One Sick Mother

Scamming in The Name Of Religion

UPDATE:  The church did apparently return (some of?) the funds after the story broke (and started to go viral). It goes to show what can be accomplished through advocacy and word of ...computer.

But I'm not changing a word of my original piece, which follows (we may choose to forgive, but never forget):

 

Most of the scam artists I write about are selling "medical" products and they profit off peoples' pain and desperation.  The worst of these -by far, is Gordon's Herbal Research Center, which is supposedly based in New Zealand, but is actually based in Pakistan. 

Today I heard about a new scammer, who is really  
based in New Zealand this time (Napier). This guy is every bit as despicable as the snake oil vendors. His name is Bruce Collingwood. Bruce purports to be a pastor, and is based at this ...  um "church".  Here is Brucey with his wife, looking buff, wearing what looks like a sparkly-accented shirt and a fetching medallion.

You can find the "church's"  website here.  Note how they mention their new building, right on the home page.

So somewhere along the line Brucey came in contact with a gentleman by the name of Whetu Abraham, a man who suffered a serious accident several years ago, leaving him with brain damage and in a wheelchair. Brucey Baby and/or some of his congregation used to visit Mr Abraham in the nursing home where he lives, soliciting donations, leading Mr Abraham to believe that if he didn't give generously, he wouldn't go to Heaven.  It so happened that Mr. Abraham had a nest egg of about $20,000 dollars.

He doesn't have it any more.

Yes, Mr Arbaham's money somehow all made it to the "church" of Bruce Collingwood, "freely" given by the poor man under threat of Hell.

Now he can't even afford to have his teeth fixed, while the "church" got itself a new building.

 

...and -funnily enough- they don't come to  visit him anymore.

Except once this story broke, Brucey suddenly stopped by with a disclaimer for Mr Abraham to sign, and loomed angrily over the poor man's wheelchair until he had to be removed from the premises by staff (I can't make this shit up).

Brucey is a nice guy, huh?      

Here he is, sitting in what looks like a new leather comfy chair, wearing what looks like a silk shirt, while the man who probably helped PAY for those things can't even afford dental care.

...all in the name of "God". 

Really?  Is that how Jesus would behave?

Please let Brucey Baby know what you think of him. His contact details are below.

"The Oasis" 15 Owen Street

Napier 4110
New Zealand

Pastor: Bruce Collingwood
Phone: (06) 835 6480
Fax: (06) 835 6485
Mobile: 027 630 7738
Email: theoasis@xtra.co.nz

I was going to contact the head of the Elim Movement, to which this "church" belongs, and ask if Brucey's behaviour is in keeping with their philosophies.  And then I saw a picture of their brand new headquarters, opened in 2009.

 

...nevermind.  I think I probably know the answer.

I should give a shoutout to the nursing home staff, who seem to have really tried to look out for Mr Abraham's interests. Too often we hear bad things about nursing homes, but there are many good facilities out there and a very great many caring and dedicated staff.

They are much needed.

How Scammers Make Money From You

I have been asked how the scams I regularly out on this site can make money if they don't steal your credit card information (and to my knowledge, they don't) and if they refund your money.

Indeed, people have said to me if refund the money, they can't be a scam, right?

Wrong.

• They are scams because they all claim to cure illnesses but don't.
• They are scams because many contain harmful substances, which in some cases are actually contraindicated for the disease they claim to cure.
• They are scams because -in EVERY case- the same set of ingredients is touted as a "cure" for many different unrelated conditions and claims of  "research" and "results" listed on the sites are untrue.

 

Let's break down how some of them work:  I will take a few examples, starting with Oslo Health Solutions (read more about them here,  here, here  and here) and Berlin Homeo Products.

Both companies have almost 300 sites (that I know about). Each site claims to cure a different disease, ranging from Abdominal Adhesions to Wiskott Aldrich Syndrome (no diseases starting with X, Y or Z apparently).  Each company therefore works on volume and makes money in at least three ways:

1. Profit: I guarantee you the product they ship does not cost anywhere near the selling price. They probably resell cheap vitamins (I hope) ...or something (I hope not!)  and have at least a 900% markup on those pills.
2. Fraud: You send the money and they don't send  you any product. Some people won't apply for a refund or will be refused a refund.
3. Investment of takings in a high-interest account: They hold your money as long as possible before issuing a refund, then they keep the interest earned from YOUR money.

 

Oslo Health Solutions:  

I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Let's assume I order Danlotab  (don't worry, some of the pages are for Angiotab because they are scammers and cut-and-paste everything, but we'll call it all Danlotab, for the purposes of this exercise).  Let's say I order the product on April 15th using my tax refund money, because I am sick and can't afford to spend $80 out of my regular income. 

