3rd Party Endorsements

Content Verification Certificate FAQ

Instantly identify real websites from fake ones – by simply moving your mouse over their logo

3rd party endorsement logos such as BBB Online, TRUSTe or ShopSafe add credibility and trust to an online business - but these logos are easily spoofed – meaning customers can just as easily be lulled by their false sense of security.

CVC’s establish the credibility of 3rd party endorsements by embedding each logo into a digitally signed certificate after we have ratified that a company is genuinely affiliated to the target organization – meaning customers can now believe what they see on the internet.

To verify the logo* simply move your mouse cursor over the graphic. The green border that appears around the screen tells you for sure that the logo has been fully validated by Comodo and the company is a legitimate member of the organisation Identity theft has become one of the fastest growing crimes both on and off the Internet. It was been estimated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to have cost consumers and businesses well over $53 billion in 2002. Since 2000 approximately 27 million Americans have been a victim of Identity theft resulting in a cost of roughly $5 billion

Content Verification Certificates (CVC) facilitate the verification of "web page content" - The essential requirement for trusted e-commerce services that are now being attacked with increasing frequency by ever more convincing web page spoofs and Phishing attempts. CVCs encapsulate and secure brand identity, corporate logos, affiliate logos, trademarks and web content.

Consumers running VerificationEngine™ verify the secure content of a web page and gain trust and assurance in who they are dealing with. The example below illustrates the process in more detail.

1. Businesses submit Corporate Information, target URL and web page content to a Verification Authority.
2. Validation of all elements is undertaken by a Verification Authority and a CVC is created and returned to the Business.
3. Placing a CVC onto a web page then allows consumers using VerificationEngine to verify the authenticity of the web page content.

Leveraging well-known brands without authorization is as simple today as ‘cut and paste’. Online competitors and predators have moved beyond traditional forms of online abuse. Cybersquatting now occurs around the globe in any of the 243 ccTLDs (country code top level domains). Taking the form of common misspellings of well-known brand names and coupled with the fact that such a vast array of brands are now accessible on the Internet, consumers are increasingly using search engines to identify home pages with potentially devastating consequences from a mistyped search.

Moving beyond domain registration infringements, online trademark abuse within site content takes on even more forms, to include unauthorized affiliations, unauthorized use of logos and more. With billions of potential customers, fraudsters use any means possible to leverage brands for commercial purpose.

CVCs provide protection by binding the URL/domain and web page content into a single entity. CVCs can not be used outside of a specified website – if they are they will fail to display. ‘cut and paste’ is no longer an option on your brand.

Content Verification Certificates are X509 (An internationally agreed format for digital certificates) compliant digital certificates that are created, distributed, revoked and controlled with proven efficiency, speed and security.