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Deceptive Marketing

Deceptive marketing practices can make any card transaction illegal, even if the goods or services sold are perfectly legal. Every merchant type is susceptible, because it’s not what the merchant sells, it’s how they sell it that creates the acceptance risk.

This online course lifts the lids on the shady world of deceptive marketing. And helps those involved in merchant underwriting and monitoring to manage the risks effectively, thereby protecting their business, reputation and bottom line.

With the aid of real-life case studies, it explains various types of deceptive marketing practices to enable underwriters to recognise and understand them. This includes misleading claims, unfair terms, inertia selling, pyramid schemes and hard-sell techniques, among others.

The course equips students with best practice tips and techniques for managing the risks arising from deceptive marketing practices. Also included is an explanation of the latest card scheme rules on ‘free trial’ and negative option billing merchants, and how they can be implemented.

Learning Objectives:

  • What is Deceptive Marketing?
  • Types of Deceptive Marketing Practices.
  • Managing the Risks of Deceptive Marketing Practices.
1

Chapter 1 — Introduction

17 Lessons 31 minutes
  • The background and context to deceptive marketing practices: what it is, the size and scale of the problem, the risk to acquirers and PSPs and an overview of card scheme rules.
2

Chapter 2 — Types of Deceptive Marketing

10 Lessons 25 minutes
  • With the aid of real-life case studies, this chapter explains various types of deceptive marketing practices, so underwriters can recognise and mitigate them. This includes free trial scams, misleading claims, guarantees and inertia or negative option selling.
3

Chapter 3 — Managing the Risks of Deceptive Marketing Practices

7 Lessons 11 minutes
  • Fakery is the subject of this chapter. Examined are fake reviews and testimonials, celebrity endorsements (real and fake), the rights and wrongs of paid-for media or advertorial, and the pitfalls of fake social media advertising.
4

Chapter 4 — Investment Scams

10 Lessons 26 minutes
  • Some sectors overtrade in the use of deceptive marketing practices. Financial services is one of them. This chapter examines the deceptive marketing practices prevalent in the sale of cryptocurrency, binary options, contracts for difference and forex. Also covered are deceptive sales tactics, such as advanced fee fraud, boiler room scams and pyramid schemes.
5

Chapter 5 — Digital Entertainment

9 Lessons 21 minutes
  • The entertainment industry has undergone a digital transaction — and so have the scammers and their scams. The chapter examines the deceptive marketing practices prevalent in the cyber locker, adult entertainment, webcam and dating businesses. Also covered are transaction laundering and affiliate marketing, which often occur in the entertainment sector.
6

Chapter 6 — Checklist

7 Lessons 17 minutes
  • With the aid of real-life case studies, this chapter explains various types of deceptive marketing practices related to terms and conditions, price and sales promotions.
7

Chapter 7 — Merchant Underwriting and Monitoring

13 Lessons 37 minutes
  • A chapter dedicated to best practice tips and techniques for managing the risks arising from deceptive marketing practices. Included is content on merchant disclosure requirements and measures to counteract merchant circumvention techniques, load balancing and deceptive traffic generation.

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