Using Employee Discounts To Buy iPhones For Selling On EBay Gets You Fired

Here's one of those unwritten rules: if you use your employee privileges to buy iPhones at a discount and then sell them on eBay ( NSDQ: EBAY) at a significant profit, you'll get you canned. Apparently, U.K. operator O2, has fired six employees for doing so and another 20 are under investigation, reports Cellular-News, which quotes the Mail on Sunday newspaper. Apparently, O2 was tipped off that this might be a problem after some retail employees, all based in London, bought noticeably large quantities of the handsets with a 20 percent staff discount. Duh.

Register for our EconAds seminar, June 3rd, at the New World Stages in New York City. Covering the economics of online advertising.