Friday, October 21, 2011

Name Brands Question My Comments Regarding a Brand Lax Attitude When Scammers Use Their Company Logo On The Internet

By Cesar Ortiz
An exclusive article that I wrote on the Yahoo-ABC News Network titled “Facebook Eat for Free at Pizza Hut! Scam is Spreading Virally” has stirred an out cry from some companies. In the article I comment that Pizza Hut or its parent company, Yum! Brands, Inc, the world's largest restaurant company, had done nothing to warn its clients of a major Internet scam using their company logo. Some other companies jumped into the bandwagon all claiming the same posture as follows; it is not the major brand responsibility to get into the act. It is the Internet Social Network carrier i.e. facebook, twitter or Google+ responsibility to handle the scam. “We are not in the IT business”. These corporate entities might be right on their assertion, but, may I ask, Why not then warn the public that their name brand is being used in a scam in their corporate and social web pages? The more users that are warned, the fewer victims we have. After all, users will curse the social carrier and the brand if their personal identifier data is stolen. One exception is Starbucks who always warns its clients of scams. That was the main objective of my article and still it is. We stand by what we commented on the article regarding some name brands attitude.

No comments: