Searchware Hoaxing™

Searchware Hoaxing™ is the act of fake or counterfeit on-line web sites appearing in search engine results alongside real web sites. It is a very common way of confusing and deceiving the innocent consumer.

Search engines are continually crawling the web and report on web sites that can be new or just updated. They don't distinguise between real sites and fraudulent sites, whether they are charity appeals or designer jewellery.

Typically a consumer wants to find on-line retailers that sell a particular brand, possibly a high value designer brand. Let's say they are looking for 'Brit-Jewellery' the well know designer brand we have just invented. They visit their favourite search engine and type in 'Brit-Jewellery'. The search engine does its job, but that doesn't distinguish between the legitimate site or sites authorised to sell the product, or the ones not authorised, but still sell it, or the ones that openly sell counterfeited goods using the 'Brit-Jewellery' name.

The list from a search engine shown here is typical of what might be produced. The problem is, of the first five it has found that are listed here, which, if any, are real?

So how do you protect your brand and ensure your customers really are your customers and not dissatisfied victims of fraud?

If www.Brit-Store.org "is the best on-line UK Jewellery store" and www.Brit-free.com is offering 50-70% off with free shipping who will the consumer choose? Why run the risk of the consumer not visiting uk.Brit-com which is the official UK on-line site?

Now there is a way to positively validate which search results point at the legitimate authorised companies. You can protect your customers and identify the genuine search results using our SOLID 3PV™ technology. Simply hold the cursor over each result before you click on it, and if it is genuine a small window as shown here will appear, showing your brand or trademark, and move outside the browser to join the S.O.L.I.D. Authentication® window.

Crisis Protection

Criminals have no morals when it comes to stealing your money and any event can be exploited to their benefit. Whether it be a patch to a software problem, where the criminal advertises their 'fix' which is actually something much worse, or an appeal for money following a natural disaster, sites quickly appear in the search engines performing Searchware Hoaxing™. In the same way that we can validate a brand or trademark as being genuine we can also validate any result as belonging to a legitimate source before you click on it.

Independent research has shown that consumers learn to trust this positive validation and the majority will only visit sites they believe to be genuine, as validated by this technolgy.

S.O.L.I.D. Authentication® is a registered trademark of First Cyber Security Limited

Security 'at-a-glance'™, SOLID 3PV™, SOLID 3PX™ and Searchware Hoaxing™ are trademarks of First Cyber Security Limited