By May 15th, I haven't received anything, so I e-mail OHS in "Norway" (but it's really Pakistan). I have to e-mail them, because I can't call them. I assume there are several reasons for this, such as:

• No need for expensive, English-speaking phone operators
• It is much easier to fob someone off via e-mail than on the phone
• People may become suspicious when the "Norwegian" company has a Pakistani phone number (and accents)

This is my (imagined) e-mail exchange with Oslo Health Solutions (OHS): I start around mid-May, when a month has gone by without hearing/receiving anything.

Me: "Dear Oslo, I haven't received my Danlotab. You charged my card on April 16th, so I am assuming that product shipped, right?"

OHS: "Yes. it shipped (untrue). It may be hung up in Customs. Give it two more weeks"

June 1: I  e-mail again:

Me: "I still haven't received my Danlotab."

OHS: "Very sorry about that, OSM, we'll ship you out another"

June 14th, I get my credit card statement. I was charged for the additional pills.

Me: "You charged me for two sets of tablets, and I have received none."

OHS: Our mistake. We shouldn't have charged you for that second set. We will credit you that amount. Your new replacement pills are on the way"  The extra $80 is credited, but they still have the original $80.

July 1 -no sign of the second order (because it wasn't sent).

Me: "Dear OHS, I still have not received the second shipment.  I started all this in APRIL! Can you cancel my order please?"

OHS: "We did send it. We don't know why you didn't get it! Maybe someone in customs stopped it because *whine* this horrible blogger has been saying nasty and untrue thing about us. Tell you what: Why don't we send you out another one -free of charge?"

Me: "Oh OK"

August 1: I finally realize nothing is coming and cancel the order. The refund the remaining $80 to my account -after several prompts- around August 15th

 

In this scenario, which is fictitious but plausible (based on the feedback I have received from many, many "scamees"), I was out $80 for 4 months and out $160 for two weeks.  I received no product, but I got my money back eventually.

 

So was I really scammed if I got my money back? 

 

Definitely. 

How The Scams Work.

Did you know what is the base interest rate in Pakistan? No?  Well it is 13% at the moment. It recently went DOWN.

So we'll assume that -allowing for time differences- OHS deposited my $80 in their high-yield saving account on April 16th and returned it on August 15th. Plus they had an additional  $80 for two weeks. They had my money earning interest for them all this time. If we assume they were  earning the base rate of interest plus two points (15%), they made $0.99 per month from me  (actually more, as I just calculated the simple interest rate and the bank would use compounded rates), plus 49¢ for that "accidental" overcharge. That's a total of $4.44.  In return for this, they did nothing at all except answer a few e-mails.  For every day they stalled me, they earned money on my money at a rate of a dollar per month. And I might think it's OK because I got my money back.

A dollar per month probably doesn't sound like a lot to you. This is where volume comes in:

Oslo Health Solutions have 282 sites that I have identified, each one for a different disease. If we conservatively estimate that the company gets 10 orders per site on average, that's 282 x 10 which is 2,820 orders per month. For $79.00 EACH! that works out at $222,780.00 per month in sales -almost a quarter of a million dollars per month, $2.6 million USD per year. The interest return on that lot is a lot better than a buck a month.

Even if they refund ALL of these orders (which they won't);  if we allow for around 4 months to refund,  this means that they will make approximately $1,113.90 in pure profit on interest rates alone. Much more, in fact because the interest rates should be compounded. And that's not accounting for any "accidental" double billing.

Costs

OK, we know they do ship some product, so they do have some costs. If we assume they ship for around half the orders received, at a cost of $3 per unit and $5 S&H, which makes $8 cost per order shipped.  For half of the orders; that is $40 cost per site per month. Therefore 40 x 282 = $11,280.00 in direct outgoing costs per unit There are more costs too: personnel, website costs, advertising etc, but I am going to concentrate on direct costs relating to YOU.  

Refunds

Scammers rely on a very simple premise: A certain percentage of customers won't even request a refund. This is especially true of people who are sick, because they don't have the energy to fight; or who have an embarrassing condition. This is the true evil genius of these scams who target the sick. Some people are too sick (or have died) and can't demand a refund!  Free money for the scammers! Even if they have shipped their shitty product, they are only down a few bucks. Except they often don't ship anything, so they get all the money AND the 13% interest! Yay!

We will assume that 5 people out of 10 will not request or will be denied a refund. This is a conservative estimate. My guess is that it is more like 7 out of 10. So In our little scenario, refunds  are approximately $111,390.00 on the higher rate of refunds. If I assume a much lower refund rate of 3 returns for every 10 orders, that number goes down to $66,834.00. So OHS are incented to hold your money as long as possible and deny refunds as often as they can.

