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SlimDown Fast - Mailboxes Etc. based scam    News Corporation advertiser takes aim at consumers again Slimdown Fast Scam On February 2, 2002 the Southwestern Ontario "B" edition of SmartSource coupon booklet contained an advertisement for Slimdown Fast. It's been in many other coupon booklets since then. The last time I saw one was on August 3, 2002 in the same edition. This was one of the worst advertisements I have ever seen. Slimdown Fast operates out of a Mail Boxes Etc. address in Toronto. Please click here to see how MBE feels about honesty, trust, and integrity. The manufacturer of the product presents absolutely no scientific evidence that their diet product works as advertised. Dietfraud has launched an investigation into this product, as well as other diet and herbal product scams advertised by the giant international media conglomerate News Corporation in coupon booklets around the world. The ads appear all over the world, and in Canada, the organization is known as News Marketing Canada. Their Canadian head office phone number is 905-602-NEWS (6397), and they are located in Mississauga, Ontario, just in case you want to complain directly to them. We charge that the manufacturer, and SmartSource, the publisher, with the promotion of a product that is bogus and fraudulent. This product can not, will not, and does not do what they say it does. We don't believe that there really is a "Doctor St. Arnaud", and we don't believe there really is a Susan or Carolyne who claim to have taken Slimdown Fast. Furthermore, the ad claims that Susan and Carolyne's testimonials are certified by a lawyer. In fact, there is a picture of an old man on their web site, and they claim that he is their lawyer. Apparently his name is Levesque, but we don't know his first name, or where he holds a license to practice. We will be filing an official complaint with the RCMP, and the Quebec and Ontario police and ask them to launch an official investigation as to who these people are, and where their money is going. The fact that they operate out of a Mailboxes Etc. location is very suspicious. On their web site is another MBE location in Plattsburgh, New York. What's really great about that link is that you can e-mail, mail, fax or call the franchise owner in the U.S. to ask them questions. There is no mention of the Toronto location on SlimDown Fast web site. I wonder why? Internationally, Mailboxes Etc. has over 1000 locations overseas. "MBE continues to succeed and set the standards in franchising because of a system-wide belief in certain core values, often missing in today’s business world -- caring, honesty, fairness, integrity, trust, respect, commitment and accountability," contends Kurt Ullman, MBE's Executive Director of International Development in a recent article. Perhaps he was not referring to Canadian operations. Please let us know if you have been scammed by people who rent from any private mailbox operators. Please send us complete details. See below how you can help keep these types of companies from ripping you off. Remember, you may never know when one of these bogus diet product companies is a front for organized crime, terrorists, or just plain scamsters. As an example, take the Gero Vita company that operated for years from a Mailbox Etc. franchise at 4936 Yonge St., in Toronto. Why, if you really needed to, many MBE locations make it easy to send money overseas. That's really handy, especially if you have off-shore bank accounts, eh? If you are a resident of the U.S. you can file a complaint with your State or local office of the Attorney General. This indirect link was actually provided by MBE on their own web site. I guess you have to thank them for that. Terry Polevoy, MD www.dietfraud.com

"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. Click to subscribe to dietfraud on Yahoo SEND US YOUR ADVERTISEMENTS: Please send any questionable diet ads in your local paper or magazines from this company. Include the date, the name of the publication, and we will scan them in and forward them to the proper department at the Bureau of Competition of Industry Canada. Please send them even if the ads were in non-Canadian publications. American and other foreign magazines are everywhere. If we don't know that the scams are out there, we won't be able to complain.