The head of Yahoo in Japan has defended the internet firm's practice of publishing the names of suspected fraudulent users of its online auction service.

"After deep consideration, we decided to release such information. We are doing it within legal bounds," said Masahiro Inoue, president and chief executive of Yahoo Japan.

Mr Inoue said the firm believes the "name and shame" technique protects users of the online auction site without breaching the privacy of the people it names.

"We have only released the data of serious problem users. Genuine users have to be cautious," Mr Inoue told AFX News.

Trust barrier

Surveys of public attitudes to online shopping have consistently shown that fear of fraud is the main reason that consumers are reluctant to try e-commerce.

Yahoo Japan's auction site has warned customers about instances of buyers receiving fake designer goods, or getting nothing at all after paying the seller.

A spokesman for Yahoo Inc said the US web portal was a minority stakeholder in Yahoo Japan, which is a separate company.

Yahoo Japan is not the first firm to publish details of clients it believes may be acting dishonestly to order to protect its own reputation and business model.

Privacy campaigners have condemned Yahoo Japan's decision to use the name and shame tactic.

Simon Davies of Privacy International called the policy reprehensible and unwarranted. Firms should pursue clients who breached agreements through the courts or arbitration panels, he told the BBC's World Business Report.

Jump in profits

Other users of the name and shame technique include UK car hire firm Easycar, which attracted controversy when it began publishing photographs on its website of clients who failed to return vehicles.

Easycar spokesman James Ruthnie defended the firm's stance as "a very good business practice that enables us to offer cheap car hire".

Yahoo Japan's president was speaking shortly after the firm reported a healthy jump in operating profits to 2.6bn yen ($21m; �13m) for the three months to the end of 2002.

That was 26.3% higher than the previous three month period.

And all-important advertising sales showed double-digit growth over the same period for the first time in two years.