Social media connects brands and businesses to their target audiences, driving greater awareness, revenue and loyalty. Among social media users, 86% follow brands and 57% are more likely to buy from those brands. Social media conversations also provide a real-time window into customer sentiment.

Unfortunately, fraudsters also use social media’s speed, reach and ease of audience engagement to impersonate trusted brands and scam their customers. This poses a serious reputation risk to these brands.

To protect their customers and reputations, companies need to make active brand monitoring part of their social media activities.

In 2021, social media scams accounted for a quarter of all reported fraud losses in the United States, costing victims $770 million, according to the Federal Trade Commission. This represents an eighteen-fold increase since 2017.

Nearly half of those social media fraud losses involved social commerce, where companies use social media platforms to market and sell products and services.