Top Ten Scams of 2007 - Kevin Trudeau
Maureen Drueck
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/12/top_ten_scams.html
Top Ten Scams of 2007
Old reliables and nervy newcomers fleece rich and poor alike
By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.Com
December 10, 2007
The Federal Trade Commission tells us that scams hit 30.2 million
adults -- 13.5 percent of the adult population -- during the last year
for which it has added up its complaints.
While the FTC's latest figures are for 2006, there's certainly no
reason to think the number declined in 2007. Human ingenuity is
constantly on the prowl, after all, seeking new ways to fleece the
unwary, the gullible and those looking to get rich quickly.
But of course it's not just the greedy and the gullible who get taken.
The poor and desperate are also falling victim to modern-day bandits -
those in grimy boiler rooms as well as corporate board rooms.
The dictionary definition of a "scam" is "a fraudulent business scheme
designed to make a quick profit." In making our list and checking it
twice, we combed our database of nearly 300,000 consumer complaints to
find the scams that made great strides forward, roping in new victims
and increasing their take in 2007.
So, here they are -- ConsumerAffairs.com's Top 10 Scams of 2007:
1. Weight Loss Scams
And, of course, marketing maestro Kevin Trudeau got in on the act. The
FTC accused Trudeau and marketers of his book, "The Weight Loss Cure
They Don't Want You to Know About," of misrepresenting the book's
contents in their infomercial. The ad claims that the weight-loss plan
outlined in the book is easy to do, can be done at home, and
ultimately allows readers to eat whatever they want.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/health/trudeau.html
(links and complaints)
Feds Sue Trudeau Marketers
* Feds Sue Infomercial Maestro Kevin Trudeau Again
* FTC: Dietary Supplements Don't Deliver
* Trudeau Sells Customer Names to Junk Mailers
* Judge Refuses to Gag Trudeau Critics
* Consumer Agency Trashes Trudeau's "Natural Cures" Book
* Kevin Trudeau Banned from Infomercials
* Supreme Greens, Coral Calcium Daily Give FTC Indigestion
* Coral Calcium Promoters Face Federal Charges
* Coral Calcium Claims Debunked
---
* Consumer complaints about Trudeau
* Trudeau Defenders
=====
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/22/AR2005102201272_pf.html
Trudeau, who has sold millions of books by touting the curative
properties of things such as magnetic toe rings and crocodile protein
peptide, believes the sole thing keeping his brain from being
"microwaved from the inside out" by cell phones and radio waves is
this electromagnetic whatever. We are intrigued.
"Would you like to see this magical device?"
Over the dress shirt is a butter-colored tie that precisely matches
the pocket square tucked into his luxury Brioni suit. He wears
alligator shoes. On his left wrist is a Rolex Masterpiece dripping
with diamonds, and on his right ring finger is a rock so big a child
could choke on it.
But back to the microwaved-brain problem. Trudeau parts his shirt and
reveals a necklace with a disk of metal hanging on it. Glory of
glories! So flimsy, yet so powerful. This is the vaunted
electromagnetic chaos eliminator. It is called a Q-Link, and for a
while lots of celebrities were supposedly into it, before they joined
the Kabbalah bracelet craze.
Beneath the Q-Link is another necklace with a black triangle pendant.
This is yet another electromagnetic chaos eliminator, and we stop
Trudeau as he's closing his shirt and ask him about it. Trudeau says
he's not sure exactly what it's made of or what it does; supposedly it
offers some sort of balancing "vibration." He's just trying it out to
see if it works, he says, sounding a little sheepish.
If that fails, the book advises you to try Scientology.
From Kirstie to Mikhail
Trudeau is a remarkable American success story in the grand tradition
of traveling salesmen with cure-all potions. He could sell you your
own shirt and leave you grateful for the bargain.
When he talks, his hazel eyes get big and he taps his listener on the
knee. He claims he knows important people in important places. He says
he was just on the phone with Kirstie Alley. He says he met Mikhail
Gorbachev, "fascinating guy."
He's a victim. He's a martyr. He's just trying to help his fellow man.
He hasn't been sick in 25 years and he's going to stay healthy till
150 and he might run for president one day because "there's 25 million
people that would probably vote for me."
He is like a magician; you're watching his hands and all of a sudden
there's some confetti and a woman in a bathing suit and when you look
back, lo and behold, there's a dove. When you ask Trudeau over and
over for proof of his "natural cures," he says his studies are
unpublished; he says he doesn't believe in studies; he says the
studies are in the book -- but they're not there. They're never there.
Watch the hands.
He does an infomercial with Tammy Faye Bakker Messner and manages to
seem utterly reasonable.
He makes the credit-card fraud and larceny he committed in his
twenties sound like no big deal.
Trudeau, who now lives in Ojai, Calif., east of Santa Barbara, grew up
near Boston. He says his dad was a welder and his mom a housewife. He
went to his first Amway meeting at 15, and there learned he wanted to
be "financially free." He started a mail-order business, which he says
netted him a $1 million profit by the time he was 18.
After high school he sold cars, then joined the seminar circuit,
offering techniques to help people improve their memories. It was
during this period that he says he got caught up in the fast life and
making money. In 1990, he pleaded guilty to depositing $80,000 in
worthless checks. In the sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said he
impersonated a doctor when he met with bank officials. Trudeau says he
served fewer than 30 days.
In 1991, he pleaded guilty to obtaining and fraudulently using 11
credit cards and served close to two years in federal prison.
Trudeau, now 42, has several explanations for his crimes: They were
youthful indiscretions and not as bad as they sound, and besides, both
were partly the fault of other people, and besides, he has changed.
The larceny he explains as a series of math errors compounded by the
"mistake" of a bank official. As for why the bank thought he was a
doctor, that was just a simple misunderstanding, because he jokingly
referred to himself as a "doctor in memory."
He still can't quite believe he was prosecuted. "Give me a break," he
says.
The fraud he says he committed because he paid a bill late, which led
to American Express giving him a bad credit rating, which just wasn't
right. After that, no one would give him a credit card, which was
"insane," so he had little choice but to apply for cards with fake
Social Security numbers.
According to officials at the time, Trudeau also misappropriated for
his own use credit card numbers belonging to customers who'd signed up
for his memory improvement courses. The man formerly known as "Mr.
Mega Memory" says he doesn't think he did that, but adds that was a
"very blurry time in my history with all the stress."
He calls that prosecution "outrageous" and says American Express and
the prosecutor had it in for him, rather like he believes the federal
government has it in for him now.
"It was a sad day because I remember walking into the courtroom and
above the courtroom it says these words which are completely untrue:
'Hall of Justice,' " Trudeau says, relaxing in the hotel suite with
fresh fruit and magnetic water nearby. "And I thought, 'This is not
the Hall of Justice because this is not justice. This should say 'Hall
of the Technicalities of the Law.' Where's the justice? Where's King
Solomon? But I said, 'Y'know, I've been focused on making money and
what I did was wrong -- even though it wasn't a heinous crime and I
could justify it nine different ways.' "
In any case, in prison "everything got reprioritized," and Trudeau
says he decided to stop focusing on money. He became buddies with a
visiting Lubavitch rabbi. He decided to try out being Jewish (he'd
gone to Catholic schools) and found out about "corruption in the
Department of Justice" when he had difficulty getting kosher food.
He decided his new mission was to help people. (The Jewish thing
didn't last.)
'One of the Best Salespeople'
In prison on the West Coast, Trudeau hooked up with a fellow inmate
named Jules Leib, who was in for attempted distribution of cocaine. He
gave Leib some self-help books. When they got out, they went into
business together, making infomercials and selling health products as
distributors for an Amway-type multilevel marketing company called
Nutrition for Life. Right away the trouble started.
David Bertrand, the former president of Nutrition for Life, remembers
Trudeau listening to motivational tapes "incessantly." He says Trudeau
was "brilliant" and "one of the best salespeople I've ever known," and
recalls that in 1996 the company nearly tripled its sales in large
part because of Trudeau. The man could sell because he seemed to
really believe in what he was saying, Bertrand says, but he repeatedly
took it too far.
Bertrand says he became concerned that Trudeau was making overly
optimistic promises to potential distributors about how much profit
they could make. "We had a number of conferences where we asked him to
cool it," Bertrand says. "It scared us."
At one point, Bertrand says, he learned that Trudeau had promised free
trips to entice people to sign up as distributors. The trips never
materialized, there were complaints, and Nutrition for Life had to
step in, says Bertrand, and fund a weekend cruise for thousands of
people.
"At the time he made the promise he fully intended to comply,"
Bertrand says. "He always intends to but he kind of gets carried away
in his exuberance."
In 1996, the state of Illinois sued Trudeau and Leib, accusing them of
operating an illegal pyramid scheme. The men wound up settling with
Illinois and seven other states after agreeing to change their
tactics. Trudeau and Leib split up, though Leib still speaks fondly of
the former "life coach" who introduced him to the magic of multilevel
marketing.
"He's probably one of the brightest guys you'll ever meet," says Leib.
"He gave me Anthony Robbins's 'Awaken the Giant Within.' " (Later,
Leib encourages a reporter to try supplements. "I'm on this great
liquid," he says.)
In 1998, Trudeau paid half a million dollars to settle a Federal Trade
Commission complaint that several infomercials he helped create were
false and misleading. The products included a "hair farming system"
that -- according to the infomercial -- was supposed to "finally end
baldness in the human race," and "a breakthrough that in 60 seconds
can eliminate" addictions, purportedly discovered when a certain "Dr.
