Social Media IdentityTheft

By Adam  |  20 May 2016 12:00:00

One thing which a surprisingly large number of businesses do is put a links to social media accounts which don't actually exist on their home page. For example, an eCommerce website might have links to a Facebook and Twitter account, even though they don't actually have profiles on either one. Why would they do this? Well, the most likely explanation is that they assume that people will never check the pages to confirm that they exist, and just take their word that they are there and be impressed - but this is something you absolutely must not do, because scammers can take advantage of this,

You see, if you enter a URL to a Facebook page that doesn't exist, scammers can then create that Facebook page and use it to steal your business's identity and use it promote their own businesses. Imagine if a morally dubious competitor did this: then, without knowing it, you could be leading your own customers away from you! I'm sure I don't need to tell you that it's bad if somebody steals your identity, because it’s rather self-evident! But, at best, if this happens to you, you might find yourself losing customers who are directed to other websites and, at worst, this sort of strange activity might look suspicious and make people distrust your eCommerce website. If your linking to a Facebook page which is clearly not under your own control, customers will worry that you won't treat their own information securely, since you don’t seem to be able to keep your own safe!

So if you are linking out to a page that doesn't exist, you should probably stop doing so straight away! You should also check to see whether somebody has already done this to you - if they have, be sure to report them to the people in charge of that social media site. Hopefully, with this in mind, you and your eCommerce website will be a little safer. But if you don't even have an eCommerce website yet, then sign up to Sellr now and get started for no cost at all!