Social media impersonation

Executive impersonation is impersonating a company’s leaders, such as the CEO, CFO, or founders, to abuse their authority, typically to authorize fraudulent payments or extract sensitive information.

Brand impersonation is any attempt to pose as a legitimate brand, through fake websites, domains, social profiles, ads, or emails, to deceive that brand’s customers or partners.

Digital impersonation is the broad practice of pretending to be a person or organization online. It covers both brand impersonation and the impersonation of individual executives or employees.

A fake social media account is a profile or page that copies a real brand, executive, or person to scam followers, run fake support, or post fraudulent offers under a borrowed identity.

An impersonation attack is any attack where the adversary pretends to be a trusted brand, person, or system to deceive a target, the umbrella for phishing, fake profiles, spoofing, and business email compromise.

Malvertising is the use of online ads to deliver scams or malware, often by impersonating a real brand in the ad so users click a paid result that leads to a fraudulent site.

Authorized push payment (APP) fraud is when a victim is tricked into authorizing a payment themselves to an account the fraudster controls, often after impersonation of a bank, supplier, or person.

Brand impersonation protection is the discipline of detecting and removing impersonations of your brand across the internet, combining continuous monitoring with active takedowns.