To recap, I reckon OHS could easily be clearing the following figures (more if their sales are higher)

 

Price per unit	$79.00
Number of sites	282
Units ordered per month*	2,820
Monthly income/deposits	$222,780.00
Interest earned 4/mos	$1,113.90
Estimated costs (50%)**	$11,280.00
Assume refunds @ 50%	$111.390.00
Net profit	$111,249.00

 

Wow! 100 grand profit per month, =$1.2 million profit per year. And like I said, these estimates -all of them- are very conservative. If I assume that all orders are refunded and they "only" make money off the interest; the number is $13 grand.

Berlin Homeo Products: 

If I apply the same principals to Berlin Homeo Products; those of the dodgy green stuff that is supposed to cure 285 different diseases, including Cushing's disease, Parkinson's disease and some forms of cancer and who sell these "cures" for $85 apiece (they have a cheaper, 30 day supply, but all the sites recommend at least 60 days, therefore I chose the higher number) the numbers look like this:

Price per unit	$85.00
Number of sites	285
Units ordered per month*	2,850
Monthly income/deposits	$242,250.00
Interest earned 4/mos	$12,112.00
Estimated costs (50%)**	$11,400.00
Assume refunds @ 50%	$121.125.00
Net profit	$101,075.38

 

But wait: As both these companies are covered by SPAH, These two companies could conceivably be linked. And if they are linked, to each other, they are linked to Botanical Sources. The other company usually found on the SPAH list of "independent evaluations".

Botanical Sources

This um... "brand" has 186 sites (that I know) and they also sell two sizes. I chose the smaller size here, because -although there was no timeframe specified for treatment, that size corresponded to the grace period for the refund.  Applying the same figures to them gives us a potential income for them of $1.45 million per annum.

...and when we add all three of those together, using the original assumptions, we get much more interesting figures:

753 websites

$76.33 average price for each product

$7 million per annum, of which 3.5 million is profit.

Someone in Pakistan is living very high off the hog indeed. And all of it made off the sick and desperate.

Please please don't be sucked in to these scams. Even if you do get your money back, an evil person will profit.

My Blog, My Rules

I leave the comments open on this blog; no moderation prior to posting and I do encourage people to comment honestly.  I often get comments that are blatant advertising (one good thing about Typepad: there is EXCELLENT spam filtering) or that are not blatant, but contain links back to sales sites. I delete these as soon as I find them. OSM has a very strict policy against advertising and endorsements (OK. I just endorsed TypePad, but it is not claiming to cure your Granuloma Annulaire). This policy has lost me some income opportunities, but I would rather maintain the integrity of the work and research than gain an extra few bucks per month. 

And I really can't endorse stuff I don't use anyway

In the past two months or so, I have noticed two interesting trends:

1. I started getting comments that reflected positively on the scammers. One or two people on a post might claim that a scam product had worked and their illness was cured.
2. Several of the scammers have disappeared from Google; -both from the advertising stream and the search engine (Let this be a lesson to scammers that they should pay their bills)

The "positive feedback" received has all been for those disappeared scammers!  Co-incidence?  I suspect not. Some of my posts have been up for almost a year; -not a single positive comment. And then all of a sudden, I start getting "well it worked for me/my aunt/my boyfriend/my cat" comments on the scam posts.  I am good at spotting patterns and this looks like a pattern -not a random happening- to me.

I am pretty sure these events ARE connected. I am not sure if the scammers are posing as legitimate people to post endorsements on this site, or if they were asking legitimate people to do so.  My radar was triggered and my guard went up. However, on the basis of fairness, I decided to give these comments the benefit of the doubt and to keep the conversation two-sided. But I also decided to keep an eye on the situation.

Then last Thursday, I received the first of 10 ranty and barely coherent (comments from a person who claimed that one of the products was a miracle cure and I was somehow (singlehandedly):

• Condemning this person to a life of pain (like I had somehow given them the disease)
• Policing the Internet (Superhuman powers: I has them, apparently)
• Influencing people to steal the product from their mail; that misguided individuals -presumably in the Postal Service thought they could "protect" the Angry Commenter by taking their Scamaton before it ever reached the house. (Ha! I would LOVE to believe my charisma is so strong that I can make people I have never even met commit a federal crime!)

The commenter also made several arguments that had NOT been raised in that post (and I saw no evidence that the person had viewed any of the OTHER posts on scams), which raised a big red flag with me, and then they degenerated into abuse towards me; threatening to slap me, and wishing a chronic illness on me so "I would know how it feels" (Too late! Times three!). Clearly they have never actually read this blog.

I initially left some of their initial posts up, thinking it was maybe OK to air the other side of the argument.  I do like to be fair and keep an open mind, and I have on occasion (OK once) gone after an organization, intending to flay them alive (figuratively, of course) and have discovered in my research that the are not half bad.

