Social media boosts luxury goods counterfeit economy

A new study, Social Media and Luxury Goods Counterfeit, reveals that around a fifth of all items tagged as luxury goods on Instagram are actually fakes. The trend illustrates how the social media platform is contributing to the explosion of the internet’s counterfeit economy, which uses a system of online tools to ship illegal goods around the globe.
Social media – specifically Instagram – represents an important link in the complex chain of the counterfeit economy, which takes a $US29 billion bite out of the luxury goods sector each year, according to the study.
 

http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/social-media-boosts-luxury-goods-counterfeit-economy-20160526-gp4zqg.html