‘Website whizz’ under fakery fire
Social media site closed as Oracle Media owner fails to explain long list of fabricated achievements
CLAIMS of fictitious charity beneficiaries, plagiarism, faking a Cape Town office and contravening the Estate Agency Affairs Act have prompted a self-proclaimed social media whizz to shut down his website.
Quizzed on four separate allegations by Weekend Post on Thursday, Neil Barker – the founder of Oracle Media – shut down his website that same evening.
Barker, 30, started his company in July last year, offering social media services to South African companies.
He claims to have more than 300 clients.
A two-week investigation by Weekend Post discovered that Oracle Media:
Published a fabricated charity event in Cape Town;
Plagiarised at least 12 articles on its website; and
Faked an office in Cape Town.
In a statement yesterday, Barker said: “Your investigation has been of great assistance and I have taken immediate steps to close the website and have suspended certain staff members pending a full investigation by myself and appropriate professionals. If found to be correct the necessary steps will be taken to rectify the situation.”
His full response appears alongside this report.
Ethics Monitor founder Cynthia Schoeman, who has more than 20 years’ experience on good business practice, said much of Barker’s conduct was unethical and dishonest.
“The term for it is actually quite simple . . . he lied,” she said. “In a case like this it seems an opportunist moved into a fairly new land-
scape – that of social media – and claimed to be an expert while in fact he is still learning on the job.”
Barker also stands accused of contravening the Estate Agency Affairs Act when he sold a house to AlgoaFM DJ Wayne Hart without a Fidelity Fund Certificate (FFC) in March last year.
“I was looking for a new place and went to Neil,” said Hart. “He was involved with a friend of mine at the time and I thought it would
be nice to work through someone I knew.”
Estate agents are legally required to be registered with the Estate Agency Affairs Board (Eaab) and have a paid-up FFC to be involved with the sale or showing of any properties.
Eaab official Bonisile Nkosi said Barker last paid for his FFC in 2010.
“His FFC has expired. He is required to pay a penalty fee if he wishes to continue operating as an estate agent. Without an FFC it is illegal for him to be involved with the sale of any property anywhere in South Africa,” she said.
Barker received R20 000 in commission fees for his part in the sale of the Port Elizabeth property, according to the sale agreement.
On Barker’s Oracle Media Facebook page and e-mail signature he listed his Cape Town office as 3 Edison Way in Century City.
But Sage VIP, a company specialising in payroll software, owns the building in Century City.
Ronel Swart, branch manager of Sage VIP in Cape Town, said their company had never dealt with Oracle Media or Barker.
“I have never heard of him. I have no idea who that is or why he would list us as his address,” Swart said.
She said only Assima, a software development company, rented office space.
Assima financial director Sheldon Haycock denied knowing Oracle Media or Barker.
Oracle Media also claims to have been involved in a number of charity events in Nelson Mandela Bay and Cape Town.
On the Oracle Media website four pictures were posted in August last year of a soup kitchen held at the “echanti school” in Cape Town.
But the school does not exist, according to Jessica Shelver, a spokeswoman for Western Cape education MEC Debbie Schäfer.
Two of the pictures used to highlight the Oracle Media soup kitchen in Cape Town were taken from other charity organisations that saw work done in Kentonon-Sea and Kleinvlei.
The third picture is freely available and can be found on multiple websites. The origin of the fourth picture could not be traced.
The Kleinvlei picture comes from a BBC-sponsored event where the international broadcaster set up a container as a community kitchen in Kleinvlei, Cape Town in March 2010.
Breadline Africa marketing executive Marion Wagner said they had worked with the BBC for the container hand-over but had no recollection of Oracle Media.
“We have never worked with the echanti school,” Wagner said.
The second picture was taken by Helena Warren in 2013 during a community outreach project run by the Kariega Game Reserve through their conservation volunteer programme.
Warren said she had take the picture when they held a soup kitchen at the Helping Hands Child Welfare Centre in Ekuphumleni Township, outside Kenton-on-Sea. “I have never heard of Barker or Oracle Media. We never worked with him and never gave him the right to use our picture,” Warren said.
Another charity event that did not go quite as planned for Barker was in July last year.
He was locked in a cage for 67 hours at the Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth to raise funds for charities.
Well-known residents were locked inside the cage with Barker and had to pay money as a form of “bail” to get out.
The Herald reported at the time that R12 000 had been raised for various animal shelters around the city.
But Barker denies the money was paid directly to him.
Weekend Post was not able to establish the total amount raised.
But only the SPCA in Uitenhage received a R5 500 donation of dog food and supplies from Barker. Uitenhage SPCA chairwoman Deirdre Swift said: “For months after the event we had to remind Barker of the donations promised, and only after following up four or five times did he come back to us.”
The Oracle Media website also posted regular articles about developments in social media and technology.
At least 12 of the 34 posts published between July last year and this month had been plagiarised – copied without any credit to the original authors.
An article titled “Periscope videos will autoplay in Twitter soon” was published on the Mashable website in January by Karissa Bell.
Large parts of her article were re-posted on the Oracle Media website three days later – without crediting Bell.
At least five more articles were plagiarised from the Mashable website.
Mashable business development product manager Sheffie Elencweig said Oracle Media had never asked for permission to use their content.
“I will reach out to Oracle Media requesting a takedown of the articles that were published without permission,” Elencweig said.
India-based tech site Gadget 360 also had an article headlined “10 Whatsapp Tips and Tricks Everyone Should Know” plagiarised.
The original article appeared on Gadget 360 in July last year. Oracle Media re-posted the article three months later.
Sriram Sharma, a senior editor for Gadgets 360, wrote the article himself.
“The best we can hope is that they are penalised on their internet searches for such shoddy work,” he said.