Anti-social

If local retailing has a single USP that is valued above all others, it’s the relationship we enjoy with our customers. No other channel or format comes close. Which is why this month’s cover story is so alarming because it describes in horrifying detail a plague of social media scams that are risking those all-important relationships that stores have worked hard to build with their shoppers over time, often over many years. All that good work potentially destroyed in an instant thanks to some faceless, largely untouchable cyber cretin.

And the problem is much more prevalent than you might think. It’s certainly much more prevalent than we thought when we were writing the article. In an entirely unscientific straw poll we conducted, four out of five retailers had encountered fake social media accounts pretending to be their stores. Four out of five.

Retailers like Dan Brown at Pinkie Farm, Natalie Lightfoot at Londis Solo Convenience and Anila Ali in Premier Tranent have first-hand experience of the damage these fake accounts can do. And, to add insult to injury, the morally repugnant scamsters appear to be carefully choosing retailers who already have strong reputations – and therefore significant numbers of followers – on social media channels like Facebook. In other words, they are using the good reputations of the stores against them.

So, what can be done? Well, I would strongly urge you to read the cover story for a start but there are some immediate actions you could consider. Firstly, the heart of the problem seems to be the popular ‘like and share’ model that retailers often use to gain followers and reach. This is the model that is being targeted most often by fraudsters so is possibly worth avoiding if you can.

Secondly, independent advice suggests that you should always and immediately report a fake account or page if you come across one. You can do that easily in Facebook, for example, and it’s similarly very simple to report a ‘pretending to be someone else’ account or page in Instagram. A great tip too for Facebook is on the ‘About Us’ tab where you’ll find a Page Transparency section. Fraudsters can fake almost everything in there, but they can’t fake the ‘Page Creation Date’. It’s a quick and easy way to get a good idea if a page is legit or not.

It’s also important to keep close tabs on your own social media accounts, looking out for anything that doesn’t look or feel right in the comments.

This is your reputation that is at risk, which ultimately means it’s your relationship with your customers that is on the line.

Antony Begley, Publishing Director, SLR