Anatomy Of A Penis Pill Swindle

from the enlarge-this dept

If you get spam, and you probably do, you've almost definitely received plenty of messages offering to enlarge certain anatomical assets... some of which you might not have, depending on your gender. MSNBC, continuing their "all scams, all the time" coverage, has the story behind one such company pitching these pills via spam that has been shut down. First, the stunning part. They actually sold $74 million worth of this crap. The company sold penis enlargement and breast enlargement pills, along with pills to make you taller, hairier or to improve your golf game. The company made 90% of their revenue selling the penis pills, though. To the surprise of absolutely no one, researchers discovered that all of the pills were exactly the same. Despite claims on the website, there was no scientific proof that the pills did anything - and, in fact, the ingredients were chosen by looking at other similar products on the web and choosing similar ingredients. Even worse, most people admit that the company wouldn't have been shut down if they hadn't also been fraudulently charging customers' credit cards after they had called to cancel their "auto delivery" of more such pills. So, let's see... the company was selling bogus pills with bogus claims on their website, they were spamming, and they were fraudulently charging credit cards. Sounds like a real winning organization. Meanwhile, the FTC ignored this case because they felt that there was no immediate harm being cause to those suckers who bought into the claims. Instead it was local authorities in Arizona who finally took the company down.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Jun 2003 @ 11:14pm

    What will the next generation bring?

    Back in the 19th century, Sears mail order catalogs advertised magnetic shoe inserts that were supposed to cure cupidity (i.e. boys who flapped their wings with other boys), do-it-yourself hysterectomy kits in which fathers on the Western frontier could cure their hysterical adolescent daughters.

    Yeah, how about pills that either cause or cure cupidity? If it works too well, gays might even join the NRA.


    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2003 @ 12:49am

    Re: What will the next generation bring?

    H-h-h-he said p-p-p-penis!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 6 Jun 2003 @ 7:44am

    Yeah, yeah

    Yeah, yeah, that's all well and good... where do I sign up to get my refund?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    bbay, 6 Jun 2003 @ 9:59am

    Re: What will the next generation bring?

    I thought "cupidity" was greediness.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Michael Ward, 6 Jun 2003 @ 10:36am

    Spam and Pills

    This morning's spammail brought four ads for penis pills. They're so obviously fraudulent that it makes you lose any faith in the FTC that you might have had. Has the FTC ever explained why they haven't gone after these people?

    Michael Ward
    http://www.hidden-knowledge.com

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Mike (profile), 6 Jun 2003 @ 11:07am

    Re: Spam and Pills

    Has the FTC ever explained why they haven't gone after these people?

    In the article they basically say that since there's no direct "health risk" from these pills, they're focused on other scams instead.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Jun 2003 @ 6:59am

    Why the flying Fsck would anyone want a larger uni

    I mean really... the purpose of the male "unit", as far as I can tell, is to facilitate the endrophine cascade that ensues upon successful release of genetic material.

    I this technical analysis, please note that the female of the species is not a requirement (besides, I know plenty of females who the *dread* the prospect of an encounter with a "unit" too large... the subsquent required appesiamoity is not exactly a turn on).

    One of the things watching way too much pr0n has taught me is that large units are far more difficult to errect... why the hell would anyone want to be dependant on viagra to get to that final destination?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Super Pimp, 8 Jun 2003 @ 6:16pm

    Re: Why the flying Fsck would anyone want a larger

    Do they have one that will work on my small asion penis? It's really small man...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    LittleW0lf, 9 Jun 2003 @ 8:23pm

    Re: Why the flying Fsck would anyone want a larger

    Can someone define appesiamoity for me, I cannot find it in a dictionary, even my newest unabbriged version...

    An email would suffice...

    link to this | view in thread ]


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