PapayaPlus from Canada

The UPS store in the Ottawa suburbs where the latest marketers of Papaya Plus moved to has hosted many other scam operations over the last seven years or so. The fraudulent advertisement appeared again in the Rupert Murdoch owned advertising insert called SmartSource Magazine in Canadian newspapers across our country on Nov. 10, 2007. It's basically the same ad that we reviewed in 2002 (see below) that made false claims for a weight loss product called Papaya Plus. In those days the company that marketed Papaya Plus was doing business out of a mailbox in the Laval, Quebec. The present address of the company known as Healthy Solutions is the same addressed used many times over by other scammers that we have covered. In those days various companies rented private mailboxes from Mailboxes Etc. Some of their franchises have been converted to UPS Stores. The present owner of the UPS store in question has his store up for sale. Here are some other scammers that used the same location over the years. Dayonne Power Neoform 3000 In 2006 another company named Superior Labs & Clinics used the UPS store's Box 101 to market Superior Drain Formula. Another web site that does "diet pill reviews" also rents from UPS. That site was registered to someone named Ken Black who rented Box 252. It looks like a marketing arm that sells or recommends Hoodia products, another questionable item on the market today. Ken Black also is also the public relations person for Skin Care Reviews: The Competition Bureau here in Canada generally ignores all complaints about diet fraud even though they must know that the various people who run the companies are scammers. Health Canada doesn't get involved in cases like this. It would be nice if the Competition Bureau would finally take action.

Mail Boxes Etc. based diet scam seem to be a dime a dozen these days. So when this advertising originated from Cornwall, Ontario in January 2002, nothing surprised us here at DietFraud.com, and Rainbow Investigation. This one is called PapayaPlus. The ads were recently stuffed into many major Canadian newspapers across this great and incredibly stupid, and overweight land of ours. As far as we can tell, these folks are also running BioMince, and that has been confirmed with Valassis, the people who publish these sorry excuses for coupon supplements. Not a month goes by without seeing the Shop & Save coupon supplements. The PapayaPlus advertisment reached millions of Canadian households here in Canada, and the most recent one was on Saturday, September 14, 2002. I saw it in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, and Ron Reinhold spotted it in the Calgary Herald. Valassis Shop&Save, is their English language coupon insert into newspersl. Valassis is a company that that is one of the major players in the world of advertising and promotion of bogus weight loss and diet products. The problem is, these ads are alongside major advertisers, and the public is deceived because they think that if PapayaPlus is in the coupon booklet, the product must by effective. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Quebec company hides identity at MBEC Valassis also publishes in French in Quebec where it is called "EconoAubaine". The most recent coupon booklet reference number was 029004. It ran on June 6, 2002. The advertisement which is exactly the same as the English PAPAYAPLUS version, except of course the address is in Quebec, not Ontraio. And again, the address is a well-known MBE location: PAPAYAPLUS 1804 Boul. Le Corbusier bureau #416 Laval, Quebec H7S 2N3 No phone number was included.

Wild claims guarantee one thing - You will be guaranteed to waste your money LOSE 25 POUNDS IN 30 DAYS GUARANTEED! NO OTHER WEIGHT LOSS SYSTEM CAN COME CLOSE TO THESE KINDS OF PROVEN RESULTS THESE INCREDIBLE GUARANTEED RESULTS WHICH CAN BE SEEN WITH THE NAKED EYE AFTER THE FIRST 48 HOURS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES PAPAYA IS THE BEST ANTI-FAT TREATMENT DISCOVERED TODAY LOSING WEIGHT HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER OR FASTER! A REVOLUTIONARY DISCOVERY LIKE NO OTHER! Should I change my eating habits? Not at all. You can eat whatever you like and as much as you like. Do not give up your favorite foods. The calorific effect of the capsules is approximately equal to a daily 8 mile jog or 4 hours of tennis! So go ahead and eat! It doesn't effect the natural fat burning properties of the papaya. The address used by the company is just another MBE franchise in Cornwall, Ontario. 7-841 Sydney St., Suite 300 Cornwall, ON K6H 7L2 (613) 933-9696 FAX 933-1987 Proprietor: Raymond C. Forget E-mail address for Raymond is: mbe168@cnwl.igs.net

Thanks to Valassis, who provided us with the latest phone numbers for the company that they said was actually Papaya Plus and/or Bio-Mince. It confirms our suspicions that these two scams are linked: 514-334-8907 - phone 514-334-3738 - fax Contact - Mike Fern The company's company is traceable to a numbered account: 9057-7248 Quebec Inc Saint-Laurent, QC H4R 1B7 Click here to see a map provided by the Yellow Pages Canada NOTE: THERE IS NO STREET ADDRESS!!!!

The government is ultimately responsible.

We'd like to remind the politicians who have ignored these fraudsters, and the publishers who accept their advertisements that they in the end will pay the price.

A number of class action lawsuits are planned to attack, not only the companies who make and market this junk. The government itself has to be held accountable for allowing the untethered growth of these scam artists.