Callahan" was "studying quantum physics."
In 2003, the FTC came after Trudeau again. The complaint and a
separate contempt action centered on two products, one of which, Coral
Calcium Supreme, was being billed as a cure for cancer, according to
the FTC. Trudeau's guest on the infomercial, a man named Robert
Barefoot, went so far as to claim that in cultures that consume a lot
of calcium, people are so healthy "they don't even have children until
they're in their seventies when they're mature enough to handle kids."
This time, said FTC attorney Heather Hippsley, the settlement was
"unprecedented" in its scope. In addition to paying $2 million (in
part by handing over his $180,000 Mercedes Benz), Trudeau agreed not
to do any more infomercials selling products or services. The only
thing he would be permitted to sell on-air was "informational
publications," and he has greater leeway with what he can say in those
because of his right to free speech.
Hence, the book.
Trudeau points out that his settlements were not admissions of
wrongdoing. His attorney, David Bradford, suggests that the terms of
the most recent settlement weren't terribly punitive -- indeed, this
was a direction Trudeau wanted to take anyway.
"Trudeau had made an independent decision that he really wanted to
focus on being an author and consumer advocate," Bradford says.
Still, in his book, Trudeau claims repeatedly that he's the victim of
censorship. He likens the government to the Gestapo. He compares
himself to Rosa Parks and Gandhi. He says because of "this FTC
suppression" he can't recommend specific products to cure his readers'
illnesses.
However, he says, readers can join his Web site. For just $9.99 a
month or $499 for a lifetime, they can gain access to the special
members-only section, and there they can e-mail him and he'll reveal
his secrets.
'They Know That I Know'
Trudeau says he has considerable proof of the conspiracy working
against the health of the citizens of this nation, but the nation will
have to take it on faith. He says there are "government agencies" and
"entire industries" that are spending "billions of dollars" to keep
people sick so they can continue to make money. He says he has Nobel
Prize winners as informants.
"I can't mention their names," he says. "There's a lot of insiders
that I know, that are friends of mine, but I can't mention their names
because one of the reasons why I was capable of writing this book was
I have so many insiders that give me the information. . . . And this
is why everyone in Washington is frightened to death, and that's why
the government is trying to shut me up. Because they know that I know.
They know I've been in the meetings. You know what it's like? It's
kind of like I've got the black book with everyone's names. And they
know: This guy starts naming names, it's going to be out of control."
Readers will have to trust that Trudeau knows of a doctor who found a
cure for AIDS, and that another doctor "discovered a serum that
virtually made cancer tumors vanish in 90 minutes" but "was completely
shut down by the FDA." Trudeau never names these doctors. He says
"researchers have concluded that speaking the correct form of words
and thinking the correct thoughts actually changes a person's DNA,"
but he never reveals who these researchers are.
Readers will have to take it on faith that Trudeau will soon be
putting proceeds from the book and the Web site into nonprofit groups
dedicated to teaching natural remedies and suing the government.
They'll have to trust that they don't really need medications their
doctors have prescribed and that the supplements they're ordering over
the Internet will work.
They'll also have to ignore the places where Trudeau stretches the
truth: What appears to be a back cover endorsement from a former FDA
commissioner is actually a 35-year-old quote. Quotes inside are
purportedly from Bill Gates in a television interview, but Trudeau
puts more words in Gates's mouth. ("I paraphrased," Trudeau says.)
Trudeau's book appeals to a nation that has been disillusioned by
managed health care, by rushed and impersonal doctors, by diseases
that didn't use to be diseases except these days everything has a name
and a pill to go with it. Ask your doctor if it's right for you.
Those who report success with Trudeau's book say they're discovering
that they've been overmedicated. They've cut down on this or that drug
for this or that minor problem and discovered they never needed it.
They've tried the book's most conservative recommendations -- eating
organic foods, taking supplements, cutting out sodas -- and write in
to say they've lost weight. Few appear to be curing their muscular
dystrophy, or reporting success with magnetic toe rings.
Some people post angry reviews on Amazon.com, saying they feel "ripped
off" and "gullible" for buying "Natural Cures."
Some vacillate.
"It's a scary step to take," says Joyce Nuuhiwa, 61, who lives in
Honolulu and has Type 2 diabetes. Nuuhiwa has read Trudeau's book, and
she's considering quitting both her medications and trying a
combination of herbs that Trudeau advises. (He writes in the book that
this diabetes "cure" was discovered at the University of Calgary, but
officials there say they've never discovered any such thing.)
Nuuhiwa is disappointed by what her doctor said -- that the disease is
progressive, that eventually she'll have to be on insulin. She wants
to believe the diabetes is reversible, and frankly, she doesn't trust
everything doctors tell her. She suspects, for example, that there's
already a cure for cancer, that Trudeau is right about the conspiracy.
But she's not sure if he's right about her diabetes.
