A customer comments on your brand's official profile and, minutes later, gets a reply from another profile: same logo, almost the same name, offering "customer service" in private messages. To the customer, it looks like the company. For the company, it is a fake profile using the brand to deceive the people who trust it.
This article is for those who manage a brand's social media and customer service. It shows how to spot a fake profile, what to do before reporting it and which path to use in each case.
Not every profile with the brand name is fake
Before acting, separate three situations:
- Imitation: the profile pretends to be the company. It uses the logo, copies posts and presents itself as customer service, a store or a promotions team.
- Namesake: another person or company with the same or a similar name, in an unrelated activity. It does not try to pass itself off as your brand.
- Fans, customers and resellers: profiles that talk about the brand, show products or resell the original, without claiming to be the company.
Only the first case is a fake profile. Reporting the others creates friction and rework, and the social network may reject the report.
The signs of a fake profile
No single sign decides; what matters is the combination. The most common ones:
- A handle similar to the official one, with a dot, an underscore or words such as "sac", "atendimento", "suporte" or "oficial" (Portuguese words common in scams in Brazil):
@yourbrand.atendimento,@yourbrand_oficial. - The logo as the profile picture and posts copied from the real profile.
- A recent profile, or one that changed its name not long ago. Some networks show information about the account, such as the creation date, the country and name changes.
- Replies to customers on the official profile, always asking them to "send a private message".
- A link in the bio to a website or WhatsApp number that is not on the company's official list.
- Comments turned off or deleted, to hide warnings from other victims.
- A request for payment or data: a Pix transfer (Brazil's instant payment) to "release" an order, a code received by text message, a password.
When several of these signs appear together, especially a request for payment or data, it is time to act.
Keep a list of the official channels
The first check is simple: is the profile on the company's list of official channels? If that list does not exist, start with it: profiles on each network, domains, customer service numbers and authorized resellers.
The list also protects customers. Published on the website and in the bio of the real profiles, it is the reference for anyone who wants to check whether they are talking to the right company. The verification badge helps, but it is not enough: a fake profile does not need a badge to deceive, and on some networks the badge can be obtained through a subscription.
Store the evidence before reporting
Fake profiles change their names and disappear quickly, often right after a report. That is why the evidence comes first. Store:
- a capture of the profile page, with the handle, the display name, the bio and the bio link;
- the copied posts and the replies to customers;
- the full address of the profile and the date and time of the capture;
- the screenshots customers send you, with what they saw.
A screenshot alone is weak evidence, because it can be edited and does not show the date reliably. A complete capture, with an integrity code (such as SHA-256) and a timestamp from an external authority, shows that the file existed at that moment and has not been changed since.
Choose the right path on the social network
Social networks usually have two reporting paths, and choosing the right one avoids rejections:
- Impersonation: for a profile that pretends to be the company. The report may have to come from the official profile or from a company representative.
- Intellectual property (trademark): for the misuse of the registered trademark, such as the logo and the name. The form usually asks for the registration number at INPI (Brazil's trademark office), the owner and the classes.
In either case, a good request includes: who is asking, the right (the trademark registration), the exact link to the profile, the evidence with date and time, the reason in a few sentences and what you want (removal of the profile). Short, objective requests with evidence tend to be reviewed faster.
Warn your customers
While the network reviews the report, the profile stays online. A warning on the official channels reduces new victims: explain that the company does not ask for payments or passwords by message, and show where to check the real channels. Do not expose anyone's data in the warning; the account holder may be someone who was used without knowing it.
If a customer has already paid, they should contact their own bank right away. The next article in this series covers what to do in that case.
Keep watching, because the scam tends to come back
Keep the report number and check the profile again after a few days. The same scam often comes back with another handle, another photo or on another network. Each new profile needs its own evidence and report, and continuous monitoring shortens the time to the next removal.
If the social network refuses or does not reply, a well-prepared out-of-court notice, with the exact link, the evidence and the reason, now carries more weight. Under the theses of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on the Marco Civil da Internet, Brazil's Internet Civil Framework (June 2025, with the theses clarified in the motions for clarification decided in June 2026), the provider may be held liable if it does not remove unlawful content after being notified, unless there is reasonable doubt, and this also applies to inauthentic accounts. As the application of these theses is still being defined by the courts, check with a lawyer before relying on them in a specific case.
How Patentiq helps
Patentiq searches for profiles that use the brand name on social media, separates official profiles and namesakes, and shows what deserves attention with a risk score and the reason. The takedown request is contracted separately: when the company hires the takedown service and marks a profile as fraud, Patentiq stores the sealed evidence and sends the request to the social network. The decision to remove is the social network's; Patentiq makes sure the request arrives complete and well documented.
Want to see whether addresses similar to your brand already exist? Run the free quick check. To see the profiles and the rest of the monitoring for your brand, request a demo.