredibly valuable yet vulnerable asset. Fraudsters can cause significant damage by eroding digital trust (or hijacking it for their own purposes). This damage includes not only direct financial losses when customers are duped by fake websites or communications, but also long-term harm to your brand's equity, customer loyalty, and overall market standing. The aim is often to leverage your good name to achieve their malicious goals, turning your reputation against you and your customer base.

AI's role in accelerating fraud

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) has unfortunately given fraudsters even more powerful new capabilities, accelerating the scale and believability of impersonation efforts. Generative AI, in particular, has revolutionized the creation of compelling fake content, making advanced fraud tactics more accessible than ever before. This evolution means your brand isn't just up against traditional human-driven tactics but also the rapidly evolving power of machine learning.

One of the most concerning developments fueled by AI is the rise of deepfakes—AI-generated audio and video that can realistically mimic a specific person's likeness and voice. In fact, the UK government reports that approximately eight million deepfakes could be shared in 2025, a massive leap from 500,000 in 2023. Beyond deepfakes, AI is also being used to craft more persuasive phishing emails, generate fake product reviews, create believable synthetic profiles for social media, and automate the creation of fraudulent content at an unprecedented scale, significantly amplifying the threat to your brand.

Key methods of online brand impersonation

Let’s take a closer look at the specific techniques cybercriminals use to impersonate brands and their executives. These methods are sophisticated and designed to exploit the everyday trust people place in digital communications and familiar brand identities.

Typosquatting and lookalike domains

Typosquatted domains are one of the oldest but most effective tricks in the fraudster’s handbook. This method preys on common typing errors, where attackers register domains that are slight misspellings of legitimate brand websites. At first glance, these typosquatted domains appear genuine, leading visitors to think they’re trustworthy websites. Examples include:

• “addidas.com” instead of “adidas.com” (common misspelling of the brand name)
• “YourBankOnline.co” instead of “YourBankOnline.com” (changing the top-level domain)
• “MlCROSOFT.NET” instead of “MICROSOFT.NET” (using a lowercase ‘l’ for an uppercase “I”)

Deceptive domains are the launchpads for a variety of malicious activities. For instance, a fake banking login page hosted on a typosquatted domain can steal customer credentials, or a mimicked e-commerce site might capture payment details while offering non-existent products. Attackers further amplify the reach of these domains through several tactics:

• Phishing and spear phishing: Sending emails or messages that direct unsuspecting users to these fraudulent sites
• SEO manipulation: Employing "black-hat" SEO techniques to try and get these fake sites to appear in search engine results for brand-related queries
• Ad spoofing and malvertising: Creating online advertisements that, while appearing legitimate, actually link to these malicious domains (sometimes even directly impersonating a brand's official ads)

Synthetic identity fraud and deepfakes

Artificial Intelligence has become a powerful tool for fraudsters, resulting in synthetic identities and deepfakes that are incredibly difficult to detect. Synthetic identities are often created by combining real (typically stolen) data fragments—like a Social Security number or an address—with entirely fabricated information to construct a new, legitimate individual. This "Frankenstein" identity can then be used to open fraudulent accounts, apply for credit, or pass initial layers of automated KYC (Know Your Customer) checks.

Deepfakes take this a step further by using AI to generate realistic but entirely fabricated video or audio content. This could be a video of an executive appearing to endorse a questionable investment or audio of a customer service representative seemingly authorizing a fraudulent transaction. The implications of this AI-driven fraud are far-reaching:

• Erosion of KYC/AML processes: Traditional identity verification methods struggle against sophisticated synthetics and deepfakes designed to fool them.
• Compromised social media validation: AI-generated profiles, complete with fake images, histories, and even AI-generated engagement, can appear legitimate, making it harder to discern authentic users and brands.
• Breach of internal trust: Deepfake audio or video calls from "executives" can be used to trick employees into making unauthorized payments, divulging sensitive information, or taking other harmful actions (a modern form of CEO fraud).

Executive impersonation on social media

Executives, with their public profiles and inherent authority, are prime targets for impersonation on social media platforms. Cybercriminals can easily create fake profiles using publicly available photos and biographical information, making these accounts appear legitimate to casual observers, such as employees, customers, and partners. The speed at which these fake accounts can be created and the viral nature of social media mean that the damage from executive impersonation can spread rapidly, making swift detection and response crucial.

