FTC Notices That Diet Pill Spammer's Diet Pills Don't Work

from the next-thing-you-know,-they'll-be-telling-us-that-the-moon-isn't-made-of-cheese dept

Mon, Aug 27th 2007 3:59am — Mike Masnick

Last week, the FTC announced that a judge had shut down the operation of a diet pill spammer after it turned out (shockingly, we know) that the claims made by the spammers about the pills were either completely false or (at best) unsubstantiated. While the spammers were in violation of the CAN SPAM law, it would seem that they should be in violation of other fraud regulations as well, such as false advertising. Of course, with so much spamming going overseas these days, perhaps what's more amazing is that these guys were in the US and it was possible to find them in order to shut them down. We're sure someone somewhat less easily shut down will quickly fill in the void.

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Filed Under: diet pills, ftc, spam
Companies: ftc

24 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 27 Aug 2007 @ 4:57am

Lying spammers
Not only will the pill cut your wieght by up to 3,000 lbs, it will also make your "p3n1$" THREE FEET LONG!
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Just Me, 27 Aug 2007 @ 5:49am

1st Post
WOW!! Really??!! Where do I get these miraculous pills??
Can someone post a link??

What gets me with all this spam crap is that people still fall for this stuff. If a company sends out 100K emails and got Zero response they would stop sending emails.
It's all those dumb ___'s out there clicking this links that are keeping spam coming. So long as those suckers keep clicking links we'll all keep getting spam.

Also, there was a case not too long ago of a company out in BC selling such pills. Turns out they had traces of (among other things) human feces in them.
After seeing that I'm darn sure I'll never buy pill sof the web (not that I would have to begin with).
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Mark, 27 Aug 2007 @ 6:18am

Re: 1st Post
"Also, there was a case not too long ago of a company out in BC selling such pills. Turns out they had traces of (among other things) human feces in them."

It's not that disturbing. The FDA allows for some PPM % to be in food and such, I'll see if I can dig up the link. It's a good read, especially when you get to the rodent feces and expired insect PPM.
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Overcast, 27 Aug 2007 @ 7:05am

LOL, Wow... the FTC FINALLY noticed that??
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Just Me, 27 Aug 2007 @ 7:10am

3rd Post
"It's not that disturbing. The FDA allows for some PPM % to be in food and such, I'll see if I can dig up the link. It's a good read, especially when you get to the rodent feces and expired insect PPM."

...Lovely.

In a disturbing, I think I'm gunna puke sort of way.
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TheDock22, 27 Aug 2007 @ 9:10am

Like this will stop spammers....
Supposedly jailing the biggest spammer in the US was suppose to stop spam. It didn't, in fact my spam filter at work easily gets twice the amount of spam it used to.

Now they fine these people, which is supposed to help to stop spam, but it won't. Sometimes I think the government is going about this wrong. I say make spamming illegal, with severe jail time. That will reduce it in the US.

Oh and the post about The FDA allows for some PPM % to be in food and such does NOT apply to feces, it applies to rodent hair (with the threat of hantavirus the FDA would never allow feces from any animal). Here is the link to the percentages (http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/06/29/how_many_insect_parts_and_rodent_hairs_are_allowed_in_y our_food.htm)
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Just Me, 27 Aug 2007 @ 9:23am

6th Post
"it applies to rodent hair (with the threat of hantavirus the FDA would never allow feces from any animal)"

Well, now I feel...slightly...less queasy.

Thanks Dock.
Always nice to read such things over lunch :-P
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Oliver Wendell Jones, 27 Aug 2007 @ 9:44am

Read This And Lose Weight!
If you read this posting you can lose weight!*

That's right, all you have to do is eat healthy, adopt a regular exercise routine and read this posting as little as 3 times per day!*

Don't need to lose weight? No problem, this same posting can reduce the appearance of age lines*, male pattern baldness*, general ugliness*, and much more*!

Call 1-800-fake-pills now to receive a free sample (credit card required so we can sign you up for a subscription to our worthless pills and continue to send them to you and bill you outrageous amounts while you struggle to find a phone number to cancel your subscription and good luck getting through to our one operator who works 3-4 minutes per week, and btw, you can't return the pills to us because we package them in such a way you could easily tamper with them, so we can't refund the money we've already taken)

*The statements regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. N-yah, n-yah, you can't sue us for fraud as we covered our butts with a disclaimer!
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TheDock22, 27 Aug 2007 @ 9:51am

Re: 6th Post
Well, if you noticed, the article said rodent hair is actually pretty nutritious for you. Eat up! =)
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soxgal, 27 Aug 2007 @ 10:07am

Re: Like this will stop spammers....
Since most prolific spammers are very good at forging message headers, playing mail server roulette and vanishing before you can trace the message origin, making UCE illegal in the United States won't do anything to stop spam. Not to mention that the U.S. has no jurisdiction outside its borders. Good luck in finding, trying and convicting offshore spammers.

People need to learn to use their "delete" option. As time consuming as it is, simply deleting spam messages is more efficient than investing time in tracing headers and reporting abuse to all ISPs in the chain.
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Jacob Buck, 27 Aug 2007 @ 10:21am

Re: Re: Like this will stop spammers....
Get Gmail, you'll never see a spam message again, its filter catches them all.
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GoblinJuice, 27 Aug 2007 @ 10:25am

Not sure about these pills in particular, but diet pills - those containing ephedra, which is now banned - do work. =)

The two principle products being sold by the company are so-called precursor HGH, which is claimed to stimulate the release and/or production of your body's HGH, and diet pills containing Hoodia.

