research-article

The E-Commerce Market for "Lemons": Identification and Analysis of Websites Selling Counterfeit Goods

Authors:

Tyler MooreAuthors Info & Claims

WWW '15: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web

Pages 1188 - 1197

https://doi.org/10.1145/2736277.2741658

Published: 18 May 2015 Publication History

Abstract

We investigate the practice of websites selling counterfeit goods. We inspect web search results for 225 queries across 25 brands. We devise a binary classifier that predicts whether a given website is selling counterfeits by examining automatically extracted features such as WHOIS information, pricing and website content. We then apply the classifier to results collected between January and August 2014. We find that, overall, 32% of search results point to websites selling fakes. For 'complicit' search terms, such as "replica rolex", 39% of the search results point to fakes, compared to 20% for 'innocent' terms, such as "hermes buy online". Using a linear regression, we find that brands with a higher street price for fakes have higher incidence of counterfeits in search results, but that brands who take active countermeasures such as filing DMCA requests experience lower incidence of counterfeits in search results. Finally, we study how the incidence of counterfeits evolves over time, finding that the fraction of search results pointing to fakes remains remarkably stable.

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Cited By

Sharma VKlein A(2024)A signaling theory-based analysis of website features, investment perception and trust propensity in initial trust formation on unfamiliar small online retailersJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice10.1080/10696679.2024.2305454(1-22)Online publication date: 29-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2024.2305454
Qiu ZYin YYuan YChen Y(2024)Research on Credit Regulation Mechanism of E-commerce Platform Based on Evolutionary Game TheoryJournal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering10.1007/s11518-024-5603-2Online publication date: 22-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-024-5603-2
Carpineto CRomano G(2023)Double-Constrained Consensus Clustering with Application to Online Anti-CounterfeitingApplied Sciences10.3390/app13181005013:18(10050)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/app131810050
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Index Terms

The E-Commerce Market for "Lemons": Identification and Analysis of Websites Selling Counterfeit Goods
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Computing / technology policy
    1. Computer crime

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Information & Contributors

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

WWW '15: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web

May 2015

1460 pages

ISBN:9781450334693

General Chairs:
Aldo Gangemi
National Research Council, Italy & Paris 13 University-CNRS, France
,
Stefano Leonardi
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
,
Alessandro Panconesi
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Copyright © 2015 Copyright is held by the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2).

Sponsors

IW3C2: International World Wide Web Conference Committee

In-Cooperation

SIGWEB: ACM Special Interest Group on Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Web

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International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee

Republic and Canton of Geneva, Switzerland

Publication History

Published: 18 May 2015

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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate Cyber Security Division (DHS S&T/CSD)

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WWW '15

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IW3C2

WWW '15: 24th International World Wide Web Conference

May 18 - 22, 2015

Florence, Italy

Acceptance Rates

WWW '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 131 of 929 submissions, 14%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,899 of 8,196 submissions, 23%

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Cited By

Sharma VKlein A(2024)A signaling theory-based analysis of website features, investment perception and trust propensity in initial trust formation on unfamiliar small online retailersJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice10.1080/10696679.2024.2305454(1-22)Online publication date: 29-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2024.2305454
Qiu ZYin YYuan YChen Y(2024)Research on Credit Regulation Mechanism of E-commerce Platform Based on Evolutionary Game TheoryJournal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering10.1007/s11518-024-5603-2Online publication date: 22-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-024-5603-2
Carpineto CRomano G(2023)Double-Constrained Consensus Clustering with Application to Online Anti-CounterfeitingApplied Sciences10.3390/app13181005013:18(10050)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/app131810050
Kotzias PRoundy KPachilakis MSanchez-Rola IBilge L(2023)Scamdog Millionaire: Detecting E-commerce Scams in the WildProceedings of the 39th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference10.1145/3627106.3627184(29-43)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3627106.3627184
Bitaab MCho HOest ALyu ZWang WAbraham JWang RBao TShoshitaishvili YDoupé A(2023)Beyond Phish: Toward Detecting Fraudulent e-Commerce Websites at Scale2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179461(2566-2583)Online publication date: May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179461
Dai XWu L(2023)The impact of capitalist profit-seeking behavior by online food delivery platforms on food safety risks and government regulation strategiesHumanities and Social Sciences Communications10.1057/s41599-023-01618-w10:1Online publication date: 25-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01618-w
Zhao XHuo Y(2022)The Evolutionary Game Analysis and Simulation Research on E-Commerce Live Broadcast Counterfeit Sales with the Participation of a Third-Party SupervisorProceedings of the 2022 2nd International Conference on Education, Information Management and Service Science (EIMSS 2022)10.2991/978-94-6463-024-4_11(85-96)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2022
https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-024-4_11
Chen SChen PTsai CLiu C(2022)Development of Machine Learning Based Fraudulent Website Detection Scheme2022 IEEE 5th International Conference on Knowledge Innovation and Invention (ICKII )10.1109/ICKII55100.2022.9983523(108-110)Online publication date: 22-Jul-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICKII55100.2022.9983523
Sánchez-Paniagua MFidalgo EAlegre EJáñez-Martino F(2021)Fraudulent E-Commerce Websites Detection Through Machine LearningHybrid Artificial Intelligent Systems10.1007/978-3-030-86271-8_23(267-279)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-86271-8_23
Melo LRibeiro RGuimarães BPereira F(2020)Type Inference for CACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/342147242:3(1-71)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3421472
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