So I slept on it.

And slept on it some more.

And then today, when I was thinking about it. I realized that these comments are fucking endorsements! If I impose an anti-endorsement policy on myself, why should I break it for random commenters, who are probably in cahoots with the scammers?

So I went through and deleted all the positive comments about the scam products received in the past two months. Which was all of them. The scammers clearly didn't care about what was on here until they were in some kind of trouble with Google (I have been watching the search engine trends).

Now some people may say this is unfair of me, and I am not presenting a balanced viewpoint. If someone was helped by one of the products, why NOT let them post here? I have to say I agreed with that until today, but when Abusive McRantyPants started in on me. I thought fuckit.  This is MY site. I make the rules. And if someone wants to (respectfully) contradict me,they can do it here. If someone wants to lavish praise on a scam company or scam product, they can.

But not here.

Find somewhere else to do it, because this site does not support endorsements.

Or abuse.

If you don't like that, you can leave.

The FTC Has Changed The Rules For Bloggers

We all thought bloggers aren't regulated, right?  That we cold say what we want on-line and -provided we didn't directly slander (or is it libel? I am never sure) someone who gave a shit, we were exempt from liability for speaking our minds about all sorts of stuff. The First Amendment and all that.  Yes there are copyright agreements and all that good stuff, but bloggers were never required to back up any statement they claimed as fact. I could say I ran into Elvis in the Public Library last month and no-one would bat an eye.

Well, as of December 1st, 2009 that has changed. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has introduced new rules surrounding endorsements and testimonials; and it includes bloggers and message boards as well as print, radio and the telly.  There are clauses that cover celebrity and expert endorsements, too. So now Valerie Bertinelli will have to tell you she was paid by Jenny Craig to lose that weight and keep it off. (What?  you didn't know?). Links to more information from the FTC is here; full Federal Register text here, and the FTC-produced videos explaining the new regulations are here.

So I'll have to watch me P's and Qs from now on.  Just kidding! Thankfully, the FTC doesn't care about foul or salty language, or OSM would be fucked entirely.  Not that I will be impacted much by the new regulations, anyway. I very rarely endorse anything. I once wrote favorably about a book, and I do carry links to books I recommend on this site (and there is no direct language that I could see in the FTC guidelines about hosting links -which I will get to later, because I found this point very interesting indeed). Other than books, most of my mission in life seems to be to find the flaws in things and highlight them in bitchy detail. And I am good at it!  So I can never claim to be an endorser of very much at all...

I find it interesting that I found out about this through Wellsphere, where I am a featured blogger -not that you would ever know that, because I never bothered to put the little picture thingy up here on OSM. Am I now in violation of some regulation?  Eek!  Is the FTC going to come and make an example of little old me?... (I digress).  Yeah, Wellsphere e-mailed me about these new rules. (I knew they would come in useful someday). I did search subsequently and the New York Times did have an article about it a few years ago, and there was some discussion about it mostly on marketing  and reviewers blogs and message boards. I think common-or-garden bloggers such as myself didn't have a clue about it. 

And I wonder how many consumers know?

I am going to jump on a lot of points in this post -and I apologize in advance if this piece seems a bit disjointed, but I am trying to cover as much as I can here, and there is a lot to cover.

This particular set of regulations was last revised in 1980; long before Cher was flogging shampoo, Chuck Norris was pushing excercise equipment, and Billy Mays became famous just for selling anything that wasn't nailed down. It was also long before the Internet took off commercially in the 1990s. The FTC had no real regulations for the WWW and it showed and was exploited for most of the past two decades. So the new rules are long overdue and very much welcome -by me, anyway and I think by anyone who strives towards honesty in their transactions with others.  This change will level the advertising and endorsement playing field.  Now, having said that, Please don't expect everything on the Internet to be true from hereon in. Because I think most scammers will just completely ignore these guidelines, like they ignore the FDA, morals and ethics; maybe thinking that their position overseas or hidden behind a series of front companies/sites will protect them. But at least now you know that you can more freely question 'truths' you find on the internet and report questionable practices to our Uncle Sam. 

Hurray!

But how does it all work?

One point I found mentioned  ...somewhere, is that internet reviewers will now be held to a stricter standard than print reviewers. For example The New York Times (let's say)  book, food or movie critics are not required to disclose in writing if they received the book, meal or movie ticket  they are reviewing for free. A blogger, on the other hand, would have to disclose if the book or product was provided for free and if there were any conditions attached to that gift (i.e. it is only free if you say nice things about it. Or you don't get more free stuff from us UNLESS you say nice stuff about this one (although the latter condition is usually implied rather than spoken, so how do you disclose that?)).   And then I wonder about the NYT critics and other gifts: If our print movie critic gets free popcorn to go with his free movie ticket, does he have to disclose the popcorn, even if the ticket is exempt?  And are there ever any conditions;  written, spoken or nudge-nudge-wink-winked between print reviewers and the people behind the products they review?  It all gets very interesting when you start to dissect this stuff.

