Top Ten U.S. Consumer Frauds

[sarongsong]

October 29, 2007
...a statistical survey of fraud in the United States that shows that 30.2 million adults – 13.5 percent of the adult population – were victims of fraud during the year studied [2005]....
The top 10:
Fraudulent Weight-Loss Products (4.8 million victims)
Foreign Lottery Scams (3.2 million victims)
Unauthorized Billing - Buyers Clubs (3.2 million victims)
Prize Promotions (2.7 million victims)
Work-at-Home Programs (2.4 million victims)
Credit Card Insurance (2.1 million victims)
Unauthorized Billing - Internet Services (1.8 million victims)
Advance-Fee Loans (1.7 million victims)
Credit Repair Scams (1.2 million victims)
Business Opportunities (.8 million victims)
FTC

Where's the money?

[phaishazamkhan]

Number Eleven! Shopping at Best Buy!
http://consumerist.com/consumer/frau...und-315873.php
Long link is loooooong

[Chuck]

The cosmetics industry. There's nothing wrong with wanting to look nice but these people have convinced some women to spend thousands per year on this garbage and spend an hour each morning apply layer after layer until they look like circus clowns who've been dead for a week. The entire industry is funded by taking advantage of this mental illness.

[TheOncomingStorm]

The cosmetics industry. There's nothing wrong with wanting to look nice but these people have convinced some women to spend thousands per year on this garbage and spend an hour each morning apply layer after layer until they look like circus clowns who've been dead for a week. The entire industry is funded by taking advantage of this mental illness.

He is an example of their work.
http://www.tvacres.com/char_bobeck_mimi.htm

[Maksutov]

You forgot colloidal silver.

[TheOncomingStorm]

and q-ray braclets.

[Gillianren]

In fact, quackery in all its myriad forms, not just colloidal silver, seems missing from the list.

[sarongsong]

...quackery in all its myriad forms, not just colloidal silver...

Based on whose meticulous research?

[The Supreme Canuck]

The FDA, for one.

[Van Rijn]

It would be a good idea to put some numbers on the quackery issue. Of course, I see advertisements on national TV for useless wax sticks that are sold as medicine. Even without counting stuff that can make you look like a Star Trek or zombie movie extra, a lot of people are being taken in.

[sarongsong]

The FDA, for one.

Meticulous research?

...FDA is not aware of any substantial scientific evidence that supports the safe and effective use of colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts for any animal disease condition...

A little shy of shysterism, no?

[The Supreme Canuck]

No. The FDA apparently does not consider any of the research it has been presented to be valid. It has seen nothing to prove that colloidal silver is safe and effective. The onus in not on the FDA to disprove its safety, the onus is on the colloidal silver people to prove it. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. There is none forthcoming here.

[Glom]

In no particular order:

1. Most things found in a health shop.
2. Solar powered garden lamps.
3. BP stock.
4. Fingerless condoms (like fingerless gloves).
5. Organic food.
6. Windows Vista.
7. Nuclear powered carrots (they helps others see you in the dark).
8. Property in the West Bank.
9. Pre-drilled coiled tubing.
10. Gordon Brown's "vision".

[Tucson_Tim]

In no particular order:

1. Most things found in a health shop.
2. Solar powered garden lamps.
3. BP stock.
4. Fingerless condoms (like fingerless gloves).
5. Organic food.
6. Windows Vista.
7. Nuclear powered carrots (they helps others see you in the dark).
8. Property in the West Bank.
9. Pre-drilled coiled tubing.
10. Gordon Brown's "vision".

What's the scam in solar-powered garden lights?

[Frantic Freddie]

Credit Repair Scams (1.2 million victims)

In the last few months I've gotten an automated call from a company called "Consumer Services" that purports to do that.The first time they called me I punched 1 to speak to someone & when she came on I informed her that I was on the Do Not Call List & that they'd just committed a federal offense.
She hung up on me.
Since then I've gotten several calls from them,the last one I played along until she asked me for my credit card numbers,told her I wasn't going to give out that info & asked if they had a website.Turns out what she gave me was ficticious.
They block the caller ID so I don't have the number to give to the FTC,but I filed a report anyway using the name they gave me.

[The Supreme Canuck]

The next time they call, try to get a number out of them:

"I really want to give you my credit info, but I'm very busy. Can you give me a way to contact you, like a phone number or something, so I can get in touch with you when I have the time?"

See if they bite.

[Tucson_Tim]

They block the caller ID so I don't have the number to give to the FTC,but I filed a report anyway using the name they gave me.

We still get calls, even though we're on the no-call list. What I usually do is say "Can you hold on for a minute?". Then, I lay the phone down on the counter, still connected, and go about my business. Some time later I return and hang up the phone. It makes me feel better having wasted some of their time.

[KaiYeves]

Most things found in a health shop.
Solar powered garden lamps.
BP stock.
Fingerless condoms (like fingerless gloves).
Organic food.
Windows Vista.
Nuclear powered carrots (they helps others see you in the dark).
Property in the West Bank.
Pre-drilled coiled tubing.
Gordon Brown's "vision".

E-mails that will curse you unless you pass them on.

[mike alexander]

I was tempted to add 'statistical surveys', but it might be taken wrong.

The misuse of statistical inference in general must be up near the top, though.

[RalofTyr]

Refiing your home. Really. Your house isn't an ATM Machine and you don't need to go deeper into debt just to get some, "Equity", which is just an imaginative figure anyways.

[Kelfazin]

Refiing your home. Really. Your house isn't an ATM Machine and you don't need to go deeper into debt just to get some, "Equity", which is just an imaginative figure anyways.

As a home equity loan banker, without these people I would be out of work And the amount of equity is real enough, it's home values that are made up.

[sarongsong]

...Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. There is none forthcoming here.

Ah, but they're getting there...

October 14, 2005
In the first-ever study of metal nanoparticles' interaction with HIV-1, silver nanoparticles of sizes 1-10nm attached to HIV-1 and prevented the virus from bonding to host cells...are also studying other uses for silver nanoparticles. "We're testing against other viruses and the 'super bug (Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus).'...
PhysOrg

[tdvance]

Based on a quick read of the article, if you replaced "silver nanoparticles" with "benzine", the result would probably be the same.

That's why medical studies have to be done by medical researchers and not a department of engineering. It's kind of like having a couple of chemists build a fusion reactor....

[sarongsong]

Who cares who discovers what, as long as the results are valid and reproducible?

..."Our article opens an important avenue for research,"...