The online marketing world is full of ways for people to be the victim of some form of scam. Here are the top 5 exploits less than scrupulous providers of online marketing services employ - being aware of these and taking some elementary precautions can dramatically lower your chance of getting ripped off. http://www.nobsoms.com/

1. WARNING
You are entering a BS free zone

19. Exploit #1
“Law of the High Seas” in cross
border transactions

20.  When you buy products or services online from another
country you effectively don’t have any legal protection
The laws of your country don’t apply to something sourced
outside your country
Law enforcement from the vendor’s country are likely to be
disinterested unless the offence takes place inside that country

21.  Even when you buy online from within your own country,
don’t expect much help
 You will be seen as a business customer and not a consumer,
which typically provides less legal protection
 If things are not right, it’s up to you to prove the case and
it’s simply not worth the effort and cost unless the amount of
money involved is large

22. Treat your purchases as ‘full and final’ and once you
have paid do not expect you will ever get this money
back.
If you aren’t happy to make the purchase under
these effective terms, then don’t make the purchase

23. Exploit #2
Easily faked reputations

24. Not only was Groucho was right, but he would have laughed at
how easy it has become to fake your reputation on the internet
‘ ‘

25. Take a seller’s reputation, testimonials, income
claims, and even peer referrals with a grain of salt as
these are regularly and convincingly exaggerated or
totally fabricated.
Would you make that purchase without any of the
reassurances and testimonials? If not, then don’t buy.

26. Exploit #3
True identities are easy to
mask

27.  It is very easy to disguise many aspects of the true identity of
an individual or company online
 Most purchasers are inclined to take statements made at face
value, and this fact is often exploited
 It can be difficult to obtain ‘validation’ because references and
other substantiating evidence is also easily faked

28.  We checked out a company offering some similar services to us in the area of social
media activity
 Payment was in US$
 Nothing on the site indicated where the business was located, ownership, principals,
etc – however there was reference to a Facebook Fan Page
 The Facebook Fan page gave the full address which was confirmed by Google Maps, as
a respected Midtown Manhattan address
 This was further substantiated by a Manhattan area code 212 telephone number
 However the domain was registered to a company in Chennai, India
 Further investigation revealed the US address to be a sham and the business totally
operating from India

29. You need to be aware how easy it is to promote a false identity online,
and the less scrupulous will position themselves with an identity that
appears bona fide and rings no warning bells.
Scrutinize everything with care and look for anything that is slightly
out of place – like spelling or grammatical mistakes, things not
explained as they should be, or an address too good to be true.
Any group misleading the purchaser about their identity, location or
any other factor should be avoided totally, and if the integrity of the
provider is important you should seek to validate the information (see
next slide)

30. Validating an Online Identity/Bona Fides
Check social media identities for depth and consistency.
• It is increasingly difficult to maintain a false identity as well as credible multiple
social media profiles for any length of time. Warning signs of a ‘flaky’ identity
include no social media profiles, very recent profiles, activity that is superficial
and lacks depth of 2-way engagement, excessive duplication between social media
channels or a general lack of believability when you scan recent posts
Check the LinkedIn profiles of the owner(s) or senior management
• Failure to clearly indicate the individual(s) behind the business is an initial
warning sign – why would this be the case? When identified, search for these
individuals initially on LinkedIn. While this is not foolproof, if the individual does
not appear or the information is inconsistent, this is a further warning sign
• Undertake a Bing or Google search on the company ID and the names of the
principals

31. Validating an Online Identity/Bona Fides
Undertake a Bing or Google search on the company ID and the names of the
principals
• Be aware that if this group or person is seriously trying to portray a false identity
there will likely be a ‘web’ of identities or URL’s that will appear to substantiate
one another. So look for authority sites or websites that appear only once and are
not connected with any others in the search as possibly being of more value. Try
adding a few terms such as ‘scam’, ‘quality’, ‘true identity’, ‘real identity’ to the
search to see what might appear
Undertake a ‘WhoIS’ search on the organisation
• There are many different “WhoIS” providers and services – look for
inconsistencies!