And Of COURSE there is my particular bugbear: The whole question of scammers and scam advertising on legitimate sites. I have made my thoughts and feelings on this issue very clear in my open letter to the head of WebMD recently. For a laugh, I wandered around some sites today that I KNOW advertise scammers and did a quick search.  Yes, it is after December 1st, 2009, but most of them are still carrying adverts for both direct and indirect scams.  Nice.  But are they breaking the law?

Sites That Carry Scam Advertising

WebMD.com

About.com

Wrongdiagnosis.com

Amazon.com

Google.com

Yahoo.com

People.com

CNN.com (in fairness, I only found direct scammers here, in my very quick search. Is that better?)

ABC.com

CNBC.com (interesting! see below)

Time.com

Newsweek.com

NYtimes.com (almost all of the scams are there!)

Washingtonpost.com

huffingtonpost.com

Timesonline.com

Irishtimes.com

Foxnews.com

I should have just listed the sites that don't advertise scammers (that I recognized as such, anyway). It is much shorter:

Sites that DON'T Carry Scam Advertisements*

NBC.com

MSNBC.com

BBC.com

Fox.com (no public search available)

CBS.com 

WSJ.com

TheCW.com (no public search available)

I could probably go on and on, but I think I have made my point. Lots and lots of legitimate internet names carry links to scams on their sites. They are paid to do this.

Now I wonder if and how these sites are liable under the new FTC regulations?

The FTC guidelines didn't specifically state that carrying product links or advertisements on a website or blog constitutes endorsement of those products. However, that is the public perception.  Read the comments on my Gordon's piece. Many of the people who bought into those products did so because a search on a legitimate site took them to Gordon's Habitual Scamming Center (through that notorious loophole: "sponsored links"). In my opinion, the legitimate sites who carry these advertisements do and should bear some of the liability burden here.  However the regulations seem to skirt around this issue.  (and I wonder how much lobbying went into the wording thereof? Hmmm)

Another thing I wonder about, in light of the the fact that different rules apply to blogs and print media: The Huffington Post (HP) is technically a blog, whereas I figure NYTimes.com is technically part of the newspaper. Does this mean the NYT carries more exemptions, as mentioned above?  Will the HP bear more liability than NYTimes.com, say if both carried the exact same review worded the exact same way?  What about if both carry exactly the same links or endorsements? 

...And what about broadcast media such as CNN and ABC? Will their site content be regulated differently than their broadcast content? 

And do responsible advertisers such as NBC and MSNBC (but not CNBC.  ...why NBC, why???) get any kind fo kudos for acting properly without a government stick as inspiration?

It's all interesting stuff, right?

Another thought that occurred to me is this one: How the fuck do the FTC plan to enforce these new regulations?  Do they have scores of staff reviewing review sites, or are they relying on consumers to report dodgy reviews? (and if so, how will consumers know what is dodgy and who to tell?) You know, although I really really welcome these new regulations and think they are a very good thing: It all seems rather poorly thought out.

However, it's a lot better than nothing, which is what we had before.

*i.e. advertisements that were immediately recognized by me as scams. However, I don't claim to be the all-encompassing authority on this subject...

Myasthenia Gravis Herbal Remedy Scams

Myasthenia Gravis can happen at any age and is very difficult to treat. This makes  MG sufferers and their families prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with medical problems to exploit for their own gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for Myasthenia Gravis. The product name is linked back to their site. If you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products  legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers, due to a loophole in their advertising policy. 

MG-tab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS)  -more on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming here.

Gravatin by Berlin Homeo Products

Gravitax by Botanical Sources

Greveton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Megnofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Garvical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the so-called "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

myastheniagravis-options.com run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

myastheniagravisproducts.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

myastheniahelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off (I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Look at the comments on my articles).

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.

OSM Investigates: Cure All Remedies Part 1.

As most of you know, I spend a lot of time and energy outing scams. I have outed over 1,300 scams here on OSM in the past few months. All of the scams I have outed so far have been pretty blatant: Companies selling garbage which they know has no chance at all of curing whatever ails you. Their sole purpose is to take your money and maybe insult your intelligence in the process.

I often get asked to investigate various remedies and treatments, to see if they are legitimate or if they too are scams.  I am happy to do this, unless I think the request was made by a distributor of the product looking got get some publicity -either negative or positive. Because there is no such thing as bad publicity, right? There are only links and more links.

