Skill: The Impersonation Sweep, the 15-Minute Check That Finds Fake Versions of Your Business
AI made cloning a business cheap. A 15-minute monthly sweep that finds fake listings, look-alike domains, and cloned invoices before a customer pays one.
What it does: A 15-minute monthly check that finds fake versions of your business: cloned websites, duplicate Google Business listings, look-alike domains, and fake invoices using your name, before a customer wires money to one of them.
Why it matters: AI collapsed the cost of impersonation. A scammer can clone your website, your logo, and your invoice template in an afternoon, then buy ads on your own brand name or "correct" the phone number on your Google listing. When a customer pays the fake, you lose the money AND the relationship, and you usually find out weeks late.
When to run it: Monthly, on a recurring calendar slot. Immediately if a customer ever says "I already paid that invoice" about something you never sent.
How to run it:
- Search yourself in incognito. Google your business name plus your city. Look hard at the ads above your real listing: scammers buy ads on your brand name and route the calls to themselves.
- Audit your Google Business Profile. Confirm the phone number, website, and hours are yours. Look for duplicate listings using your name at a slightly different address. Report duplicates through "Suggest an edit."
- Sweep look-alike domains. Paste this into Claude or ChatGPT: "My business domain is [yourdomain.com]. Generate the 20 most likely look-alike variations a scammer would register: typos, added words like 'pay' or 'billing', and different endings like .net or .co. Format as a checklist." Search each one. A live site that mimics yours goes straight to the registrar's abuse contact and Google's phishing report form.
- Check social. Search your business name on Facebook and Instagram. Duplicate profiles running ads or messaging customers get reported through each platform's impersonation form.
- Close the invoice door. Tell customers, in writing, that your payment details never change by email alone; any change gets confirmed by a phone call to the number on your website.
Never contact the scammer directly. Report it, document everything with screenshots, and if money already moved, call your bank's fraud line and file at ic3.gov the same day.