Warning: You Might Get Conned at a Blog Shop

FF Fashion

Wed, Mar 04, 2009
The New Paper
By Liew Hanqing and Han Su-Ying


BEWARE that online blog shop.

It may not be what it makes itself out to be.

It could unwittingly be selling you fake goods, as Mr Brandon Tan, 21, found out recently.

The NS man, who recently started frequenting blog shops, had his first negative experience about two weeks ago.

While blog hopping, he came across a blog shop which sells replicas of designer goods, including fake luxury handbags.

Together with a friend, Mr Tan put together $179 to buy two bags as a present for a friend.

He said: 'The bag I received looked entirely different from the one on the website, so I wanted to exchange it for another.

'But the blog shop owner has been uncontactable.'

He is not the only one.

The problem is that many of these blog shops are run by students, juggling their schoolwork and an online business on the side.

Blog shops - blogs which offer assorted merchandise for sale - are wildly popular among netizens here.

Question is: Just how much do these young online entrepreneurs know about running an online business?

Buying from blog shops is not always safe.

The owners of these online shops typically accept cash-on-delivery payment, or bank transfers.

And there is no guarantee of a quality product or service.

Mr Tan said he was aware the bags were fakes as they were clearly described as 'replicas'.

However, he was unaware that selling counterfeit branded goods online was unlawful until a friend told him.

He said: 'I decided to buy from the website because the (blog owner's) testimonials were okay.

'In the future, I would probably want to find out more about a blog shop before buying from it.'

Unaware

The New Paper visited the blog shop and found that the seller had also listed items such as T-shirts, tank tops and polo shirts for sale, in addition to the fake branded bags.

While many of the pictures on the website appear to be taken with an ordinary digital camera, others appear to be copied from the original retailers' websites.

The owner of the blog shop said she was unaware it was illegal to sell replica bags until The New Paper had contacted her. She said she would take the site down.

The blog shop was removed last Thursday evening.

She said: 'My shop is closed, because I don't want to do anything illegal.

'I will reopen soon, to sell only authentic stuff.'

Another blog shop owner, 13-year-old Chantal Ng found herself in a different bind recently after a disgruntled customer posted her personal details online in a smear campaign.

The customer set up a website to blacklist Chantal's site , claiming she did not show up after arranging to meet for a face-to-face transaction.

On the site, the customer listed Chantal's full name, age, school and handphone number. She also posted links to Chantal's personal blogs and blog shops.

The customer also posted a warning on a popular online forum, cautioning other online shoppers against doing business with Chantal.

Chantal was running a blog shop with a friend, selling clothes since she was in Primary 6.

She told The New Paper she did not know why she was being criticised online, as she had already sent out all her outstanding orders.

She said: 'I found out I was being flamed online only when a friend told me about it.'

She had to shut down five other personal blogs because she was repeatedly called a 'scammer' by anonymous netizens who left messages on her blogs.

The netizen who set up the blog to flame Chantal said she was in contact with other netizens who had allegedly had negative experiences dealing with Chantal.

She said: 'I thought about reporting the matter to the police, but the other girls (who claimed to have had similar experiences) did not want to get involved much.'