Montreal Based Diet Scams Continue

Some two weeks ago enforcement agencies in Canada, along with the U.S. counterparts, made announcements indicating they were cooperating fight diet fraud. We were quite interested in the Canadian angle, as we have spent the last 5 years here trying to get authorities interested in this issue. It was nice to at least hear someone in Canada finally recognize we have a problem here.

However, based on the scams still operating in Canada, and the way the scams are continuing to promote themselves, our government in this area has quite a path to go on before they are going to make any difference.

This past weekend, Ciren12, out of Terrebonne, Quebec, again showed up with almost full page ads in the Calgary Sun. As well, the same promotion continues to be advertised in two other Sun publishing vehicles, namely "24 Hours", located both in Vancouver and Toronto.

As well, thanks to emails to Rainbow Investigations, we have become aware that the propreitors of Ciren12 are now starting to send direct personalized letters to consumers promoting the product. So far, these personalized letters are going to consumers on the west coast. Propreitors get these names and addresses from magazine subscriber lists, and in this area, women are targeted. If anybody else gets this personal promotions, email us at rrpi2@telus.net.

Ciren12 started in the late summer of 2005, and seemingly has had no difficulty in being on the Canadian market, even the product is not approved for weight loss, and none of the ingredients have been shown to cause weight loss. The ads for this promotion also quote research at McGill, and we have not been able to verify that in fact there is any such research.

In other Canadian diet scam news, we have become aware the HCA Express is now making a comeback. This was a promotion in 2001, out of a Toronto mailbox, using a non-existent physician "Dr. Androu" as the person promoting the product which is reputed to be hydroxy-citric acid. So far we have only heard of this being advertised in National Enquirier, but it looks like this has started up again. This is another Montreal based scam.

And speaking of the infamous Montreal diet fraud culture, another Montreal based diet fraud continues to be mailed out throughout the U.S. We continue to receive daily emails from U.S. consumers about SupraSvelt diet drops.

Many people are now saying SupraSvelt is slow to arrive, and they don't have a chance to try the product before the thirty day trial period is up. Our recommendation is that you put a stop payment on your cheque as soon as you can. Virtually everybody who contacts us on this one does not lose weight.

Obviously, the Montreal based diet fraud problem continues to be a national disgrace in Canada. The modest actions done by Health Canada and the Competition Bureau recently are nice to hear, but this problem in Montreal is what they should be focusing on.

We know the regulators read "The Latest Investigative News" as well, and we would suggest that both agencies know how to contact us should you want some assistance.

We can certainly tell you what North American consumers what done about this issue. The emails were are getting now are getting increasing sarcastic, and are showing North Americans continuing frustration with this issue.

Perhaps this is the time we may finally get some effective progress on this issue which has been a mainstay of Canada for the past 12 years...

Date of Story: Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Story Posted By: Ron Reinhold
Source: Ron Reinhold

Return to the Investigative News

To Top of Page