The Reporter

The Reporter

Trust me, I'm an eBayerIf you subscribe to the view that eBay is simply a modern-day version of the wartime spiv flogging knocked-off nylons, you may have cheered the news that the auction site must pay £30m damages to luxury goods group LVMH for negligence in allowing the sale of fake Louis Vuitton bags and other counterfeit goods. That same day, a BBC investigation uncovered a thriving trade in selling credit vouchers from stores such as Marks & Spencer. Retailers say many are obtained when shoplifted items are taken back for a refund, with the resulting voucher then sold on sites such as eBay.

Cube route of Christmas It's July, the sun's out and the summer holidays beckon. So what better time for Woolies to unveil its predictions for the top toys this Christmas? The retailer reckons the Rubik's Cube is set to top the bestsellers list once again - more than 25 years after its launch. And in the wake of the recent Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie, a £19.99 Indiana-style whip will be a big hit, Woolworths predicts.

Mortgage cuts News that Britain's best-known mortgage broker firm, John Charcol, is cutting 25% of its workforce and closing three offices provides yet more proof that the downturn in the property market is starting to cause pain. The firm said this week it is making 39 people redundant, with a further 30 staff leaving as a result of "performance.....continued below

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management" in the sales divisions. That takes the number of staff down from 275 to 206. Meanwhile, the firm has closed offices in Manchester, Birmingham and Guildford. It still has two in London - Chancery Lane and Canary Wharf - and branches in Brighton, Bristol and Cambridge.

Canada, Oh Canada Last Saturday, Guardian Money revealed that the Chinese Embassy in the UK has effectively more than doubled the cost of a tourist visa and tightened the rules as well. By contrast, Canada is rolling out the welcome carpet for credit crunch-squeezed Brits dreaming of a new life overseas. According to Tuesday's Daily Mail: "Canada is putting skilled British workers on a fast track for immigration visas to exploit our soaring cost of living". It hopes to lure Britons "fed-up with fuel and food prices, and with the state of schools and hospitals". However, the paper points out that this is a country whose national symbol, the beaver, is "known to bite off its own testicles".

Snail Mail Talking of the Mail, you may recall that last Saturday we carried a report in Money revealing how Lloyds TSB "has begun sending children as young as 11 Visa-enabled debit cards without the knowledge of their parents, allowing them to buy cigarettes, drugs and X-rated videos over the internet". On Monday, the Daily Mail's front-page splash was an "exclusive" report headlined "Visa cards for children of 11". The first paragraph read: "A high street bank is giving children debit cards that could let them buy cigarettes, alcohol and porn videos over the internet." Perhaps the Guardian should launch a marketing campaign along the lines of: "Don't bother buying the Mail on a Monday - read it in the Guardian first on Saturday."