The Influence of Social Media on Consumer Purchases and the Problem of Fake Reviews and Endorsements

The study's goal is to determine how social media influences consumer purchasing decisions and investigate the issue of counterfeit reviews and endorsements. Information from a survey investigates how social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn influence consumer behaviour. Despite the prevalence of false reviews in the information interface that consumers peruse, there is a lack of research to understand the role of fake reviews in the online purchase process. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to investigate the modifications in consumers' online purchase intentions that occur as a result of reading false evaluations in various scenarios. For products with a high level of brand recognition, false reviews do not influence consumers' purchase intentions. Conversely, for products with a low level of brand recognition, the degree of fakeness in the reviews decreases consumers' purchase intentions. Deceptive reviews and endorsements present a significant obstacle.