Phase 2 — Digital and Emerging Schemes · 8 min read
11 · Leads and Customers Redirected Through Social Media
Business-generated leads and customers steered to a competing venture owned by the fraudster.
01The diverted lead
Social media makes it trivial to build a parallel brand. A fraudster uses the company's marketing, reputation, and customer relationships to generate leads, then redirects those leads to a side business — sometimes a direct competitor — that they own privately. The company pays to acquire the customer; the fraudster keeps the revenue.
- Social media profiles using the company's name, imagery, or customer list without authorization.
- Customer inquiries that never appear in the company's pipeline but surface in reviews of another business.
- A side business whose offerings mirror the company's, owned by an owner or employee.
- Marketing spend that generates leads the company never receives.
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10 · Payment Apps and Unauthorized Payment Links
Customer payment links pointing to a personal account on a consumer payment app.
12 · AI-Assisted Documents and Impersonation
Invoices, signatures, and communications fabricated or altered with generative AI tools.
13 · Cryptocurrency Receipts Diverted to Private Wallets
Crypto payments accepted on the business's behalf but routed to a wallet the partners cannot see.
14 · Fictitious Customers Used to Hide Missing Inventory
Fake sales to nonexistent customers that explain away inventory that was actually stolen.