PapayaPlus and other Canadian Diet Frauds Remain Hot...

Rainbow Investigations continues to be overwhelmed by dozens of complaints regarding Montreal based diet scams. We have had all kinds of complaints since the past weekend.

Keeping up on these scams once was a pleasurable hobby. Now, they are so prevalent, we can only do these updates when we have breaks in our own business (which also is growing!).

As of February 2006, here is the latest news on the scams we are following:

PAPAYA PLUS: Over the past week we have had all kinds of fresh complaints on this one. Again the weekend of February 11-12 this was advertised in the coupon supplement to Canadian newspapers known as "Shop and Save" which is an insert to newspapers in the Sun newspaper chain, as well as in many community newspapers. As we have reiterated many times, personnel out of Montreal operate the mailbox in Cornwall. Cheques go to one of the major banks in Montreal.

Many people have been asking about refunds from PapayaPlus. All we can say is that we have been following this one since November 2001, and we have never heard of any refunds been given out.

There is a U.S. division of this scam operating out of a Chicago mailbox. We have not heard anything recently (last two weeks) from that end of the scam.

PapayaPlus is not an approved product in Canada, nor is there any evidence that the ingredients in the product do anything for weight loss.

CIREN12: This scam, coming out of Terrebonne, Montreal through an office drop in North East Toronto, continues to be advertised in the entertainment publication "24 Hours", which just happens to be another Sun publication. Again, this product is not approved in Canada for weight loss, nor is there any indication the ingredients do anything for weight loss. The fulfillment proprietor of this scam is in the adult video business.

NEOFORM 3000: We havent heard any recent news of this scam, coming out of an Ottawa mailbox. We know it is coming out of Montreal, and we believe the Montreal fraudsters cant be at all places at once!

LIPOSVELT: We have been getting regular complaints on this one. This is a product that claims to be distributed from Gloucester, Ontario. Again, it comes via a mailbox, and can be ordered through a Montreal based call center. There is a U. S. division to this scam, with a Massachusetts based mailbox being involved here. In both countries, the 800 number leads to the same Montreal based call center (ever wonder why they always ask what country you are calling from?)

This is another unapproved product in Canada with no evidence of effectiveness for weight loss.

SUPRASVELT DROPS and RELATED PRODUCTS: Complaints on this product line have decreased abit recently, but we are still getting them. In the same product line as the Suprasvelt Drops are Nordic Soybean Tablets, and Levinson Slimming Center pastilles. All of this comes from Montreal, but in the U.S. most of the work appears to be done at a fulfillment place in Michigan, just south of a UPS mailbox. In Canada, a minor component of the same fraud is out of a southeastern Ontario small town mailbox.

LE MARC DE RAISINS: This is another old scam from Montreal, being largely run out of a Long Island fulfillment location, in cooperation with a suburban Montreal warehouse. Recently they have sent out a massive mailing of personalized offers to purchase products. They get these addresses from so-called mail-lists which are prepared from subscribers of magazines, particularly women's magazines.

Again this is another unapproved product in Canada, with no evidence scientifically of having any effect on weight loss.

So that is the latest on the diet fraud scam scene in Canada. Rainbow Investigations is currently in the planning stages of an entirely new website, which will categorize these scams much easier, so that readers can find the latest news on them, on a specific scam basis. Keep watching for our news on that matter.

In Canada, we have just had a change of government, and we have no indication whether fraud and health fraud in particular will be of any interest to our new political heavyweights. Certainly, in the past this group of politicians has not shown any interest in compliance and enforcement issues, so we don't realistically expect any real change soon.

But you can always be assured, we will do our part of reporting the scams, as soon as we get the information!

Date of Story: Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Story Posted By: Ron Reinhold
Source: Ron Reinhold

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