ABSTRACT
Internet World Stats1 show that the number of online users worldwide has reached 2.75 billion as of March 2013, accounting for almost 38.8 percent of the global population. The increase has had a huge impact on the growth of online communities such as e-commerce, social networks and content sharing sites, especially in recent years. Trust has become a crucial factor for users who interact online, due to the limited Web interface that does not allow them to judge the trustworthiness of the interacting partner as in a typical face-to-face interaction. This is because online interactions are more impersonal and automated, provide fewer direct sensory cues, have less immediate gratification, entail more legal uncertainties, and present more opportunities for fraud and abuse [96]. This is even more the case with e-commerce and business transactions which deal with monetary value.