The FTC in the U.S. held an unprecedented press conference on September 17, 2002 Here is a list of helpful links:

• More press releases
• Charges against Bio-Lab et. al.
• FTC Weight Loss Advertising Workshop - Nov. 19, 2002 - Washington, D.C.
• No substance to most weight-loss ads: CBC-TV
• Half of weight loss claims bogus - CNN report
• Many weight loss ads misleading - Yahoo News
• U.S. report warns of false weight-loss ads - CTV News

We ask that anyone who has claims against any companies that are named in this press conference to contact us at DietFraud.com via e-mail.

If you live in the U.S, or Canada, and have a claim you want to pursue against any diet supplement or weight loss product, we may be able to help you get your money back. Those of you who have been injured by these products marketed from Canada, or the U.S. have a right to get compensation.

Health Canada ignores most complaints, especially in the area of diet and weight loss products. It does no good to complain to them. The Competition Bureau in Canada, will not help you recover your money.

The actual Deceptive Marketing Practices section of Canadian Competition Act makes it crystal clear that companies like this have broken the law:

74.01 (1) A person engages in reviewable conduct who, for the 
purpose of promoting, directly or indirectly, the supply or 
use of a product or for the purpose of promoting, directly 
or indirectly, any business interest, by any means whatever,

(a) makes a representation to the public that is false or 
misleading in a material respect;

(b) makes a representation to the public in the form of a 
statement, warranty or guarantee of the performance, 
efficacy or length of life of a product that is not based 
on an adequate and proper test thereof, the proof of which 
lies on the person making the representation; or

(c) makes a representation to the public in a form that 
purports to be

(i) a warranty or guarantee of a product, or

However, just because they would appear to have broken the law, this won't help you get a single dime back, or recover your health if you have been injured by herbal or weight loss supplements. Only through class action lawsuits will you ever receive compensation.

We've collected a huge number of complaints against Canadian based diet fraud scammers over the years. Some of them are quite serious. Some people are upset because our government, the Better Business Bureaus, haven't been able to stop them.

The Cornwall Better Business Bureau lists a company known as Purely Natural that markets PapayaPlus:

Please send me your complaints against PapayaPlus or any other diet fraud or product, and we will see what we can do to help.

We hope that the Canadian government will wake up and finally help repair the severe damage that has been done due to their incompetence.

Papayaplus claims to be a papain supplement which is from the tropical fruit papaya. The ad claims to cause 3 lbs. of weight loss in the first 24 hrs., and 7 lbs. within 48 hours. Within one month, there will be 25 lbs. of loss.

The ad features a beautiful model in a bikini - there are no "before" photos - I doubt this lady has ever had a weight problem. Interestingly enough, the Tudor plaza also hosts a suntan parlor that sells bikinis.

• P.S. Thanks to Ron Reinhold, of Rainbow Investigations for his help

"Do Nothing" Policies

OUR GOVERNMENTS' "DO NOTHING" POLICIES ENCOURAGE REPEAT FLIM-FLAMS

When is the government of Canada going to take action against the newspapers and the companies who market this junk on unsuspecting consumers.

We demand a complete investigation why the government has failed to take action against any of these companies. The diet and weight loss scam industry is worth billions in North America, and much of it comes from Canada. In other words our country is a safe-haven for hundreds of scam artists who use the internet and advertise freely in newspapers without fear of investigation by our governement. Someone right now stands to make millions operating from the safety of Toronto, right under the noses of Health Canada and the Ontario government consumer protection branch.

We appeal to the ASC, the government, both Provincial and Federal to take control of the fraud artists that are preying on the public. Right now, Canada is the laughing stock of the world when it comes to the control of health quackery.

We will continue to do everything possible to educate the Canadian public about scam artists and rogue health care providers on our web sites. But, it seems clear from where I sit, that our governments just doesn't care about false advertising, health scams and the dangerous products that come into our country. They also don't care about mailorder scams that originate here, but are often part of an underground cash-filled pipeline to some island in the Lesser Antilles.

The world of health fraud on the internet includes dozens of other stories, some of them are very serious and involve doctors who are try to ship quack cancer drugs out of Canada into the U.S. That's another story, one that we will cover later on.

Office of Natural Health Products

What did the government do about diet and health fraud? Late last year, they decided to form a new office, a spin-off of Health Canada. They appointed a dozen or so people to a transition team, the overwhelming majority supposedly represented the cream of the crop who work in companies that supply Canada with vitamins, herbs, and other alternative health products. These are the very people who can't prove that their products work, who can't prove that there products are safe, and yet the government appoints them to a transition team to set up standards in the natural and herbal product industry.

While the company that sells this particular product featured in this article is unknown, it is a prime example of what the government has failed to do. Having an Office of Natural Health Products is like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.

Why hasn't Health Canada or the police visited the vendors, and their associates to see what is really going on. Where is the money going from their profits? Is it being laundered overseas?

We Demand that Action be Taken Now!

Our web sites will cover the story of government failure to control the false claims made in major publications, on the internet, on the radio and televison info-mercials until something is done.

Terry Polevoy, M.D.
Dietfraud.com
938 King St. West
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
N2G 1G4

519-725-4953 fax.
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