Criminals hijacking online corporate brands to hide behind and masquerading for profit, are increasing their efforts, a report released today said.
Dubbed "brandjacking" by MarkMonitor, a US brand protection service provider, it says the practice is becoming a major threat to household names. "Not only is the volume of these abuses significant, but abusers are becoming alarmingly savvy marketers," said Frederick Felman, MarkMonitor's chief marketing officer.
In its first Brandjacking Index report, MarkMonitor tracked 25 of the top 100 brands for three weeks by monitoring illegal or unethical tactics that ranged from cybersquatting to pay-per-click fraud. Media companies made up the greatest percentage of targeted brands, said MarkMonitor, which pegged media's slice of brandjacking at 31%.
"Media companies are under attack due to the value of their brands and content, as well as the traffic their good names drive," the report said. "The most trafficked brands draw the most abuse."
Cybersquatting, which in terms of brandjacking usually means registering a URL that includes a real brand's name, easily took the prize for most threats. MarkMonitor tracked more than 286,000 instances in the three-week span.
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