Detection and prevention of fraudulent activity on social media accounts

A fraud detection and prevention system, comprising:

• a processor;
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium;
• and
• stored instructions translatable by the processor for:
• determining a brand account for which a brand owner of the brand account has subscribed for brand protection by the fraud detection and prevention system, the brand account being an account on a social network platform, the fraud detection and prevention system operating in a computing environment outside the social network platform;
• determining, using a link to the brand account on the social network platform, metadata of legitimate content used on the social network platform by the brand owner, the link provided by the brand owner and comprises an application programming interface (API) of the social network platform, the determining comprising retrieving the metadata from the social network platform via the API;
• deriving a brand profile based at least on the metadata of legitimate content used on the social network platform by the brand owner, the brand profile applicable across multiple brand accounts on the social network platform that are owned by the brand owner;
• detecting, via at least one application programming interface, a public message to the brand account on the social network platform and public replies to the public message by non-brand accounts on the social network platform, the public message originating from a social media account on the social network platform;
• responsive to the detecting, monitoring public messages sent to the social media account on the social network platform over a predetermined time period, the monitoring comprising:
• analyzing metadata of a non-brand account that is in communication with the social media account that originated the public message;
• and
• determining whether a statistically significant match exists between the metadata of the non-brand account and the brand profile;
• and
• responsive to a determination by the fraud detection and prevention system that the statistically significant match exists between the metadata of the non-brand account and the brand profile, identifying, by the fraud detection and prevention system to the brand owner, the non-brand account as an imposter account or a potential imposter account.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions translatable by a processor of a fraud detection and prevention system outside a social network platform for:

• determining a brand account for which a brand owner of the brand account has subscribed for brand protection by the fraud detection and prevention system, the brand account being an account on a social network platform, the fraud detection and prevention system operating in a computing environment outside the social network platform;
• determining, using a link to the brand account on the social network platform, metadata of legitimate content used on the social network platform by the brand owner, the link provided by the brand owner and comprises an application programming interface (API) of the social network platform, the determining comprising retrieving the metadata from the social network platform via the API;
• deriving a brand profile based at least on the metadata of legitimate content used on the social network platform by the brand owner, the brand profile applicable across multiple brand accounts on the social network platform that are owned by the brand owner;
• detecting, via at least one application programming interface, a public message to the brand account on the social network platform and public replies to the public message by non-brand accounts on the social network platform, the public message originating from a social media account on the social network platform;
• responsive to the detecting, monitoring public messages sent to the social media account on the social network platform over a predetermined time period, the monitoring comprising:
• analyzing metadata of a non-brand account that is in communication with the social media account that originated the public message;
• and
• determining whether a statistically significant match exists between the metadata of the non-brand account and the brand profile;
• and
• responsive to a determination by the fraud detection and prevention system that the statistically significant match exists between the metadata of the non-brand account and the brand profile, identifying, by the fraud detection and prevention system to the brand owner, the non-brand account as an imposter account or a potential imposter account.