She says there's something "slick" about him that makes her uneasy.
"If I could be assured that he's totally honest I would be diving into
this, but this is my life I'm talking about," she says.
He is slick, but somehow likable, too. He curses and does voice
imitations. He is attractive, if not handsome, and people say he's
popular with the ladies. He says he has a girlfriend who's almost 20
years younger; she's a student and part-time model.
He says he lives out his healthy living convictions. He says he
recently got back from an ashram. He says he carries a shower filter
with him wherever he goes, to eliminate the fluoride and chlorine he
considers poisonous. After a few hours with Trudeau, you think maybe
it's not all just a show. Maybe he really believes he's offering
cures. Then he says this about that funny-looking necklace he wears,
the electromagnetic chaos eliminator:
"If it doesn't work, what's the harm?"
He reveals that when he was young he used to perform magic tricks at
kids' birthday parties.
Watch the hands.
"Kevin wouldn't allow us to have Equal in the office," says Janine
Contursi, who briefly dated Trudeau in the 1980s and then worked for
him in the '90s. She remembers that once, when she worked for him, she
threw out her back, and Trudeau spent "thousands of dollars" to send
her to an alternative health clinic. There, she was offered tips on
positive thinking.
Her back did get better, she says. But it could have been because of
the chiropractors.
Libby Copeland will discuss this article at noon tomorrow
athttp://www.washingtonpost.com/liveonline
(c) 2005 The Washington Post Company
------
Kevin Trudeau - Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About
Scientology Cures Cancer, Diabetes, MS, ADHD, Depression, Crohn's
Disease, Obesity, and Other Diseases?
Aug 04 '05 (Updated Dec 15 '06)
While some evidence is given to "prove" these rants, they are mostly
listed at the opinions of the author. However, the author himself
makes himself to sound as an authority on the subject and very
believable. Throughout these sections, there are references that also
sound Christian in nature as a means to heal one's self. References to
controlling your thought life, essentially renewing your mind and so
forth are listed, and because of the verbiage, I really thought that
Kevin Trudeau was actually using this book as a Biblical witnessing
tool to promote Christianity.
However, I have to say though that assumption was absolutely false. In
Chapter 6 which gives you a untold list of things to "do" to allow
one's body to heal itself -- it states without a reason of a doubt
that Dianetics/Scientology is the way to go if you want to be healed
of all diseases.
Recommendations
I do not recommend purchase of this book. Here are the reasons why:
1. Scientology Based -- I guess that's enough said. This book appears
to be "Christian" but is actually appears in my opinion to be a book
to promote scientology. There are numerous references to Scientology
related web sites, books, and materials to "cure" you.
2. Off Topic - Most of the information that is contained in this book
is a rant or repetition of verbiage that is mentioned in other parts
of the book. In addition, as mentioned before, the book seems to be
more of a rant against the government, drug companies, media and so
forth -- which I believe to be true overall, but this book was
supposed to be about natural cures -- not rants about the "mafia"
conspiracy of our nation.
=====
Support of the Church of Scientology
In Natural Cures, Trudeau recommends practicing Scientology/Dianetics
to live a healthier lifestyle. It is uncertain whether he is a
Scientologist himself, as he doesn't openly promote himself as such.
However, a private report from a Southern California Scientologist
interviewed by him for a job within his "Shop America/TruStar" direct
marketing organization (as solicited by Mya Borgman, CEO of The People
Link Corporation, a Scientologist-run personnel agency based in
Sylmar, California) at his personal residence in Ojai, California
during 2003 indicate that Trudeau was attempting to petition receiving
the Church of Scientology's Upper-Level materials through their
internal Ethics departments and Office of Special Affairs. (One
barrier to his receiving Scientology services was his past felony
record and imprisonment - aside from his questionable business
practices as scrutinized by the Federal Trade Commission and others.)
It is possible that he mentions Scientology as an alternative to
psychiatrists due to the latter's practice, in his opinion, of merely
prescribing a drug that suppresses the symptoms rather than treating
the cause.
A call to Trudeau's Customer Service reveals that Trudeau does not
belong to any religion at all, and merely takes certain aspects from
religions as he sees fit.
Maureen
roger gonnet
news:f014c90e-8005-475f...@y5g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>
> http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/12/top_ten_scams.html
>
> Top Ten Scams of 2007
> Old reliables and nervy newcomers fleece rich and poor alike
excellent. We'll soon see more of the blueballs. I've sent come complaint
against some other similar scam in France and french speaking countries, I'd
bet that someone imited the clam from the blueballs...
>
> By Mark Huffman
> ConsumerAffairs.Com
>
> December 10, 2007
>
> The Federal Trade Commission tells us that scams hit 30.2 million
> adults -- 13.5 percent of the adult population -- during the last year
> for which it has added up its complaints.
.../...snip excellent ...