A new type of scam is targeting small businesses and their customers. Copycats are using small business websites, videos, and social media posts to impersonate them, running online ads to attract customers and make their offerings seem legitimate. Then, they redirect users to a replicated version of the small business website where they can complete their “purchase.” Some might receive cheap knock-off versions of the products they thought they were getting, while others don’t receive anything. And all their ire is then directed to the actual small business who was impersonated.
The Wall Street Journal recently spoke to several small business owners who had been targeted by this type of attack.
For example, Ryan Dahlstrom, global director of digital commerce for Merino sock company Darn Tough Vermont, told the WSJ, “They’d find an old ad we had run, flip a 75% or 80% badge over that image, and throw it up as a sponsored ad or a sponsored post.”
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