32. Exploit #4
Originality, ownership and
copyright uncertainties

33.  The purchaser of online marketing resources – including
content or software – expects (whether stated or not) that
what they receive is original and does not carry a nasty sting
in the tail by being a copyright infringement
 Unfortunately as many have discovered, this cannot be
guaranteed and you need to take specific steps to lower your
risks in this area

34. Ensuring You Receive Original Material
When requesting any material including graphics, text, or software to be written or
created for you:
• State clearly on the instructions that the material must be original, and it must
not use any material that is subject to copyright or any other form of
confidentiality or protection
• State clearly that all intellectual property rights including copyright are to be in
your name as the owner
• Also state that at the completion of the contract the provider is to pass to you
the original source files of all material produced and must certify that all copies
have been deleted or destroyed
These requests will by no means prevent something nasty happening but they do
signal you are serious about the issue and not an ‘easy mark’, which is likely to
discourage unscrupulous behaviour

35. Ensuring You Receive Original Material
There are also checks you can undertake – and/or insist are undertaken – to help
ensure originality. Here are a number of online plagiarism checking applications
• http://copyscape.com/
• http://www.plagium.com/
• http://www.duplichecker.com/
• http://www.scanmyessay.com/
• http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/
• http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker/
• http://plagiarisma.net/
And for images
• http://tineye.com/

36. Exploit #5
Exposure of private and
sensitive information

37. Purchasing online marketing support often requires information to be shared or made
available for access which could be mis-used
 This may include login details and passwords for websites and control panels, email
addresses and passwords, confidential files and personal information
 For example a contractor asked to set up a new company website including hosted
email may openly be given:
 Full admin/super admin access to both front-end and back-end control panels including
access to and ability to modify HTML and CSS files. In cases where more than one
website is hosted together this extends to all the company’s websites
 Knowledge of all company email addresses and potentially ability to access emails via
administrator privileges
 Knowledge of and access to login details for other company systems environments, etc

38. The dangers are real
 An Australian based online retailer engaged via a well known online contracting
marketplace a company in South Asia to build a new online store. Initial and mid
project milestone payments were made in good faith, however there were repeated
failures to deliver and the developers admitted to having installed incompatible versions
of shopping cart and CMS software and their attempts to remediate had created such
complexity they requested approval to start over with the correct versions
 The client elected to decline and terminated the contractor, writing off the amounts
paid and changing logins and passwords for the site
 About one week later the client’s entire online environment vanished. As the hosting
company commented ‘this was the work of anonymous but highly skilled operators who
removed all traces with precision. It was like going to work one morning to find that the
skyscraper next door had been demolished overnight and in its place was a perfectly
manicured park with no sign there had ever been a building there’

39. The dangers are real
 The CEO of an Asian company recent;y had a call from his bank, just confirming they
had received his instructions and were about to transfer a 7-figure sum to an account
in the Middle East. This was the first he had heard of the issue
 Several months before he had outsourced the setup of a new website host and company
emails, including his own
 The job had been done smoothly without any problem and that was the last he had
thought about the matter
 Because the issue demanded no attention and was ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ he
neglected to change administration password for the company email system allowing
his and his employee’s emails to be viewed without anyone’s knowledge
 Over time enough information was obtained for his identity to be replicated and he was
saved from a financial disaster by a thin margin

40. The dangers are real
 A US based online entrepreneur regularly outsourced product and content creation and website
development tasks to a variety of contractors scattered across the world
 A prolific and successful Twitter user, he possessed a well known and memorable Twitter handle
and also many tens of thousands of engaged Twitter followers
 Without warning one morning he was unable to post a Tweet, and found himself unable to log in
to Twitter. Attempts to change his password or recover login details were unsuccessful
 Twitter were not able to help as as far as they were concerned HE was the impostor
 He then received an email from a person stating they were the owner of the Twitter handle that
had until recently been his … and they were offering it for sale
 He recovered the Twitter handle at a cost of $10,000 and although he knows the identity of the
person no action can be taken because no crime was committed
 His Twitter password was the same as he used on the sites he had contractors work on – it
seemed like a good idea to have the same password so he only had to remember one

41. Forewarned is Forearmed

42. Don’t accept everything at face value |
Remain aware of these most common
exploits | And the likelihood you will be
the next victim is dramatically lowered

43. www.nobsoms.com