Fake executive accounts can be utilized in various malicious ways, including:

• Business email compromise (BEC): A fake social media profile can lend credibility to a subsequent BEC attack. For instance, an attacker might warm up a target by interacting via the fake executive profile before sending a fraudulent email request.
• Spreading disinformation or misinformation: These accounts can be used to post false or misleading statements attributed to the executive, potentially damaging the brand's reputation or even attempting to manipulate stock prices.
• Direct brand sabotage: Posting controversial, offensive, or off-brand content while posing as a company leader can quickly tarnish a brand's image.
• Targeting internal and external stakeholders: Fake profiles can be used to phish employees for internal credentials, solicit sensitive information from business partners, or even scam individuals seeking employment with the company.

Impact of brand attacks and essential defense strategies

The tangible business impact of brand attacks can be devastating, so it’s critical to deploy essential strategies across your organization. After all, failing to protect your brand’s digital presence is no longer an option in today’s threat landscape.

The business impact of online fraud and brand attacks

Online fraud and brand impersonation aren't just minor annoyances—they inflict serious and measurable harm on businesses. This fallout extends far beyond immediate financial theft, creating ripple effects that can damage a company for years to come. Key impacts include:

• Direct financial losses: Includes the initial fraudulent transactions on fake sites and costs associated with remediating attacks and supporting affected customers
• Reputational damage: Negative experiences (even with impersonators) tarnish a legitimate brand’s image, leading to erosion of customer trust
• Customer churn: Customers who fall victim to scams associated with your brand lose confidence in your ability to protect them, and often take their business elsewhere
• Revenue leakage: Sales revenue can be diverted to counterfeit sites, or customers can refrain from legitimate e-commerce due to fear of fraud
• Regulatory scrutiny: Depending on the nature of the fraud and any data compromised, organizations can face investigations, fines, and legal challenges.

Attackers chip away at the core value of your brand and its relationship with customers. Ultimately, the cost of inaction— that is, failing to proactively defend your brand's digital perimeter—often far outweighs the investment in robust protection measures. 

Effective strategies for digital brand protection

Protecting your brand in this digital age requires a multi-layered and continuously adaptive approach. Proactivity is key—reactive measures are simply not enough against today’s agile threat actors. Instead of implementing defenses after significant damage has occurred, consider the following strategies forward-thinking companies are implementing now:

• Continuous domain monitoring and rapid takedown: Actively scan for and secure the removal of typosquatted, cybersquatted, and other lookalike domains that fraudulently use your brand name or likeness
• Vigilant social media and platform defense: Consistently monitor social media channels, app stores, and other digital platforms for fake brand or executive impersonation accounts and infringing content (paired with efficient takedown procedures)
• Integrated cross-functional incident response: Establish a collaborative approach across teams to ensure a swift, coordinated, and comprehensive response to brand impersonation incidents.
• Proactive asset protection: Strategically register key domain variations and social media handles and leverage monitoring technologies to reduce the attack surface available to impersonators.

These strategies are most effective when implemented as part of an ongoing program that adapts to new threats and evolving attacker methodologies. Remember: a static defense will quickly become outdated.

Why brand protection is a cybersecurity priority

As we become more dominated by digital outlets, a company’s online presence is often its primary storefront and communication channel. Protecting that presence is no longer just a marketing concern—it’s a fundamental cybersecurity priority. Brand reputation, digital trust, and customer safety are critical assets that directly impact organizational resilience and business continuity. Attacks on your brand are attacks on your business.

Digital brand protection should be considered a strategic initiative, understood and championed at the executive and board levels. It’s critical to view digital brand protection as a proactive investment in preserving trust and market standing, not merely as a reactive cost center. As the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve and brand attacks increase, a strong digital brand protection program is essential for maintaining business integrity and safeguarding future growth.

Proactive digital brand protection with UpGuard

The digital frontier is fraught with increasingly sophisticated online fraud and impersonation tactics, making the threat to your brand's integrity and customer trust more acute than ever. Simply reacting to these attacks is no longer a viable strategy. Instead, effective digital brand protection demands a proactive, continuous commitment—regularly evaluating your defenses and adapting to the evolving methods of online criminals is paramount. 

UpGuard Breach Risk is an all-in-one attack surface management tool designed to identify and reduce risks faster with daily scanning, clear prioritization, and faster remediation. Additionally, Breach Risk helps you protect your digital brand with features like:

• Data Leak Detection: Find compromised credentials before they're used for brand or executive impersonation
• Typosquatting Monitoring: Identifies and flags lookalike domains that fraudulently use your brand's identity
• Attack Surface Monitoring: Continuously scan your official digital assets for exposures that could damage brand trust
• Email Security Validation: Prevent email spoofing that abuses your brand's identity in phishing campaigns

Learn more about UpGuard Breach Risk and get started today at https://www.upguard.com/contact-sales.