Some tools and strategies I use for making complaints to ASA, TS etc

The shortened link for this post is http://is.gd/6t8lmq

I think everyone has slightly different ways of approaching this but here are some things I do - not necessarily as coherently as I've put them here ;)

Almost every time I discuss a 'case' with fellow skeptics I seem to come away with a new tool or bit of useful information. Quite often I add them to the relevant section of the 'Skepticmedia' page I update sporadically.

I like writing lists - the following are not really in any particular order. Really we could have gone with bullet points :)

1. Find a website, or leaflet, which makes misleading claims.

If you like, you can search the Advertising Standards Authority's section of its website on adjudications (you can't search these from the main website though) http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications.aspx (scroll down to 'Search adjudications')

2. If a website, see if you can find out who's registered it.

There's no guarantee that you'll get very far with this as sometimes people use third party agencies to do this for them, but always worth a shot. You can do a search for the domain name registration using one of the free DNS WHOIS lookup services, such as

http://www.dnsstuff.com/

3. If you find a registration name, "trading as" name or company address have a bit of a Google - you might find that they own another site. Similarly if the website has a phone number (for people to order the product) searching for that number can bring up other sites too.

4. Have a look on companies house

A company I recently reported for making misleading claims seems to have been additionally trading illegally as their company dissolved a year or so ago. You can search for companies using the free Web Check site http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/

5. Have a look at the Medicines (Advertising) Regulation of 1994 (via @landtimforgot)

If the leaflet or website is offering a medicinal product (or service?? Does anyone know? ie does this only concern itself with things which are generally marketed as 'medicines'?) to treat any of the conditions listed there then they may be acting illegally.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1994/1932/schedule/1/made

Acting illegally rather trounces the making of unsubstantiated claims, but I'd always persist with making a claim for the simple reason that, if you blog about it later (if an adjudication etc has been made) then you're slightly increasing the amount of good information on the internet / raising awareness of scams etc.

6. Complain to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) or Trading Standards (TS)

6a. Get Fishbarrel to automate complaints (created by @Simon_Perry)

This is a free app for anyone using the Google Chrome browser. It does two things - makes it MUCH easier to fill in the complaint forms and it keeps a record of complaints made about a site. This means you can use it to see if someone's already complained previously (this doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't add another complaint of your own of course). I've previously written about this fab tool here http://brodiesnotes.blogspot.com/2011/04/fishbarrel-simple-google-chrome-app-to.html

For your own records you might want to copy and paste the text of the complaint before sending it off. Fishbarrel records the words on a website, but not any comments you add.

6b. Manually make complaints

ASA - advice on making complaints | online form

Trading Standards - use Consumer Direct's online form

7. Blog about results, if you want to

An ASA adjudication is available on a database within their website but doesn't appear to be that searchable via Google. To make it more indexable it's helpful to blog about it.

Because there's an unlimited number of people flogging nonsense and misadvertising it I doubt we'll ever stop each individual instance, far better to raise awareness and promote good information. Along with saving people money and signposting people to how they can complain about stuff I suppose my order of importance for doing this is as follows:

a/b) Raise awareness of scam sites

b/a) Slightly increase the amount of good quality information on the web

c) Get misleading claims removed

FishBarrel - simple Google Chrome app to help automate quackery complaints

Shortened link for this post: http://is.gd/3VwJ1O

This morning I used @Simon_Perry's excellent FishBarrel tool to put in complaints about two ear candle treatments on sale in Blackheath. I also used it last night to put in a complaint about a homeopathy website but the ASA is already working on guidance for homeopaths (a 'profession' famous for making some ridiculous and dangerous claims) I probably won't complain about too many more of these sites for the time being.

Ear candling rarely causes problems but on occasion it can drip hot wax into your eardrum which can cause (usually temporary) damage and discomfort. I'm not too bothered about people wasting their money on rubbish or even injuring themselves in the process but what I do find annoying is the health claims accompanying this product.

Ear candles (used in 'thermo-auricular therapy') do not create a suction vacuum and therefore cannot suck out toxins, literally or figuratively. They don't do anything to lymphatic drainage either and the wax that appears inside the candle after the treatment is chemically identical to candle wax, not ear wax. By all means sell this nonsense - people have a right to stick burning candles into their ear whether I like it or not, but please don't imply that it is safe or has any health benefits at all.

With any complaint made to the Advertising Standards Authority (don't forget they're doing websites now, which they weren't previously) or Trading Standards / Consumer Direct there are some constants (your name and address) and some variables (the address of the website and the claims made). FishBarrel lets you store your constants, housed in a Google Chrome app that sits by your bookmarks bar, and with a couple of clicks you can activate the app to start capturing the variables. As you select misleading claims FishBarrel will store copies of these and the website from which they came, and will also let you take a screenshot of the area of the website on which the claims are made.

Once you've selected all the claims you want to complain about you can review the complaint and make some amendments (eg give some background about the claim made and why you're complaining about it), then you can choose where it goes - ASA or TS/CD. At this point the programme does a rather nifty thing and autocompletes the complaint form for you. I've only used it for the ASA one which has four sub-pages (you fill in first section, press next and so on) and it's nice to find all the text pre-installed. You get an opportunity to go through each section and make further amendments.

Then press 'submit' and hopefully chip away gradually at the amount of misleading claims on websites.

You might well say "oh really, what's the point - as soon as you get one claim removed another one will crop up" and I'd agree there's an element of truth to that. The world will always have homeopaths and sellers of ear candles among other crap. If sellers remove misleading claims that's a win (whether or not it was because they thought it was a good idea by themselves or because the ASA asked them to).

Where I think complaining about quackery 'adds value' is that there will be an adjudication on the ASA's website, if your complaint is upheld. These don't always show up on Google searches - even to find them on the ASA's site isn't straightforward as a site-search won't find them, you have to go into the Adjudications section and search within that. Each new adjudication is a piece of news that someone might blog about. This increases its reach across Google and other search engines and makes it marginally more likely that someone searching for information on a questionable treatment will come across one or more pieces of information that are critical of it. Well, maybe a bit.

You might also like

• Greasing the wheels of skeptical activisim: FishBarrel - by @krelnik
• What's the harm in ear candling? - also by @krelnik
• Hokey ear candles - by me, with a list of references pointing out the nonsense
• FDA sends warning letters to 15 ear candle manufacturers (via @Blue_Wode) - by me