Malicious link: how to prevent them from hijacking your results?

To prevent a malicious link from hijacking your results, it's essential to adopt constant digital surveillance and rapid response actions against those who misuse your brand.

At Branddi, we deal daily with protecting brands against these threats, and we thoroughly understand the direct impact that a malicious link, created to exploit your reputation, has on your marketing investments and the trust of your customers. After all, these fraudulent links can not only divert qualified traffic and inflate your ad costs, but also erode the value you worked so hard to build.

Read on to understand the tactics used by these offenders and, more importantly, how your company can effectively defend itself, ensuring that your efforts and investments generate the expected returns, without being undermined by illegal activities. Shall we go?

What is a malicious link?

Something that we constantly reinforce here at Branddi is that the digital environment, and in particular social networks, have become fertile ground for activities aimed at undermining the reputation and results of companies.

Proof of this, according to the Quarterly Threat Trends and Intelligence Report from PhishLabs, there was a 47% increase in threats on social networks aimed at companies since January 2021, with attacks related to frauds — often disseminated through malicious links and phishing attempts — representing more than 45% of the total volume of threats.

That is, a malicious link, in the context of brand protection, is essentially a URL designed with the intention of causing harm, specifically aimed at compromising the integrity and performance of a brand in the digital environment.

It is a tool used by offenders to:

• Divert customers: leading them to fake pages that mimic the original brand, or to the sites of unfair competitors and scammers;
• Dilute brand authority: associating the brand with misleading promotions or low-quality content that doesn't reflect its values;
• Inflate marketing costs: using the brand in fraudulent advertisements that generate invalid clicks and consume advertising budget;
• Undermining consumer confidence: exposing customers to negative experiences that, although not the direct fault of the original company, tarnish the perception of the brand.

In other words, in essence, a malicious link is any web address that exploits the identity, reputation, or keywords of a brand to obtain undue advantages, harming its results and the experience of its audience.

How do malicious links affect your results?

Many companies still see the malicious link as a distant or merely technical problem, a digital plague that affects “others”. However, this perception can be costly.

The truth is that these fraudulent URLs are silent weapons capable of profoundly undermining your brand's performance and reputation, directly attacking your most valuable assets: your customers, your credibility and, of course, your marketing investments.

But how, exactly, can a simple link cause so much damage to your financial results and your company's image?

Get ready to discover the mechanisms behind this digital hijacking and understand why surveillance is no longer an option, but a necessity.

Organic and paid traffic hijacking

Your traffic, organic or paid, is precious. Data from Intelligenzia, in fact, indicate that organic traffic can exceed 50% of the total and is vital for the results.

Malicious links, created by offenders using your brand, divert those visitors to fake or competitor pages.

Thus, your SEO efforts and your ad investments are undermined, with potential customers being directed away from your legitimate offers, directly impacting your acquisition and revenue goals.

Redirection to fraudulent sites

A click on a link apparently yours could take customers to sites that sell counterfeit products, promote scams using your name, or display inappropriate content.

And this redirection not only frustrates the user, but it creates a direct negative association with your brand.

That is, even without control over the offender's actions, the bad experience tarnishes your reputation and can alienate consumers, who start to question the security and legitimacy of their online operations.

Decrease in domain authority (SEO)

A Your domain authority is the key to a good ranking. In other words, if your brand is constantly associated with spam pages or fraudulent activities through malicious links, search engines may interpret this negatively.

While the technical impact is complex, poor user experience and perceived low reliability can indirectly harm your SEO efforts.

Remember: protecting your brand against this association is also about protecting your positioning and organic visibility in the long term.

User distrust and drop in conversion

Trust is a fundamental pillar in customer relationships. Proof of this is that research by Edelman (Market & Consumption) reveals that 91% of Brazilians consider it decisive when buying.

So, when a customer encounters a malicious link exploiting your brand, that trust is broken. In addition, the likelihood of conversion plummets and the user may even be suspicious of future legitimate communications.

The perception that your brand doesn't protect your own online presence directly affects sales and customer loyalty.

Committed ad campaigns

Your investments in ads (Google Ads, Social Ads) aim to attract customers and malicious links are capable of sabotaging this ROI. This is done through the creation of false advertisements, raising your cost per click (CPC), diverting qualified traffic and reducing the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Thus, your budget is wasted and your best customers are intercepted, while offenders profit from your reputation and investment.

Most Common Malicious Link Tactics

The malicious link that targets your brand is no accident: they are the result of increasingly cunning and multifaceted strategies designed to deceive and mislead. Therefore, knowing how these offenders act is the first step in erecting a solid protective barrier.

The sophistication is such that, according to recent data from Appgate for the first months of 2024, phishing alone - one of the main routes for these links - was responsible for an alarming 61% of the fraud neutralized.

This underlines an uncomfortable reality: threats not only persist, but they evolve, infiltrating every imaginable channel.

But what exactly are those tactics and how do they operate to hijack your results? The answer may surprise with its variety and ingenuity:

Phishing with disguised links

As we mentioned in the topic above, phishing remains one of the favorite weapons of fraudsters and, as pointed out by Appgate, leads the ranking of cyberattacks.

The tactic consists of creating communications - emails, direct messages, posts on social networks - that impersonate your brand or trusted entities. And the goal is to trick the user into clicking on a disguised link, which will take them to a fake page designed to resemble yours.

There, the customer may be tricked into interacting with fraudulent content, believing in non-existent promotions, or being directed at competitors, all under the false flag of your brand.