So in an attempt to educate the consumer while at the same time NOT giving any links or business to dodgy sites, this is the first of an incidental series in which I will investigate a class of remedies generically, with no names included.  Because most of them are just as scammy in their own way as the targeted scams are, so I don't see why they should get a free ride here.

There are different levels of trickery out there  in the herbal cure world.  There are even some sites which may not be blatant scams, but which sound too good to be true nonetheless. Maybe the seller really believes in the quack theory behind the product they are hawking. Or maybe whoever-it-is falls into the category my Da called "well-meaning idiot"; i.e. someone who genuinely believes something has helped them and will help you. too. Maybe they think this  because they took in when they were coincidentally having a remit in symptoms. Who knows?  But anyone who believes in either evolution or intelligent design will tell you that it is possible to fervently but mistakenly believe in something which may not be true.  Because that is the other side's position.

 So -in addition to the common-or-garden criminal scammers, us sick people also have to be on the alert for quacks and well-meaning idiots (WMIs) on top of everything else

 

How to Spot a Quack or a WMI.

The first indication that a cure may have some inherent quackery or well-meaning idiocy is if it claims to cure a wide variety of illnesses. This is especially true if those illnesses bear no relationship to each other, like those that have completely different underlying mechanisms. For example, some sites may claim that their remedy will cure a long list of medical conditions, including  Multiple Sclerosis, AIDS and Epilepsy.  Let's just take those three and analyze a claim like that:

• MS is an auto-immune disease,
• AIDS is essentially a viral infection 
• Epilepsy is rogue electrical discharges in the brain, usually of unknown cause.

How exactly is one single 'cure' going to address all of these completely different problems?   Think about it. To address an auto-immune disorder you have to suppress the immune system. If you are doing that, then a viral infection like AIDS will go haywire. On the other hand, to fight something like AIDS, you would have to enhance the immune system.  This would cause the MS people a problem as their immune system is causing the MS in the first place and they will therefore likely get worse.

And epilepsy:  well nobody knows the underlying mechanism there, so claiming to cure it is just irresponsible.

Therefore  makes absolutely no sense that one product can cure all three conditions.  Yet the claims are out there, people.  Many of them.

Search and Destroy

Another claim I love, probably my favorite claim of them all, is this little gem:

"Our treatment seeks  out and kills cancer cells, leaving healthy cells intact"

I love these kind of claims. They seem so ... neat. So clean. So efficient.  I imagine someone newly diagnosed who is looking at chemo on one hand and a neat little herbal treatment with "no side effects" on the other, would be tempted to try the herbal pill.  I know I would be.

 But I always take a step back and ask a simple question.

 "How?"

That's right: HOW does the treatment seek out cancer cells?  What criteria does it use to differentiate cancer cells from other cells? And what if it is wrong and mistakes ...say ...my pancreas for cancer?

Seriously:  Let's break down that claim: There are approximately 50-75 TRILLION cells in the human body (let's call it 60 trillion as a nice round number)  and there are over 200 different types of cancers out there.

So  you are telling me that your treatment can run some sort of algorithm  that looks like this:

Find Cell 1

Compare cell 1 to 200+ different types of cancer cells (which is presumably held in come kind of on-board cancer database in the pill itself)

If cancer=yes, then destroy cell 1 (but leave all surrounding cells intact)

Else leave cell 1 intact

GoTo cell 2

Compare Cell 2 to 200+ different types of cancer cells...

...repeat 60 trillion times

Then after the 60 trillionth pass, presumably it should start again from the beginning, because several million cells will have died and been replaced in the meantime.

Take this to the bank from a computer ex-professional: That's an awful lot of computing power to fit into a little pill.  Not that you ever could, of course,  because pills can't actually perform computational logic of the type mentioned. And even if they could; I would have a bunch of questions for the manufacturer, such as:

How do you update the pills for new kinds of cancers as they are discovered? Can they somehow into the wireless network and download them overnight like Windows does?  Or maybe the creators just use Magic, because that's the only other explanation. 

And again: what if it makes a mistake and misses some cancer cells or destroys some healthy cells  like...  Oh,  I don't know... Neurons?   What then?

And another thing:  How was it tested?  And WHO was it tested on?  Mice?  (I mean... seriously. who would actually volunteer to be the first human subject in a trial like that?  Even if you are completely terminal,  how would you know it wouldn't go straight in there and eat your brain?)  

Now don't get me wrong, there are people out there actually WORKING on nanotechnology that will do exactly this kind of thing. Teeny tiny little nanobots that will rove around the body, looking for cancer (and that makes me wonder how the immune system will respond to them?  But that's probably a post for another year).  To imply that a pill, lotion or medicine can perform this kind of computational logic is just plain ridiculous. It goes back to my question to the doctor on how streptococcus knows what age a child is? 

