Fraudes em e-commerce: entenda como proteger a sua marca

E-commerce scams represent a growing threat that goes beyond immediate financial losses: they directly affect your brand's reputation. After all, customers harmed by scams associated with your name are unlikely to maintain trust in your company.

And it is in this context that brand protection becomes a strategic priority for any online business.

Do you want to know how to protect your brand against e-commerce fraud and avoid irreparable losses? Read on and discover some strategies that will help you protect your business!

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The popularization of e-commerce fraud

Brazilian e-commerce faces a growing challenge: fraud. This is confirmed by a recent study by Equifax | Boa Vista, which revealed that 4.09% of transactions in 2023 were attempts at fraud.

This number, although lower than the previous year, is still alarming, as each scam affects consumer confidence and, ultimately, your brand's reputation.

Additionally, it's important to note that the impact of these cases goes beyond direct financial harm. This is because consumer confidence, once shaken, is difficult to recover.

In other words, brand protection must become a priority for any online business that wants to develop.

Main types of e-commerce fraud

Protect your brand in e-commerce requires knowing the different types of infractions that may affect your business. After all, each type of coup presents unique challenges and requires specific prevention and combat strategies.

As we have seen, the Brazilian e-commerce fraud scenario is worrying and is constantly evolving and despite the decrease in the number of fraud attempts, the average amount of each fraudulent order has increased significantly.

Proof of this is that according to Exame data, the average amount of each fraudulent request was R$ 1,300 in January 2025, an increase of almost 30% compared to the same period in 2024.

Faced with this scenario, it is essential that you, an entrepreneur, are familiar with the main types of scams that haunt an e-commerce.

Therefore, in the next sections, we will explore some of the most common and even the most sophisticated modalities.

Follow up!

Identity Theft

“Identity theft”, in the context of your brand, occurs when third parties impersonate your company to interact with customers or perform actions on your behalf. That is, these impostors steal your brand's identity - using your name, logo, communication style, and other elements that identify you.

Imagine that someone creates a fake profile of your company on a social network and begins to disclose incorrect information or offer false products and services. When customers notice that they have been deceived, they may become frustrated and contact your company, expecting a solution, right?

Therefore, if your service is not prepared to deal with this situation, the negative experience can be amplified and shared, tarnishing your brand image.

Chargeback fraud

Chargeback fraud occurs when a customer makes a legitimate purchase with a credit card, receives the product or service, and then requests the cancellation of the transaction (chargeback) with the card provider, citing a reason such as “I don't recognize the purchase” or “product not delivered”.

This practice, when carried out in bad faith, can generate financial losses for e-commerce, in addition to affecting the reputation of your brand.

Imagine that a customer buys a high-value product from your online store, receives it in perfect condition and, after a few days, requests a chargeback, claiming that they did not receive the product.

If the carrier approves the chargeback, you'll lose the sale price and you'll struggle to recover the product.

According to a study by Sygnifid, e-commerce businesses can lose up to 1% of their annual revenue due to fraudulent chargebacks.

Phishing

Phishing is an online attack technique where fraudsters disguise themselves as trustworthy companies or individuals to trick users or obtain sensitive information.

In the context of e-commerce, phishing can be used to divert organic traffic and steal conversions from your brand.

That is, instead of directly attacking customers, fraudsters create fake pages and emails that resemble those of your company, with the purpose of deceiving search engines and attracting potential customers to Fraudulent sites.

By optimizing this fake page for the same search terms you use, it can get it to appear in search results before your official page.

In this way, customers who are searching for your products may end up being directed to the fake page, where they are tricked into making purchases or providing information that benefits the fraudster, diverting sales and hurting your brand's performance in search engines.

Deliberate fraud

Deliberate fraud, also known as internal fraud, occurs when employees or partners of a company take advantage of their position to commit fraud for their own benefit or that of others.

In e-commerce, deliberate fraud can take various forms, such as the diversion of merchandise, the manipulation of customer data, the creation of fake accounts to carry out fraudulent purchases, and the leak of confidential information to competitors.

Imagine that a partner of your company has access to the data of all your customers and decides to sell them to a competing company.

This attitude, in addition to being illegal, can cause irreparable damage to your brand, compromising the trust of your customers and opening space for lawsuits.

How can e-commerce fraud affect your brand?

One fact doesn't change in e-commerce: customers who are victims of scams associated with your name, even if your company is not directly responsible, tend to lose trust in your brand.

And this loss of trust is manifested in several ways: a decrease in the number of loyal customers, an increase in complaints on social networks, negative reviews on review sites and, consequently, a drop in sales. After all, a brand with a tarnished reputation has a harder time attracting new customers and retaining old ones.

In fact, these are just some of the problems that e-commerce fraud they can cause. Just look at the main ones:

Loss of consumer confidence

Trust is vital for the brand, but scams, even without direct guilt, shake it, associating it with the negative experience. After all, injured consumers lose faith in brand safety.

In e-commerce, this trust is even more essential, considering that 47% of Brazilians make basic grocery purchases online (Neogrid), showing the importance of this protection in the digital environment.

A customer who clicks on a fake advertisement for your brand, makes a purchase but does not receive the product or receives a counterfeit, loses trust. That is, even if you know that you did not buy directly from your store, the negative experience will make you think twice before buying again.

Remember: building and maintaining trust is critical to long-term success, and fraud is a direct threat to that foundation.

Financial impact

Online scams cause significant financial losses, affecting sales, customer acquisition cost, and brand reputation. All of these issues combined impact on the increase in operating costs.

