# Brand protection Human Guide

## What This Is For
Guides discovery, reporting, and prevention of brand impersonation—fake websites, phishing sites, trademark infringement, and domain squatting. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for brand and messaging: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Brand protection agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for brand protection.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Brand protection guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Impersonation type**: Fake website, phishing, trademark misuse, domain squatting
- **Evidence available**: Screenshots, URLs, WHOIS, hosting info
- **Legal assets**: Registered trademark, copyright ownership
- **Impact**: Traffic interception (fake site ranks for brand queries)? Payment fraud (users pay on fake site, then contact official support)?
- Register brand+ai, brand+app, brand+official, etc. See **domain-selection** for defensive registration.
- Redirect variants to main domain; do not deploy separate sites.
- **Homepage** (above fold or hero)
- **Pricing / Payment pages**: "Only pay at [official-domain]. Do not enter payment on other domains."
- **Footer**: "© [Brand]. Official site: [domain]"
- **FAQ**: "How do I verify I'm on the official site?" → "The only official URL is [domain]. Any other domain is not affiliated."
- **Verify source**: Ask which URL they used (request screenshot or URL).
- **Roll out** template to support team; ensure consistent messaging.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Initial Assessment, Evidence Collection Checklist, Reporting Channels (Priority Order), Reporting Best Practices, Legal Options, Prevention Measures, Defensive Registration, Official Site Verification, Customer Support (Payment Fraud), User Education.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **Parallel reporting**: Submit to registrar, host, and Google Safe Browsing simultaneously; do not wait for one before others. Google trademark review takes 1–8 weeks.
- Redirect variants to main domain; do not deploy separate sites.
- **Pricing / Payment pages**: "Only pay at [official-domain]. Do not enter payment on other domains."

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Brand protection human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the kostja94/marketing-skills skill entry for `brand-protection`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Strategy: Brand Protection

Guides discovery, reporting, and prevention of brand impersonation—fake websites, phishing sites, trademark infringement, and domain squatting. See **domain-selection** for defensive domain registration; **trust-badges** for official site verification signals; **about-page** for identity declaration.

**When invoking**: On **first use**, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On **subsequent use** or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.

## Initial Assessment

**Check for project context first:** If `.claude/project-context.md` or `.cursor/project-context.md` exists, read it for brand name, official domain, and key assets.

Identify:
1. **Impersonation type**: Fake website, phishing, trademark misuse, domain squatting
2. **Evidence available**: Screenshots, URLs, WHOIS, hosting info
3. **Legal assets**: Registered trademark, copyright ownership
4. **Impact**: Traffic interception (fake site ranks for brand queries)? Payment fraud (users pay on fake site, then contact official support)?

## Evidence Collection Checklist

| Item | Action |
|------|--------|
| **Full URLs** | Document all key pages of the fake site |
| **Screenshots** | Homepage, product pages, logo, layout; include date/time |
| **Comparison** | Side-by-side: official vs fake (layout, logo, copy similarity) |
| **WHOIS** | Use [ICANN Lookup](https://lookup.icann.org/) for registrar, creation date, registrant |
| **Hosting** | IP lookup to identify hosting provider |

## Reporting Channels (Priority Order)

| Channel | Entry | Use Case |
|---------|-------|----------|
| **Domain registrar** | Abuse / Report Misuse on registrar site | Brand impersonation, trademark, fraud |
| **Hosting provider** | Same; submit abuse form | Hosting infringing content |
| **Google Safe Browsing** | [Report Phishing](https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/) | Phishing / impersonation risk |
| **Google Trademark** | [Trademark Complaint](https://services.google.com/inquiry/aw_tmcomplaint) or trademark@google.com | Trademark infringement in search; requires registered trademark |
| **Bing Content Removal** | [Content Moderation Platform](https://www.bing.com/webmaster/contentremovalform/showanonymouspage) | Copyright/trademark; content removal from Bing |
| **Payment processors** | PayPal Resolution Center, Stripe support | If fake site accepts payments; report fraud |
| **Social platforms** | X, Facebook, Instagram abuse forms | If fake site is promoted or linked there |
| **Google Ads / Microsoft Ads** | Platform trademark complaint forms | If impersonator runs brand ads |
| **DMCA** | To hosting provider | Copyright infringement; images, copy, design copied |
| **ICANN** | [DNS Abuse complaint](https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/submitting-dns-abuse-complaints-icann-guide-17nov25-en.pdf) | If registrar does not respond within reasonable time |

**Report content**: Include full URL, clear description of fraudulent activity, and all evidence (screenshots, logs).

## Reporting Best Practices

**Registrar vs hosting**: Use [ICANN Lookup](https://lookup.icann.org/) for registrar. For hosting, use IP lookup (HostingCheckerOnline, HostingDetector, ipinfo.io) to find origin server—registrar may be Cloudflare while origin host is elsewhere; report to both.

**Cloudflare as registrar**: Use [abuse.cloudflare.com](https://abuse.cloudflare.com/) or [abuse form](https://abuse.cloudflare.com/phishing); select "Phishing & Malware" for impersonation. Email complaints are generally not processed; use the online form. Provide specific URLs of infringing pages.

**Hosting detection**: Sites behind Cloudflare CDN hide origin IP. Use reverse IP lookup or hosting detection tools to identify underlying host; submit abuse to that provider as well.

**Parallel reporting**: Submit to registrar, host, and Google Safe Browsing simultaneously; do not wait for one before others. Google trademark review takes 1–8 weeks.

## Legal Options

| Option | When | Notes |
|--------|------|-------|
| **Cease and desist** | Trademark infringement | Lawyer-drafted; often first step |
| **DMCA takedown** | Copyrighted material copied | Images, copy, design; hosting providers typically comply |
| **Consumer protection** | Scam / fraud | FTC ReportFraud.ftc.gov (US) |
| **Law enforcement** | Financial loss, identity theft | IC3 (FBI) for cybercrime |

## Prevention Measures

### Defensive Registration

- Register brand+ai, brand+app, brand+official, etc. See **domain-selection** for defensive registration.
- Redirect variants to main domain; do not deploy separate sites.

### Official Site Verification

Place "Official website: [domain]" prominently:
- **Homepage** (above fold or hero)
- **Sign-in / Sign-up pages**
- **Pricing / Payment pages**: "Only pay at [official-domain]. Do not enter payment on other domains."
- **Footer**: "© [Brand]. Official site: [domain]"
- **FAQ**: "How do I verify I'm on the official site?" → "The only official URL is [domain]. Any other domain is not affiliated."

Use **trust-badges** for verification signals. See **about-page** for identity declaration.