Cloaking and black hat SEO

In the SEO universe, “black hat” tactics such as cloaking are used to deceive both users and search engines.

Cloaking is the practice of presenting different content to search engine robots (to rank well with your brand's keywords) and other content, generally malicious or irrelevant, to the end user who clicks on the link.

Thus, a page may appear legitimate in search results, but when accessed, it redirects your brand's traffic to destinations that harm it, such as spam sites, scams, or competitors.

Fake ads

Offenders often create paid ads on platforms such as Google Ads and social networks, using their brand name, logo, and even language.

Esses Fake ads contain malicious links that direct users to fraudulent pages.

The goal is to intercept customers who are actively searching for your company, diverting qualified traffic, inflating your advertising costs, and ultimately associating your brand with negative experiences and scams.

How to recognize a malicious link?

Identifying a malicious link misusing your brand requires attention, and while automated detection is ideal, your team can observe signs. Here are indicators for companies to protect their reputation and results:

• Subtle variations in your brand's domain: pay attention to domains that mimic yours with changes, used for phishing or to sell counterfeits associated with your brand;
• Suspicious ads using your brand keywords: monitor ads with your keywords, as competitors or strangers may use links to divert your traffic or promote scams;
• Fake profiles on social networks promoting dubious links: investigate profiles with your logo and name, but with low activity, posting links to suspicious promotions or questionable sites;
• “Partnership” or “opportunity” emails with strange links: be wary of proposals or alerts about your brand that ask for clicks on links to unknown platforms;
• Use of URL shorteners in communications that look official but aren't: suspect mass communications using your brand and shortened links outside your ecosystem, as they may mask the destination;
• Monitoring SSL certificates and domain registrations: Keep track of new domains similar to yours; remember that SSL doesn't validate the site's legitimacy, as scammers also use it.

However, don't forget: manual identification complements. For comprehensive protection, specialized solutions are indispensable to detect and neutralize threats at scale - and we understand that!

How to protect your business against a malicious link attack?

Faced with the scenario where malicious links can erode your brand's reputation and results, the question isn't whether you should protect yourself, but how to do it effectively.

After all, inaction can be devastating and shielding your business is therefore a strategy for survival and growth. But where does this digital shield begin and what are the most robust defenses?

Use of HTTPS and SSL certificates

Ensuring that your official site uses HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) and has a valid SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is the basics of online security. That's because HTTPS encrypts the data exchanged between the user and your site, while SSL authenticates the identity of your server.

Not only does this protect your customer data, but it also transmits trust, is a positive sign for SEO, and prevents browsers from marking your site as “not secure”.

Certificates can be obtained from Certification Authorities (CAs) and configured on your web server, ensuring a first layer of legitimacy for your official online presence.

Secure redirection policies

Implementing secure redirection policies is vital to prevent your domain from being exploited.

This means configuring your server so that any redirects (from HTTP to HTTPS, from old to new URLs) are done in a controlled manner, preventing “open redirect” vulnerabilities.

Such loopholes could be used by fraudsters to use their legitimate domain as a cover, referring unsuspecting users to malicious sites.

Therefore, review your server settings and strictly validate the redirection parameters to maintain control and the integrity of the browsing associated with your brand.

Installing firewalls and security plugins

Using Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) and, for content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, robust security plugins, is an important defense.

After all, a WAF can filter out malicious traffic before it reaches your server. Security plugins, when updated, protect against known threats.

The annual report of Wordfence indicated that nearly one million unique WordPress sites were infected with malware last year, with a large part of the infections originating from vulnerable plugins.

This reinforces the importance of keeping extensions up to date and adopting these layers of protection for the integrity of your brand's main digital asset.

Staff training to recognize threats

Your team is a critical line of defense and, at times, the most targeted link. For this reason, investing in ongoing training for employees to recognize phishing emails that may contain malicious links, social engineering attempts, and other fraudulent tactics is essential.

Attack simulations, clear communication about risks, and policies on how to report incidents strengthen this human barrier.

This prevents a careless internal click from exposing company systems or, indirectly, facilitating actions that harm the brand's reputation with its customers.

Constant digital monitoring

The digital landscape changes every second, and offenders who use malicious links to attack brands are agile. For this reason, constant and comprehensive digital monitoring is indispensable.

This goes far beyond verifying your own site: it's about actively tracking how your brand is being used (and abused) in search engines, social networks, marketplaces, the registration of new domains, and in paid advertisements.

This is where technology and specialized expertise, such as those offered by Branddi, become fundamental to identify and neutralize malicious links before they cause significant damage to your reputation and results.

Learn more about our work in the topic below!

Protect your business against malicious links

As we said throughout the text, the battle against malicious links that threaten your brand and its results is constant and complex.

And while internal defenses are a good start, true shielding against misuse of your brand in fraudulent URLs requires specialized surveillance and decisive action on a global scale.

This is where Branddi becomes your ideal strategic partner. With a proven track record, including identifying and removing more than 50,000 fraudulent domains and saving our clients R$ 250 million in inflated costs for sponsored links, our complete solution protects your business.

From 24/7 monitoring with Artificial Intelligence on search engines, social networks, and marketplaces, to the effective takedown of threats by our experts, we ensure that your investment, revenue, and brand reputation remain intact.

Don't let malicious links hijack your results and dilute your brand value. Keep following our content and discover how Branddi can protect your business with Shielding marketing!