With the advent of e-commerce, the potential of new
Internet technologies to mislead or deceive consumers has increased
considerably. This paper extends prior classifications of deception
and presents a typology of product-related deceptive information
practices that illustrates the various ways in which online
merchants can deceive consumers via e-commerce product websites. The
typology can be readily used as educational material to promote
consumer awareness of deception in e-commerce and as input to
establish benchmarks for good business practices for online
companies. In addition, the paper develops an integrative model and
a set of theory-based propositions addressing why consumers are
deceived by the various types of deceptive information practices and
what factors contribute to consumer success (or failure) in
detecting such deceptions. The model not only enhances our
conceptual understanding of the phenomenon of product-based
deception and its outcomes in e-commerce but also serves as a
foundation for further theoretical and empirical investigations.
Moreover, a better understanding of the factors contributing to or
inhibiting deception detection can also help government agencies and
consumer organizations design more effective solutions to fight
online deception.