However, that's not all: after all, in addition to the direct loss of sales due to fraud, there is the indirect impact of the loss of trust, which affects future sales.

That is, minimizing cases of fraud is therefore a financial priority.

Damage to the brand image

Online reputation builds over time, but fraud can destroy it quickly. This is because the dissemination of negative information, such as reports of scams, tarnishes the brand's image, alienating customers.

The combination of victim reports and alerts associates the brand with insecurity, generating mistrust.

For example, if a deceived customer shares their experience on social media, tagging the brand, the post has negative repercussions. Then, other users share similar experiences, warning about the risks.

As a result, the company's image is associated with scams, hampering the attraction of new customers.

Traffic loss and conversions

Distrust and negative reputation reduce site traffic and conversions.

Potential customers avoid the online store for fear of scams, and the injured do not return. That is, even with marketing automation, these scams undermine the effectiveness of your actions.

Additionally, if a customer doesn't trust the brand, they won't click on ads or visit the site. That's why, after the disclosure of a scam, the site's organic traffic decreases dramatically, campaigns lose effectiveness, and the conversion rate drops.

Always remember that restoring trust is essential to regaining lost traffic and sales.

Commitment to customer experience

The customer experience goes beyond the purchase, encompassing brand perception and navigation safety.

And fraud negatively impacts that experience, creating frustration. A survey conducted by Microsoft mapped that 96% of consumers consider service to be a differential factor for loyalty.

That is, if a customer feels insecure on the site, has difficulties contacting, or does not receive assistance after a scam, the experience with the brand is hampered. That's why prioritizing customer experience is paramount to ensuring loyalty and long-term success.

Legal and contractual consequences

Fraud can create legal liabilities, such as legal proceedings brought by injured customers, in addition to affecting contracts with suppliers. In addition, the company may be held responsible for security breaches or lack of incentives for prevention.

In other words, if a group of clients files a lawsuit alleging negligence, the company bears legal costs.

Reputation can also affect contracts with suppliers and partners. And that's why investing in digital protection and prevention is crucial to avoid legal problems and maintain the trust of business partners.

Increased vulnerability to future attacks

A brand that suffers from fraud becomes more vulnerable to new attacks, as offenders exploit the fragility of its security. For example, after a Phishing attack, the hijacked information is used to create fake sites and social media profiles, offering false promotions.

In these cases, constant surveillance, such as the one we offer at Branddi, and a quick response are essential to mitigate damage and protect the brand.

How to protect your brand against e-commerce fraud?

After understanding the serious impacts that these cases can cause to your brand, the question that must be asked is: how to protect yourself?

And that's where Branddi, a specialist in digital brand protection, comes in, sharing essential strategies to protect your business against e-commerce fraud, ensuring the security of your operation and the trust of your customers.

And this is a growing trend: today, 62% of Brazilian companies want to increase investments in fraud prevention, according to Serasa Experian.

Now is the time to take action and protect your business. Here's how:

Monitor suspicious transactions

With e-commerce fraud projected to exceed $343 billion by 2027, according to the report “The State of Fraud and Abuse 2024", monitoring suspicious transactions is critical.

But instead of focusing solely on suspicious financial transactions, focus on monitoring signs that indicate that your brand may be being imitated online. This includes:

• Variations in the URL: be aware of URLs that are similar to that of your online store, but that contain minor changes or spelling errors. These URLs may be being used to create fake pages that impersonate your company;
• Drop in conversions: a sudden decrease in conversion rates may indicate that customers are being diverted to fraudulent pages that mimic your brand;
• Increase in complaints: an increase in the number of complaints about counterfeit products, undue charges, or misleading information may be a sign that your brand is being misused by third parties;
• Negative mentions on social media: monitor social networks for negative mentions of your brand that may be related to poor experiences with fake pages or profiles;
• Unusual traffic: analyze your site's traffic data for sudden spikes or drops, which may indicate the presence of bots or traffic directed to fake pages.

By monitoring these warning signs, you can quickly identify cases of imitation of your brand and take the necessary steps to protect your reputation and your customers.

Assess partners' reputations

The security of your e-commerce depends not only on your internal practices, but also on the reliability of your partners.

Therefore, evaluate the reputation of your logistics partners and the platforms you use, verifying that they have robust protection measures and a history of combating fraud.

Partners with dubious reputations can compromise the security of your data and that of your customers, becoming a gateway for fraudsters.

Prioritize transparency and reliability when choosing your partners, protecting your business from unnecessary risks.

Invest in an anti-fraud system

Faced with the growing sophistication of brand imitation, driven by advanced techniques, protecting your online presence has become essential.

That's why Branddi offers a complete solution to monitor and protect your brand in the digital environment.

To do this, we use advanced technologies to analyze your online presence in real time, identify patterns of misuse of your brand and alert you to possible imitations.

Our system monitors everything from URLs similar to yours to the misuse of your logo on fake social media profiles.

With Branddi, you can anticipate attempts to imitate your brand, protect your reputation, and ensure that your customers only interact with legitimate communication channels.

Learn more about our work in the next topic!

Count on Branddi to eliminate e-commerce fraud!

Branddi offers a complete solution to protect your brand against e-commerce fraud. To this end, we constantly monitor all digital platforms, identifying suspicious activities and removing fraudulent content quickly and efficiently.

Our team of experts uses artificial intelligence and human analysis to detect complex patterns and ensure the protection of your brand across all sales channels.

With Branddi, you can focus on growing your business, knowing that your brand is protected against the risks of the digital environment.

Protect your brand right now: visit our site and discover how we can help you eliminate e-commerce fraud with our Shielding marketing!