How Hunto AI Protects a Fintech Wallet Startup’s Digital Assets
Industry
Consumer payments and wallet
Scale
Early stage with modest FY24 revenue
Product used
Hunto AI Brand Monitoring and Takedown
Location
India
About Client
This early-stage Indian fintech is building a mobile wallet and payments experience focused on quick onboarding and everyday transactions. The go-to-market relies on growth campaigns across app stores, social, and referral programs. As usage tests, beta cohorts, and new features roll out, the brand’s public footprint spans product sites, help pages, app listings, and social handles. That visibility attracts impersonators who set up look-alike sites, fake support pages, and clone apps to harvest OTPs, UPI credentials, and KYC data. With a small security and operations team, the company needed a way to detect abuse quickly, remove it with proof, and protect users while fundraising and product velocity remained high.
Challenges faced
Impersonation at launch cadence
Threat actors spun up spoof domains and counterfeit app listings within hours of feature announcements. Common lures included KYC revalidation, wallet upgrade, refund verification, and limited-time incentive unlocks that asked for OTP or UPI details.
Hijacked brand queries and social replies
Malicious ads and SEO-poisoned landing pages occasionally appeared above the startup’s official links for queries like wallet login and customer support. Imposter social accounts replied under the brand’s posts with phishing links and “priority help” numbers.
Fragmented takedown efforts
Each registrar, host, app store, social network, and ad platform required different evidence, notice language, and policy citations. Screenshots and emails lived in team inboxes, slowing time to takedown and allowing mirrors to resurface.
Resource constraints and investor scrutiny
The team had to show measurable reduction in external threats and maintain clean evidence for diligence and enterprise partner reviews, without adding headcount or pausing product work.
Hunto AI Solution
Objective: detect and remove impersonation infrastructure across domains, social, app stores, ads, and messaging, then provide artifact-rich proof that platforms and stakeholders accept.
Rapid onboarding and pattern seeding
We ingested official domains, verified handles, app IDs, and high intent search terms. Hunto AI seeded fintech-specific lure patterns including KYC revalidation, wallet upgrade, refund or settlement confirmation, UPI and OTP capture, support number scams, and referral reward bait.
Always on brand monitoring
- Look alike domain hunting using fuzzy and homograph checks with passive DNS and page similarity to flag new registrations early
- Social and store sweeps to find imposter support pages, fake recruiters, and clone apps misusing name or logo
- Search and ads watchlists to alert on malicious paid placements and SEO traps intercepting branded queries during launch peaks
- Messaging and link hub tracking to surface amplification networks that keep scam infrastructure alive
Agentic takedown execution with evidence
- Auto assembled case files per incident with screenshots, WHOIS and ASN, hosting metadata, timestamped crawls, link graphs, and the precise policy citations each platform expects
- Platform native notices to registrars and hosts, social networks, app stores, and ad networks to raise first notice acceptance
- Post removal re scans mapped mirrors and connected infrastructure so clusters were removed, not just single URLs
User safety and CX enablement
- A paste ready Official Channels microsnippet for the website and in app help listed verified URLs, app IDs, and handles plus how to report suspicious content
- Short support scripts standardized verification and escalations for CX and community managers, reducing handle time and repeat investigations
Reporting and governance
An executive dashboard tracked detections, median Time to Takedown, first notice acceptance, scam survival time, and a directional trust protection proxy tied to app store and support funnel analytics
A monthly evidence archive packaged all case files for investor diligence, partner security questionnaires, and internal audits, with labels for vendor managed public assets
Impact
“We turned brand abuse from a launch day fire drill into an operating metric. Fraud pages disappear faster, users get clear guidance, and our evidence stands up in partner reviews and investor diligence.”
– Co founder, Indian fintech wallet startup
Measured outcomes in the first 90 days
Scale handled
120 plus abusive assets detected across domains, social, app stores, and ads
Approximately 78 percent removed on first notice, with most of the remainder cleared after a single follow up
Velocity achieved
Median Time to Takedown under 24 hours for registrar and hosting cases
Median Time to Takedown under 12 hours for social and app store listings after evidence submission
Malicious search ads reported within 2 to 6 hours during campaign and feature peaks
User and brand protection
Visible drop in scam related tickets and social reply spam once Official Channels and scripts went live
Fewer repeated investigations due to standardized evidence packs and closure templates
How this maps to mandatory Indian cyber expectations for fintechs
CERT In Directions, May 2022
Requires reporting of specified cyber incidents within six hours of noticing or being notified and 180 day log retention in India. Brand abuse involving phishing, identity theft, and fake apps falls in reportable classes. Hunto AI’s case files include timestamps and artifacts that align with incident logging and timely reporting needs.
Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
Requires reasonable security safeguards and breach notification to the Data Protection Board of India and affected individuals as prescribed. By suppressing impersonation infrastructure early and documenting actions, Hunto AI strengthens due diligence and breach prevention posture for data fiduciaries.
RBI expectations where applicable
If operating under RBI permissions now or in future, teams must evidence continuous monitoring, incident handling, customer awareness, and third party oversight. Hunto AI’s always on detection, platform native takedowns, Official Channels content, and monthly evidence archives support this posture from day one.
Why this worked for a manufacturing brand
Breadth with proof
One console covered domains, social, app stores, and ads. Each takedown shipped with the artifacts platforms ask for, lifting acceptance and shrinking cycle time.Built for small teams
Automation handled discovery, evidence assembly, submissions, and mirror hunts. CX and community teams reused consistent scripts and a simple Official Channels page across web and app.Compliance and growth together
Evidence archives and trendlines demonstrate operational maturity to investors and partners while cutting real fraud in the wild.
About Hunto
Hunto AI quantifies external cyber and brand risk and resolves it automatically. Brand Monitoring and Takedown detects impersonation across domains, social, app stores, ads, and messaging, then executes removals with evidence that stands up to scrutiny. Teams can add Attack Surface Monitoring when ready to consolidate external hygiene in one platform.
Protect customers and brand trust while staying audit ready.
Request a no integration Brand Abuse Snapshot and receive an evidence ready takedown pack plus a 30 day suppression plan aligned to RBI expectations.