If it's a supplement or herb or an OTC performance enhancer, I've probably tried it - as long as I've heard something good about it. (Trust me, you don't want to see how many empty buckets of whey and creatine I have. =))

I've never heard anything good, from a reputable source, about hoodia.

As for the precursor HGH, it never made any damn sense to me... so I never bothered to try it. HGH is one thing, the so-called precursors are another all together.
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TheDock22, 27 Aug 2007 @ 10:28am

Re: Re: Re: Like this will stop spammers....
Get Gmail, you'll never see a spam message again, its filter catches them all.

Well I was talking about a company e-mail server. Gmail isn't allowed. But I do have gmail for a personal account and still get 5 - 10 e-mails that sneak by per week (which is still better than Yahoo).

No system is 100% reliable.
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GoblinJuice, 27 Aug 2007 @ 10:54am

Re: Read This And Lose Weight!
Hm.... General ugliness, you say? What about specific ugliness?

Specifically, me? =D
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Mr. Vage, 27 Aug 2007 @ 12:08pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Like this will stop spammers....
Really? 5-10 per week? I've had my Gmail account for 3 years and only 2 spam emails have ended up in my inbox.
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John (profile), 27 Aug 2007 @ 12:38pm

Two points
First, to all the people who say they never receive any spam in their Inbox:
1) How long have you had your address?
2) How many places do you use your address?

If you just set up your account last week, then of course you won't get any spam.
If you only use your address to talk to friends (and never post it on any website, anywhere), then of course you won't get spam.

If you're like the rest of us who have had e-mail addresses for a while or use them on sites that require valid e-mails, then you'll get spam.
And, yes, gmail delivers spam to my Inbox at the rate of about 5 messages per week. Admittedly, this is FAR better than Yahoo, which delivers 10-15 spam messages to my Inbox every 2 or 3 days.

The second point is what one of the above posters already mentioned:
Who are these people who keep clicking on spam messages and buying this junk? This point can't be stressed enough: if people didn't but these "products" then the spammers wouldn't have any income. If they had no income, spamming people would become worthless and they would look for other work.
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GoblinJuice, 27 Aug 2007 @ 2:41pm

Re: Two points
You're also forgetting what I call the "brute force method" of spamming. (I'm sure spammers have a different, more professional sounding name for it. Ha.) Basically, it's firstnamelastname@domain.com and variations.

Example: BobJones@gmail.com, BJones@gmail.com, BobJ@gmail.com, Bob.Jones@gmail.com, etc, etc. (Sorry to Bob Jones, if there really is one. =))

If you were the sorry schmuck that had that acct, you could keep the addy to yourself... but you'd still get spam. And some would slip right thru the filters.

Spam, like junk mail, is part of life. Sure, there are steps you can take to reduce most of it, but... eh... c'est la vie.
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Diet Pills, 16 Apr 2009 @ 4:00am

Dont Waste Your Money!!
You can try using adipex for weight loss. The best way to lose weight is to find some good diet pills and choose one that has the best reviews. I know several people who have lost a lot of weight with phentermine, and a good exercise program.
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Cora, 9 Feb 2010 @ 6:21pm

Re: Dont Waste Your Money!!
I'm on adipex too...I have used adipex to lose weight and it is really effective for me. I ordered it online in www.medsheaven.com
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Lucy, 13 Feb 2010 @ 6:54pm

I've tried various low-carb, low-calorie, and low-fat diets for the past couple of years. Although the Atkins diet is very popular, it made me feel somewhat unhealthy.

The diet plan I'm on right now is the Medifast Diet. The caloric intake is roughly 800-1000 calories. However, it doesn't make my body feel weak. It is a bit of a pricey diet, but there are plenty of coupons available on the internet.http://www.swoopup.com/stores/deals/Medifast-Diet

.You should never pay full price.

My advice is just choose a diet plan which your body reacts positively to. No one knows your body better than you do!
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qiangqiang, 23 Jul 2010 @ 6:58pm

As you probably know already, it’s not easy losing weight. Life is fast paced and stressful and the temptation to grab unhealthy food is everywhere. Setting aside time to exercise and to think about healthy food can be difficult. Well there is some good news. If you have ever had trouble losing weight and then keeping it off, consider looking at the best diet pills available. Then you should think where you should find the goods to fit you! You visit the right article; I will offer you a useful web: www.2daydiet-green.com you can find any item which you request! So lose weight is not a dreanm,I believe you can lose weight success.
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Lorqess, 30 Aug 2010 @ 2:57pm

Diet Pills
Yes for some diet pills are totally dangerous, that is why you must see a doctor and only use prescription based pills under a doctor's guidance. They should only be used when the health problems they will improve will overshadow any side effects.
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Contrave, 19 Dec 2010 @ 4:59pm

Well dispite differing opinions it is hard to stop the big balls from rolling, in this case the FDA and how they gave a medicine called Contrave the go ahead as a prescription diet pill. I think perhaps 0.001% of people could actually use this but it will instead be swallowed by teenage girls who are already underweight.
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