Before we touch on the explanation of the 5 issues, let us take a look at the survey results that we collated from 40 surveyee, to find out whether they are aware of the issues and if they had taken any action when they experienced any of the 5 issues.

Survey Results (collated from 40 surveyee)

Question 1


Question 2



Question 3


Question 4




Question 5

Question 6
If yes, what actions did you take(if any)?
Surveyee #1
“A team of us wanted to go the police station to make a report but there were insufficient number of people for a 'petition' so in the end there was nothing we can do.”

Surveyee #2
“I did not receive my product after paying..the owner gave me all the rubbish excuses...I post an comment on the site stating the problem happened to me hoping that other dont get treated..”

From the results we have collated, we know that not many are aware of all the ethical issues, so below are the explanations of each issue. Hope it will help you understand them better.

True cases
>http://lylarose.livejournal.com/22531.html
>http://www.sgclub.com/singapore/another_scammer_blogshop_114540.html
>http://basicfashionfolder.blogspot.com/2008/11/fake-blogshops-i-got-cheated.html

Dead buyers
These are people who had previously stated their interest in purchasing certain products from the blog shops, but became missing after the products were reserved for them. This usually happens when the buyer decides to get the product from some other places or decided not to purchase the items at all. As such, they chose to become uncontactable.

True case
>http://flowerpod.com.sg/forums/Dead-Buyers-t34037.html

Breach of contract
Once the buyer confirms an order, they are entering into a legal binding contract. If the buyers cancel/change the order they have breach the contract. Once the seller receives the money and sent out the invoice she/he is entering into a legal binding contract, if she does not post out the goods, she has breach the contract.

True case
>http://forum.asiajam.com/jammers-lounge/3608-shopping-shoplah-com-warning-about-products-2.html#post133050

Copyright Issues
Some people will resort to ripping off the pictures and even descriptions about certain products from other blog shops, for the purpose of selling their own products. This will infringe the copyright issues, as the rights of the pictures belong to the original seller, as it may contain pictures of the model for the original sellers or even the sellers themselves.

Hacker
Intrusion of privacy of customer such as their account numbers, name, address and their order list. They tend to alter customer’s actual orders or may even use the customer’s account number to conduct illegal transactions. Blog shop owners will then have a difficult time trying to resolve the problems by shutting down their website for a period of time to re-maintain the privacy of all their patrons.

Interview

We have also done an interview with a successful blogshop owner who understands more about the blogshop "industry". She has stated a few ethical issues that are mentioned above.

Interview with Blogshop Owner of http://therainbowloft.livejournal.com/

"few fraud cases in this 'industry' right now (:"

"there are many cases of deadbuyers"

"quality of clothes and items not being true to pics"

"some blogshops use other blogshops' photos and crop their heads off or whatever, and use it to sell their own stocks."

From the interview, survey and online research, we have come to know that the 5 common ethical issues are Online fraud, Deadbuyers, Copyright, Breach of contract and Hacker.