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If you own a business, then you may have heard about how social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter can be used to help you market your business. Social networking websites allow business owners and companies to communicate directly with customers and potential customers by the masses. For example, a business owner with a Twitter account can easily let his or her customers know about new products, services or special promotions with a few quick strokes of their keyboard. The data can reach thousands of people very quickly  and it also free to use.

As with any new trend however, there are positives and negatives that go along with it and social networking is no different. There has been a recent negative trend that has been associated with marketing through social networking websites that every business and person should be aware of so that they can protect themselves from becoming a victim.

Scammers and con artists have caught on to how popular social networking has become and they are using it to their advantage. Scammers have also realized that they can reach thousands of people quickly and effectively and they are doing it by  taking  business names and using them as their own on social networking websites. It starts off by a person or scam company tracking down a popular business name on the Internet. That person or company will then create social media accounts using that business’s name and then they will start making posts acting like they are a representative or owner of that company. Not only do they take the name of the business, but they also can start asking the public to send them money for products or services that they never have any intention of  supplying  and cannot deliver.

There are  many problems  with this scam that can hurt the company whose identity was  taken  by the scam artist. Users of social networking websites  seldomly  research to find out if they are dealing with the company that they believe they are. Due to this, the reputation of the company’s identity that was stolen can be severely damaged if  Internet users  get scammed even further. Consumers are left  very  confused and companies are left trying to pick up the pieces. Up until recently, the best that the business’s could do was to track down the social media accounts and report them to the website that they are on in hopes that they will be  taken down  .

A little research on this matter proved that there are a few other options now. There are several software programs usable now that can track down where a business name is being used so that business owners can match them up to see if their name is posted or used where it shouldn’t be used. Business owners can also search for their business name in a search engine to see where it shows up.

Social media websites are becoming more popular than ever. Due to this, there is a identity theft niche forming where people steal business names and then try to start scams using that name.