Delta, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/08/2013 -- Anyone who owns a business has probably heard about the various ways social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter can help owners and managers market their business entities. With social networking sites business owners have the ability to community directly with customers and potential customers on a large scale basis. With a Twitter account a company can notify customers of new products or any special promotions that are coming up in the near future thus reaching thousands of people within just a few seconds at no cost whatsoever.

For all its good points, there are also some negatives that are connected to using social networking to market your business. It is essential for both businesses and customers to be aware of these items in order to avoid becoming a victim.

Scammers and con artists know how popular social networking is and take advantage of the opportunity to engage in business identity theft. These scammers are not fools and know they can reach a large number of people quickly and effectively by stealing business names and virtually taking over the “true” company logos on their own social networking sites. In one variation of small business identity theft the scam company creates various social media accounts under that business name and begins posting as if they have an affiliation with the company. At some point they will begin making requests for the public to send money for products or services they have no intention of delivering.

One of the major problems with this type of business identity theft is it is so easy for the scam artists to commit because social network users do not make it a regular habit to research companies on those sites to see if they are actually dealing with a legitimate company. This small business identity theft can do serious damage to the reputation of the company whose identity was stolen as more people become victims of the scam. Up until recently there were very few options available for companies other than to track down those social media accounts and report them while hoping the websites would be removed.

Know more about business identity theft protection guidelines

Fortunately now there are a number of software programs that can tell a business owner where their business name is being used. This will allow them to conduct research in an effort to discover whether their name is being used fraudulently. This is essential information because of the new trend evolving where people steal business names and attempt to use that name in order to create another scam.

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