As technology becomes more central to our lives, the way we engage with others — particularly online — is changing. Many workplaces now fill their calendars with cybersecurity training in an effort to minimize the chance of falling victim to security breaches. Leadership teams now have to spend more time sending out warnings to ignore spam emails or phone calls.

In this article, we cover:

• How a spoofed call affects your brand identity
• How you can protect your brand identity against call spoofing
• How you can prevent spoofed calls from using your brand identity

How Can Spoofed Calls Affect Your Brand Identity?

It is common for malicious actors to imitate a brand when call spoofing. (They will, for example, say that they are a customer representative from that firm.) This helps gain the customer’s trust and can create a believable context so that the customer will give out sensitive information.

Imagine a scenario where your phone rings and the caller ID indicates it is “Netflix Customer Service.” You answer the call, and a voice on the other line tells you that your Netflix account has been hacked. They are calling to help you reset your password, but they just need you to answer a few questions to verify your identity. They gather your email, previous password, the maiden name of your mother, and the name of your first pet.

You can’t quite remember what the security questions were when you set up your account, or if there were security questions. You don’t wonder about it, though, because you believe you are speaking with a representative from a trusted brand.

In reality, it is not Netflix customer service, but a hacker who is systematically gaining information from you in order to hack into your bank account. When you discover that your money has been stolen, the pieces start to come together, and you realize that the thief was the person on the other end of that phone call.

But you may not know about call spoofing, and so many victims blame the company involved for hiring scam artists to work their customer service lines. Unaware that the call was spoofed, you unsubscribe from their service and tell everyone about how a trusted company stole from you.

How Can I Protect My Brand Identity From Spoofed Calls?

If your company is being used for spoofed calls, it is important to bring on a protective service like YouMailPS. At YouMailPS, we use a variety of tools to fight the malicious actors who employ brand imitation call spoofing. Our brand protection management tools help monitor what customers say about the brand online. Going back to our imagined scenario, our software would be able to identify that the Netflix brand identity is being used in spoofed calls to victimize customers. We would then be able to reach out to victims and enforcement agencies in order to take down the scammers and do damage control.

Every bad actor that YouMailPS takes down on your behalf serves to strengthen your brand identity. When fraudsters know that your company takes an aggressive stance against spoofing, they will opt to use a different brand’s name instead. In this sense, YouMailPS is both a responsive and preventative tool.

What Makes YouMail PS Different?

Various services claim to fight against spoofed calls. YouMailPS is different from other protective services because of the way it uses AI, machine learning, and content analytics to identify and take down the criminals who are stealing your brand identity.

The proof we can provide regarding call spoofing is definitive and can be used to remove these scammers from networks. It can also be used in certain cases to build a legal case against a bad actor.

How Can I Prevent Bad Actors From Using My Brand In The First Place?

No one wants their brand used in a scam, particularly a call spoofing scam. The best way to prevent this is by using services like YouMailPS to fight the bad actors that are currently out there. Each time you take down a fraudster, it sends a message that there are consequences for imitating your company. Don’t hesitate to reach out to YouMailPS today to talk about how we can work together to strengthen your brand identity.

Is Your Brands Reputation at Risk?

Listen to actual robocall scams impersonating companies in our

Brand Impersonation Scam Call Index