New Delhi, Dec 4 (IANS): Smartphone companies which have strong consumer pull now face most of the reputation issues caused by infringement of their brands in the digital space, according to a new report.

There are three main techniques pertaining to brand infringement —fake gratification, fake presence and fake representation.

According to Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst, Techarc, as digital becomes mainstream and brands increase their D2C (direct-to-consumer) engagements, they need to proactively police the digital space to hunt for any infringement cases.

"The first thing brands need to do is to come out of denial mode and create a common synergy between marketing, ecommerce, IT and digital teams," he said in the Brand Reputation Index (BRIX) report.

In fake gratification, scammers infringe any brand's identity by offering fake coupons, rewards, schemes, and discounts. This is the easiest trap for consumers who are searching for best deals when they decide about buying a smartphone of their interest.

In the fake presence technique, fraudsters create fake profiles on popular social networking applications and allure audiences which want to genuinely engage with the brand. In many instances, fake gratifications are routed through such accounts to entice people looking for smartphones deals.

"Fake representation is the severest level of infringement where scammers create a fake website, app or a marketplace. Using typo-squatting techniques, fraudsters create very similar websites, apps and marketplaces and then direct users on such sites to engage which could be used for data theft to financial frauds," the report noted.