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jdh
August 3rd, 2007, 04:49 AM
The other thread about www.mercola.com reminded me of this scam:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cat007.com

It was run under the fake name of Dr. Jon Brooks. He claimed to be a multimillionaire retired oncologist. He was actually an ex-con, Stewart Faison [sp?], I think. I think he had previously been convicted on stock fraud. He may now be back in prison. I haven't kept up with the story.

He ran a very slick cover:

He set up a system for pro-dietary supplement people to automatically petition congress when restrictive laws on dietary supplements were being considered by congress.

He ran the above web site with a lot of apparently actually valid info on alternative medicine that he collected from a number of places.

He never accepted ads on his site.

He set up a sort of dietary supplement pharmacy on the web (with the help of real or imaginary? accomplices) offering supposed cheap high quality dietary supplements claiming to be a totally separate operation run by a chemist friend of his, and also took donations to help the poor afford dietary supplements.

Only after his site had been running for some years (and he had gained the confidence many people) did he start to promote some supplements that he had supposedly stumbled across that his wife had been using, etc. A weight loss supplement and a rejuvenating skin cream.

He promoted the supplements under the guise that he was actually collecting scientific data from the buyers and analyzing the results.

He also tried to project an image of openness and honesty by "admitting" that he indulged in whiskey and tobacco and liked hot women or words to that effect.

His internet site "went down" in about 2005 so I assume he was convicted on or about that time. Apparently he was located in Fla (Atlantic side?) and there were some local paper stories about the hijinks, I think, but can't google them anymore.

I doubt that mercola.com is an actual full blown scam, but there is at least one similar trend. Both enterprises got into selling supplements only after some years of being on line. Presumably to build up confidence.

I considered buying something from "Jon Brooks" but never actually sprung for it. Hopefully whatever he sold, even if worthless, was less harmful than DEG cough syrup from China.

DH

P.S. Some scams can be pretty brazen and probably still legal. Deepak Chopra might be a good example. I don't remember if he sells any supplements or not, but certainly a lot of pseudo-scientific quantum shmantum mumbo jumbo mixed with occult philosophy and religion, etc.

Lindsey
August 7th, 2007, 12:07 AM
He may now be back in prison. I haven't kept up with the story.
Well, he was in prison, yes. And it turns out he's been in the paper again recently, but you might say that it constitutes a dénouement rather than a next chapter. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/192398.html

--Lindsey