An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association American Accounting Association 2006 Annual Meeting August 6–9, 2006 Washington, D.C.

Alex Nikitkov
Brock University

Dan Stone
University of Kentucky

Abstract: The phenomenal growth of e-commerce and online auctions is exceeded only by the corresponding growth in e-commerce and online auction fraud. Herein, we report two pilot studies that use eBay data, and the Bell & Whaley (1991) taxonomy of deceit, to investigate the nature and frequency of online auction deception. Study one (n = 24) categorizes a one-week sample of online transactions into deception strategies in two general classes (i.e., hiding versus showing) and three strategic domains (i.e., product, seller, and transaction characteristics). Study two (n = 31) presents a nascent model of the effects of deception strategies on transaction characteristics and outcomes. Results indicate that showing deception tactics are associated with marginally higher sales prices, higher levels of seller experience, and, higher levels of unusual or undesirable transaction outcomes (e.g., no sale, buyer dropped from market, inexperienced (falsified?) buyer).

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