How not to write a "how not to" article

The Torygraph jumps on the eBay-bashing bandwagon this morning, with a scare-mongering smear dressed up as advice on staying safe on eBay. Much of the article is unsubstantiated slurs: "shill bidding is widespread" and "counterfeit goods are rife". Perhaps more importantly, some of the so-called advice they give is downright nonsensical: "If someone has no feedback, then be suspicious." Really? How many thousand feedback did you start with, Mr Lazy Hack?

The section on bogus email, while generally sensible, misses the most important and easiest test of whether an email is a spoof or not: sign into your eBay/Paypal account; if they have something they need to tell you, it will be there. Similarly with bogus web pages, the easiest way to detect them isn't actually to download the toolbar, it's to avoid clicking on potentially dodgy links in emails, and only ever to type the URL into your browser yourself.

It's a shame, because in amongst the dross is some good advice - for example, my own favourite saying, "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is". User eduction is undoubtedly the way to combat fraud, counterfeiting and phishing on the internet in general, but articles like this just scare away the very people they're trying to advise.

So next time you need an article on eBay, Mr Lewis, why not ask someone who knows what they're talking about? We look forward to hearing from you ;-)

Revealed : How the Sunday Times decided to set up eBay sellers

This morning's Sunday Times carries a piece which it claims reveals how eBay sellers push up the prices on their own items, a practice which the paper believes is "widespread" across the site. Though the report alleges that "businesses ranging from overseas property agencies to car dealerships" shill-bid, they focus on one single seller, who apparently admitted to an "undercover reporter" that his associates bid on his auctions for him.

TameBay were contacted by a reporter from the Sunday Times back in December. This is what he had to say:

Hello Sue,

I am researching an article on Ebay "spill bidding" ie: the process of artificially bidding up an item's value through false email addresses, friends or associates. Is this something you have ever come across? I would be interested to hear examples.

Many thanks

Jonathan Calvert
Insight Editor

Some reporting if he can't even get the term 'shill bidding' right! We know that several other UK eBaying websites were contacted by this same gentleman, begging for information and examples of shill bidding. One, UK Auction Help, even went so far as to email all *it's* members, asking if they could help with examples:

Subject: Fair Trader Scheme ­ Can you help?
...
I have been contacted by Jonathan Calvert the Insight Editor on the Sunday Times, he is working on an article about Shill bidding.

I have spoken to him about this but have no current examples to show him.

If you have any examples, recent experience etc of Shill Bidding on eBay he would like to hear from you.

eBay sellers who are members of this scheme might like to consider whether an organisation which is so ready to help the biased media tar all eBay sellers with the same 'shiller' brush, is one that they wish to continue to support.

Furthermore, Mr Calvert has obviously begun his research with the assumption that eBay sellers are mostly shillers, and has dug and dug until he managed to find one seller for his News of the World-style set-up. So much for objective reporting. I'm sure that if I decided to publish an article arguing that all Sunday Times reporters are lazy, biased hacks, I'd be able to turn up one example to back up my argument. Would that mean that all employees of that august publication are the same?

As for Mr Paraskevaides, well, he has rather a checkered history. He resigned from his gynaecologist's job after concerns about his work were raised, and subsequently has been frequently accused of selling merchandise said to be fake. While we hope and expect that eBay will now close any other accounts he still holds on the site, to expose a well-known scammer as a scammer is hardly great investigative journalism, is it, Mr Calvert?

BBC Watchdog delays answering PowerSeller concerns

Following on from the Watchdog program on 7th November this year the BBC are still being very coy regarding the content of the program. They have yet to come clean on how they purchased only a handful of goods from PowerSellers and yet 80% of them were counterfeit. I've bought a fair amount in my time and I certainly haven't had a problem. Having said that it's no great secret that eBay isn't as free from fake goods as it could be. There are buyers out there however more than happy to buy copies, so long as they know up front that's what they're getting.

Whilst it's against the law to sell counterfeits and morally wrong if you do not to state up front so the buyer knows what they're getting there is a bigger issue. As Dan Wilson pointed out they portrayed the issue to be a PowerSeller problem. The program was not a balanced and fair portrayal of trading on eBay in general, or with PowerSellers in particular.

I wrote to the BBC to complain, this is my first email and the BBC response:

Dear Sirs
Your watchdog programme tonight featured fake items for sale on eBay.