The answer: It doesn't know, because it's a feckin BACTERIUM! It can't think.  Neither can pills, potions capsules or lotions (hey!  I think I feel a Pome coming on)

So yeah.  Claims that a pill or potion can  target and kill a certain type of cell is complete crap. Don't believe a word of it.

Research The Research

Another giveaway on quacks and WMI, is that there is usually no actual published scientific research, just theories and gushing  testimonials.  No studies or clinical trials at all. Well, I'm sorry. if there is no large-scale, double-blind peer reviewed human (as in Home Sapiens. Not mice, plants, frogs or bunny rabbits) study; preferably published in a respected journal,  then the cure isn't proven and you can stop wasting my time, TYVM. 

Sure, some people may have taken your product and felt better. That's called the placebo effect and it is well documented. Or they may have taken it around a time when their condition just happened to take an upturn (because most chronic conditions do tend to wax and wane) and associated your product with that upturn. There are a many reasons why people might *think* it helps. This is why we need objective research. To prove if it really helps and by how much.

Most normal people are afraid to read a research paper; afraid they won't understand it.  This is something scammers LOVE BTW. They like to cobble together any old shite that might look good to an amateur and put it out there as valid research. There are three ways to combat this.

1. Look for peer-review and/or  publication in a valid journal.  If a study is published in The Lancet, JAMA, NEJM, or a similar, well respected publication; chances are it's completely legitimate.
2. Try reading the report anyway and see how you get on. Skim over the science-ese and read the English. Often, if the research is bogus, a regular person will pick up on the details: A classic example is the product name omission in the 'results' section:  "both sexes are equally affected by Vitiligo"   Yeah OK. How many were affected by the PRODUCT, as opposed to the disease you are supposed to be curing?  Also look for discrepancies such as dates. If the product was introduced in 2006, but the study is dated 1997, chances are they study and the product don't quite match.  If the study started out on 30 people, but 50 of them responded to the treatment, well, something is up.
3. Get help. You probably know someone who can read over the study; a sibling, friend, colleague or neighbor.  Ask them to have a look at it for you. They can only say no.

I have seen incidences where false studies have been cobbled together. I have also seen people trying to fob off small-scale animal studies as "proof" that their product is so wonderful.  But these types of studies  are not acceptable to me. Not enough that I would actually ingest any of these products at risk of hurting myself. A study need to be legitimate, which means peer review. A product needs to be tested on people. And I mean properly tested in a controlled double-blind scientific study, where the neither the doctors or patients know who is getting the product and who is getting a sugar pill. That way, their responses can be monitored independently and the results can't be fixed.

 

Hello, FDA?

The FDA regulates conventional and recognized  cures and treatments. It requires proper studies and testing and strict standards of manufacture and auditing.  The FDA does not regulate "herbal supplements".  If a so-called herbal supplement actually turned out to be the cure for anything, I can guarantee you the FDA will be on the manufacturer and will require that the product become fully regulated as a drug, not a supplement.

Many companies will tell you that they are 'avoiding' studies because "if the word gets out"  about their marvelous product the FDA will swoop down and regulate them. I have even heard some of them claim that the FDA will confiscate their product and put it out to market on behalf of the Government.  (Ha!  that is funny! This kind of thing doesn't happen in America). The quack company will then go on to tell you that you had better get in there now and buy their product before the FDA snatches it away from the unsuspecting and deserving public.

This is just spin; smoke and mirrors.  And a very hard sell.

First off:  FDA regulation is a GOOD thing for us consumers. It enforces standards. FDA regulation may be considered "bad" for these manufacturers because it forces them to adhere to certain standards of quality and manufacturing (aww. poor babies! ) and therefore it drives their costs up.

Secondly, FDA regulation means that consumers have recourse under the law if the treatment turns out to be harmful. Right now, if you get poisoned by (say) Parkotab, you are screwed.  You can't bring the weight of the US government or the civil/ criminal courts down on the manufacturer because there is no FDA regulation of that product.  However, if you are hurt by an FDA regulated drug, you have recourse under the law and the FDA can take appropriate action, such as force a recall.

So don't believe any paranoid rantings regarding the FDA that the miracle cure merchants will put out there. Their motive is not to make you well. It is to make money for themselves. 

Selling Books, not cures

This is a topic for a whole 'nother post, but some of the claims out there are in book form. "Buy this book for only $25" and you too will know The Secret to conquer  [insert medical problem here]!".  The interesting thing about these schemes: They can bypass certain laws regarding claims. For example, in the UK it is illegal to sell a pill that claims to cure cancer.  However you can sell a book that claims a "secret" to curing cancer.

Inventive, no?

