Deception Tactics and Counterfeit Deception in Online Environments

With widespread globalization happening at an alarming speed, the manufacturing and copying of goods has become a matter of routine for counterfeiters. The Internet has provided a new advantage for counterfeiters the opportunity to sell goods without prior consumer inspection. Leveraging this opportunity, deceitful purveyors of imitation goods engage in unethical practices such as selling counterfeit goods presenting them as genuine. We propose that there are two categories of counterfeit deception mechanisms online: product level information and seller level information. In order to successfully deceive prospective buyers, sellers conceal the signals that identify the offering as a fake, and present themselves as legitimate business entities. In this research-in-progress paper, we outline several propositions to guide future research in this area. We are currently conducting an empirical study to test these propositions.