Whilst fakes are touted for sale (just as they are in many venues including high street markets etc), I am very dismayed to see that you specifically reported eBay PowerSellers as the culprits. As a full time eBay PowerSeller who sells legitimate goods on the site portraying PowerSellers as criminals is despicable. Yes there are a few bad apples in the barrel, but seeing as about 70,000 people in the UK make their full time living on eBay your reporting doesn't give a balanced view.

Professional sellers that are registered as small businesses, VAT registered, follow the Distance Selling Regulations and provide excellent customer service both pre and post sales do no deserve to be categorised with the few sellers who do hawk fake or counterfeit items.

I trust in future your program will seek to redress the balance.

Regards
Chris Dawson


Thank you for your email.

We are sorry if you felt Watchdog’s eBay investigation tarred all PowerSellers with the same brush, but in fact the programme made clear that most PowerSellers are honest. The ones selling counterfeits are clearly not the norm, but as there are plenty of them it was perfectly legitimate for the programme to question whether eBay is doing enough to stop them.

We can see no reason why traders selling authentic goods would suffer as a result of Watchdog exposing the rogues and in fact the narrative said that eBay was a good place to find a bargain, especially in the run-up to Christmas. However, when it appears to be so easy for unscrupulous traders to cheat the system it's important to look at whether the current safeguards are sufficient - and Watchdog’s evidence suggests they are not.

The programme made it very clear that feedback should be carefully examined for any negative comments about authenticity and demonstrated how to do that, so we are confident that legitimate traders with consistently positive feedback have nothing to fear from the story.

Thank you, once more, for taking the time to contact the BBC.
Regards
BBC Information

Sadly this is just a boilerplate response sent out to tens if not hundreds of people that took the time to write voicing their concerns. Of course this doesn't answer the questions as to why they portrayed 80% of purchases at random from PowerSellers to be fakes. Yes we know fakes are an issue on eBay - but the BBC has a duty to report in a balanced matter, after all we trust them don't we? Time to write again for clarification

Thank you for your response, however I feel it has not addressed some points:-

1) Were you aware that some 70000 sellers on eBay make their living on eBay and are professional sellers that are registered as small businesses, VAT registered, follow the Distance Selling Regulations and provide excellent customer service both pre and post sales. Why did you not emphasise in your Watchdog program that it is a very small percentage that are fraudulent?

2) It seems less than likely that four out of five items for sale on eBay are counterfeit - did your researchers specifically target products that looked questionable? How were the products purchased selected? Suggesting that 80% of items sold by PowerSellers on eBay are counterfeit is giving a very unbalanced impression which is what your program implied. Why was this allowed to be aired?

3) You correctly advised buyers to check feedback and specifically for negative feedback before purchasing, however you gave no indication as to the feedback of the sellers who supplied the goods that you purchased. Did you select sellers with feedback showing they had previously sold fakes and why did you not give the feedback information and whether previous buyers had indicated counterfeit items being sold or not? Your program suggested you were not expecting fakes but you fail to say if the advice you give to keep safe was followed when making your purchases. This in my opinion gives a very unbalanced program and I would like your thoughts on the matter.

4) Finally why did you not invite a PowerSeller to appear on your program to give their views?

I look forward to hearing from you
Chris Dawson

Not too hard a set of questions to answer you'd think, after all someone at Watchdog must know how they selected the products to purchase - they bought them and made the program. It appears though that the BBC is having a difficulty in finding answers, another week has passed and this is the latest from them which arrived today

Dear Mr Dawson

This is an update to let you know that we are dealing with your recent complaint but are waiting to clarify some points with other colleagues in the BBC before we reply more fully to you.

We will of course respond as soon as possible but trust you will understand that the time taken can also depend on the nature and number of the other complaints we are currently investigating. The BBC also issues public responses to issues which prompt large numbers of significant complaints and these can be read on our website at www.bbc.co.uk/complaints.

We would like to reassure you that your complaint has already been logged and circulated in our daily report to BBC managers. We would therefore be grateful if you would not reply to this email and, in the meantime, would like to thank you for contacting the BBC with details of your concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Wheeler
BBC Information

I'll post an update as soon as they have managed to " clarify some points with other colleagues" but in the mean time if you missed the program you can watch it here. Decide for yourself if it's fair and balanced reporting or if Watchdog are guilty of sensationalising the story. Also why is it so hard for them to answer four simple questions?

BBC positive about eBay shock!

Yes, it's true. After the fiasco of Watchdog, this evening's Money Programme is featuring some great eBay success stories.