By Carl Weiss
There was a time not long ago
when the search engines began cracking down on what were termed Black Hat SEO
Techniques. Tactics such as keyword
stuffing, serial websites, and link farms, just to name a few, were deemed
verboten by every search engine on the planet.
The reasons why were obvious: If you could cheat them to beat them,
there was no way that search engine operators could guarantee the validity of
their searches. Back in the early days
of the Internet, there was little that the search engines could do to curb this
trend since their spiders were not savvy enough to understand what it is they
were reading. However, this is no longer
the case. What this means is if you
either knowingly or unknowingly hire a practitioner of black hat SEO, you could
find your site sandboxed or even de-listed.
As a result, you need to take care when entrusting your online business
assets to a third party.
The good news is that Black
Hat SEO firms are a dying breed. The bad
news is that a number of former black hatters have retooled their heinous
skills in order to turn a profit. What I
am referring to is the growing danger of online dirty tricks, where an
unscrupulous business owner willingly pays to have a competitor’s reputation
besmirched or even to cause overt damage to their web presence in such a way
that it becomes difficult or even impossible to do business on or offline.
Here’s how it works:
1. What’s In a
Name? – Everyone knows how online
reputation sites have changed the way in which we do business. Whereas in years
past a shoddy business could operate with impunity, today the first place that
a disgruntled customer will go are to sites like Google Local, Yelp, Angie’s
List, Ripoff Report or other reputation sites to lodge a complaint. While a boon to consumers, many of these
sites allow people to post complaints anonymously. This opens up the doors for underhanded
competitors to post fabricated complaints against a competing business in order
to damage the competition. Worse still:
a number of these complaint mills offer no way for a business to address or
reverse a complaint. This means that once posted, it’s is nearly impossible to
seek redress.
2. Yellow Press
Express – Another way to damage a
company’s reputation is by publishing inflammatory blogs, newsfeeds and press
releases about a competitor. Sound far-fetched? Back in May of 2011, ABC News reported that
Facebook admitted hiring a major public relations firm to pitch anti-Google
stories to news outlets across the U.S.
The blog went onto elaborate the fact that a cottage industry of sorts
has sprung up where writers are paid to write comments on review sites that
either boost a given business or criticize it. http://abcnewsradioonline.com/business-news/nasty-competition-fuels-dirty-business-tricks.html
3. The Hack
Attack is Back – Hackers can also be
employed by a competitor to do everything from launch Denial of Service attacks
on your website, to attempting overt industrial espionage. Several businesses were even damaged by
hackers when they subverted ownership of a company’s social sites or even
closed or deleted a company’s social site or blog. Wresting control of another person’s online
asset is surprisingly simple. Even if
that fails, it is child’s play to create a social site or website that spoofs a
competitor’s, thereby giving the hacker carte blanche to post all sorts of
slanderous material. Just like identity
theft, if this should happen to your business, it could take months sort out the
mess this creates. Since these tricksters can be located anywhere in the world,
trying to seek redress for any damage done can prove to be all but impossible.
(See our previous blog, “The
Hack Attack is Back.”)
4. Fraud Free
For All – Another way that
competitors can strike is by making fraudulent purchases. In a recent CNN Wire report, Uber, a San
Francisco ride-sharing service was accused by competitor, Lyft, of having its
employees order and cancel some 5,000 rides since last October. The article goes onto say: “Lyft claims 177 Uber employees around the country have
booked and canceled rides in that time frame. Bogus
requests decrease Lyft drivers’ availability, which could send users to Uber
instead. But it’s not just the company that suffers. Canceled rides jeopardize
income that Lyft drivers depend on — plus they spend time and gas money en
route to passengers who have no intention of taking a ride. And even when Uber employees don’t cancel, Lyft drivers complain to
headquarters that they take short, low-profit rides largely devoted to luring
them to work for Uber. Lyft claims to
have cross-referenced the phone numbers associated with known Uber recruiters
with those attached to accounts that have canceled rides. They found, all told,
5,560 phantom requests since October 3, 2013.” While
the article goes onto state that there was nothing to suggest that Uber’s
corporate office commissioned or sanctioned the canceled
rides, it states there is the potential for a competitor to create havoc in a
company by the use of such a tactics. http://kdvr.com/2014/08/11/uber-accused-of-dirty-tricks-to-damage-competitors-business/
5.
The Ultimate Inside Job – If you have ever wandered inside a casino then you
know that they are awash with security cameras that record everything from the players
and dealers on the gaming floor to game supervisors and security guards that
handle either chips or cash.
Unfortunately, most small businesses do not have access to this kind of
technology. As a result, this leaves the
doors open for a competitor to have one of his or her minions infiltrate your
business. As the old saying goes, “It’s
hard to find good help.” However, for underhanded competitors it’s oh-so-easy
to find bad help by hiring a saboteur that is paid to join your ranks. Once inside a company, the damage that can be
done by an interloper is incalculable.
Everything from client lists, to suppliers, and even in some cases
social security numbers can be purloined by a wily competitor. Armed with the keys to the vault as it were,
this kind of access can not only harm a company’s bottom line, it can destroy
in from within. Also, if a hacker wants
to gain access to a server, there is no easier way than being able to plug an
external thumb drive into a system. If
that wasn’t bad enough, Amazon even carries a book in its listings entitled,
“How to Steal Your Boss’s Job.” Talk
about an inside job!
When it comes to doing
business, competition isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s been known to spur innovation and force
an industry to tighten its belt, which in many cases improves prices for
consumers. (Remember when laptops used to retail for $2,500?) However, if a competitor decides to go to the
dark side and employ dirty tricks, the only numbers you’re likely to see could
be the Deep Six.
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