There will be more on this subject another time.

 

Read the disclaimer:

I love this one, lifted from a miracle cure for something

This treatment has not been evaluated by the FDA. The term "cure," as used in this article, is the alternative medicine definition of "cure"...

Ooooooh!  So we are playing with words now! (I love playing with words!) So  "cure" doesn't mean cure to you.  It means something different. Something alternative.

Okay.

Because when I think of the word "cure" I think of concepts such as "all better" and "no longer sick". When you use the word "cure" you mean ...what, exactly?  Something alternative?  What's the alternative to "cured"? 

Sick?

Dead?  

Do please advise, oh miracle cure purveyor. There is quite a range of possibilities there, not all of them happy-happy.

I hope I have given you some food for thought here. There is a lot more, too, but it is late and I am tired. Stay tuned for part II.

Motor Neuron Disease Herbal Treatment Scams

A serious diagnosis like Motor Neuron Disease (spelled Motor Neurone DIsease in Europe) is usually a shock and the person diagnosed and their friends and families will often go into overdrive to try and "beat" the disease. This zeal makes MND sufferers (and their families) prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with medical problems to exploit for gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for  Motor Neuron Disease, The product name is linked back to their site. If you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products  legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers, due to a loophole in their advertising policy. 

Mototab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS)  -more on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming here.

Ronitin by Berlin Homeo Products

Neuratax by Botanical Sources

Troneton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Neunofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Motical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the so-called "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.  There are multiple versions of all of these sites, identical except for the disease and product names.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

Motorneuron-options.com run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

mndproducts.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

mndhelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off (I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Look at the comments on my articles).

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.

Guillain-Barre Herbal Treatment Scams

Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is thought to be rare, and is therefore little understood within the medical community (or most other communities,  for that matter).  There are not too many experts in GBS available and treatment is expensive and well, confusing. Therefore many people with GBS may try to find a treatment outside of mainstream medicine. This makes GBS sufferers (and their families)  prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with medical problems to exploit for their own gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product
  
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The product name is linked back to the scam site. However, if you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products  legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers, due to a loophole in their advertising policy. 

Guillatab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS)  -more on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations, is here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming is here.

Baritin by Berlin Homeo Products

Gabratax by Botanical Sources

Barbeton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Gebnofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Nebrical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the self-styled "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

guillainbarre-options.com run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

gbs-products.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

gbshelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off (I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Look at the comments on my articles).

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.

Emphysema / COPD Scams

Emphysema is a factor in the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition that limits the flow of air when you breathe out. Emphysema occurs when the air sacs at the ends of your smallest air passages (bronchioles) are gradually destroyed. Smoking is the leading cause of emphysema.

As it worsens, emphysema turns the spherical air sacs — clustered like bunches of grapes — into large, irregular pockets with gaping holes in their inner walls. This reduces the number of air sacs and keeps some of the oxygen entering your lungs from reaching your bloodstream. In addition, the elastic fibers that hold open the small airways leading to the air sacs are slowly destroyed, so that they collapse when you breathe out, not letting the air in your lungs escape.

Airway obstruction, another feature of COPD, contributes to emphysema. The combination of emphysema and obstructed airways makes breathing increasingly difficult. Treatment often slows, but doesn't reverse, the process. (Source: the Mayo Clinic)

Because Emphysema/COPD is difficult to treat, many people try to find a treatment outside of mainstream medicine. This makes COPD sufferers prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with medical problems to exploit for their own gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product
  
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for Emphysema and COPD. The product name is linked back to their site. If you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products  legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers, due to a loophole in their advertising policy. 

Emphotab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS)  -more on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming here.

Emphotin by Berlin Homeo Products

Hismatax by Botanical Sources

Hysmeton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Phenofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Physmical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the so-called "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

Emphysema-options.com run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

Emphysema-products.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

Emphysemahelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off (I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Look at the comments on my articles).

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.

Keloids Scam Products: Warning

Keloids effect many people and is characterized by scarring. It can vary from isolated lesions to widespread scarring.  There is no cure and few treatments.

Furthermore, because Keloids are often considered to be a cosmetic problem, insurance often will not cover treatment. Therefore, many people try to find a treatment outside of mainstream medicine. This makes people with Keloids prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with tricky medical problems to exploit for their own gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product site
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for Keloids, The product name is linked back to their site. If you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers. There is a huge loophole in their advertising policy. 

Kelotab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS). There ismore on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming here.

Loditin by Berlin Homeo Products

Declarex by Botanical Sources

Kleneton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Kelnofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Lodical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the so-called "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

keloids-options.com is run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

keloidsproducts.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

keloidshelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off. Unfortunately, I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Just read some of the comments and you will see what I mean.

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.