Memcyco Inc., provider of digital trust technology designed to protect companies and their customers from digital impersonation fraud, released its inaugural 2024 State of Website Impersonation Scams report. Notably, Memcyco’s research indicates that the majority of companies do not have adequate solutions to counter digital impersonation fraud, and that most only learn about attacks from their customers.

More than half of all respondents (53%) said their existing cybersecurity solutions do not effectively address website impersonation attacks, and 41% said their existing solutions only protect them and their customers “partially.” Just 6% of brands claimed to have a solution that effectively addresses these attacks despite 87% of companies recognizing website impersonation as a major issue and 69% admitting to having had these attacks carried out against their own website.

The creation of fake websites used for phishing-related attacks (which are a top cause of account takeover (ATO)) is a growing problem that has earned cybercriminals an astonishing $1 billion+ in 2023 alone, according to data from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. That’s more than three times the amount reported stolen in 2020. 

The report found that 72% of companies have a monitoring system in place to detect fake versions of their website, but still, 66% said that they primarily learn about digital impersonation attacks when they are flagged by customers.. More alarmingly, 37% of respondents learn about website impersonation attacks as a result of “brand shaming” by impacted customers on social media.

The inability to adequately protect against digital impersonation fraud raises a question about companies’ responsibility to reimburse their customers. 48% of survey respondents are already aware of upcoming regulations likely to enforce customer reimbursements, making effective protection against digital impersonation fraud a ‘must-have’ for avoiding revenue loss.

“One of the most alarming takeaways from the report is that website impersonation scams are growing because attackers rely on companies having limited visibility into these kinds of attacks,” said Israel Mazin, Chairman and CEO of Memcyco. “This creates a glaring blindspot in cybersecurity — the inability of companies to protect their customers online.”

The State of Website Impersonation Scams report was conducted together with Global Surveyz Research, based on the responses of 200 full-time employees ranging from Director to C-level executives at organizations in the security, fraud, digital, and web industries, operating transactional websites with traffic of more than 10,000 monthly visits.

Memcyco’s solution suite addresses the rising tide of website impersonation scams by using real-time alerts to secure end-users on every website visit and provides organizations with unparalleled insights into the scope and impact of all attacks on their sites. 

The full report can be found here.

About Memcyo

Memcyco offers a suite of AI-based, real-time digital risk protection solutions for combating website impersonation scams, protecting companies and their customers from the moment a fake site goes live until it is taken down. Memcyco’s groundbreaking external threat intelligence platform provides companies with complete visibility into the attack, attacker, and each individual victim, helping to prevent ATO fraud, ransomware, and data breaches before they occur. Memcyco’s “nano defender” technology detects, protects, and responds to attacks as they unfold, securing tens of millions of customer accounts and reducing the negative impact of attacks on workload, compliance, customer churn, and reputation.

About Global Surveyz

Global Surveyz is a global research company providing survey report-as-a-service that covers the whole process of creating an insightful and impactful B2B or B2C report for any target market. Global Surveyz was established in 2020 and is the brain-child of Ramel Levin.

Contact

Sheena Kretzmer

sheena@memcyco.com