Would You Pay Someone to Commit Suicide? 13000 People did. Really.

According to a recently published paper, 13000 people paid over 1.4 million dollars to help 200 people commit suicide. Except they thought they were paying for zero-evidence treatment for desperate cancer patients. In other words, these so-called do-gooders paid scammer quacks to help sick people commit suicide by paying huge amounts of money for water... i.e. homeopathic cancer treatments.

That's 1.4 million bucks raised to pay for some VERY expensive water proven to do nothing, that could have been used for palliative care or other purposes that may have made final moments of life more bearable. 1.4 million bucks could have paid for a lot of weed or even more powerful opioids or whatever the cancer patients needed to spend the final days in peace, and leave some for their family to cover other expenses.

Instead, the money is going to cancer quacks, doing NOTHING for the actual patients, who have to live their final days with treatment proven to do NOTHING, see their hopes dashed and pain unmanaged.

Basically, the 1.4 million bucks paid for suicide by water and pain.

British Columbia (Canada) Chiropractic Org Crack Down on Spurious Claims by Members, How About US?

You will often find that chiropractors claim to be able to treat everything from ADHD and Alzheimers to diabetes, infertility, all the way to Down's syndrome, and they are all over websites, blogs, and social media postings. There is absolutely ZERO evidence chiropractic can treat those afflictions. It seems one professional organization is finally doing something about these unsupported claims... and it's a chiropractic organization.

College of Chiropractors of British Columbia (Canada) has warned all members from making efficacy claims in its latest policy clarification, mandated any claims to be removed ASAP, and the deadline passed three days ago (on 01-NOV-2018).

What is also interesting is BC Chiropractors are NOT allowed to give public opinions about vaccination (for or against) as chiropractors are NOT trained in infectious diseases. Yet it didn't stop some chiropractors, including two BC College of Chiropractors board members, from taking an antivax stance on social media. Both promptly deleted their antivax post after being reminded of the college policy. And one vice-chair has resigned after posting a video claiming a smoothie is more effective than a flu shot at preventing flu.

So where are such regulations or policies in the US?

JM Ocean Avenue: Why did Ocean Avenue merge with a suspect scheme out of China called JM International?

Ocean Avenue *was* a nutritional supplement based MLM that started in roughly 2012. After a rough tossle with Visalus due to some people jumping ship, which culminated apparently with a theft of laptop from Ocean Avenue office in 2013, Ocean Avenue apparently merged with a Chinese company called JM International in 2014, according to a member:

OK JM International did a take over of Ocean Avenue back in 2014.
JMOA is part of Joy May who is owned by Joe Zhou, Bruce Fang and Jackie Zhang – JMOA is a $2 Billion company based out of china.
The Ocean Avenue managment stayed after the take over but it was not a happy merger and although Hop Rocket was initially going to be part of JMOA, it was decided that the US team would relinquish their interest in JMOA and everyone in the US office wanted to move to Hop Rocket which soft launched just 1 week ago.

Comment posted by Dottie Lotto on 6-AUG-2015

But who/what is JM International? Seems all we know are some Americanized names, and "it's out of China". (The 2 billion can't be trusted as it's unclear it's revenue, profit, products sold, cumulative or single year, etc.)

So who is JM International? If you search for JM International, , you will find ONLY "JMOA" (JM Ocean Avenue). In fact, you can't even find what JM stands for.

What's really interesting is how the "board of directors" change depending on which site you access, as you can't tell which is official and which is not. Some pages include Tim Richerson and Fred Ninow, others included two other Chinese names (Peter Li and Gary Ren).

However, after a bit of searching, I found an alternate domain, jmtop.com, which appears also to be a global corporate site. However, what's REALLY interesting is for a company allegedly started in China, it has NO CHINESE WEBSITE. It has Hong Kong and Taiwan, but none for Mainland China.

JM Ocean Avenue "select country" page as of 7-AUG-2015 ... No China? 

Next stop... Youtube, as I need to find the CHINESE name of this allegedly Chinese company, so I can research it on Chinese media. Searching for "JM International" found an alleged official channel, and following videos:

So we now know that the Chinese name for JM International is 中脉国际

So what does the Chinese Media Say about them?

BREAKING NEWS: Italy fined Vemma, Organo Gold, and Asea 500K Euros for pyramid scheme and false claims

Flag of Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Italy's Financial Regulators (Guardia di Finanze) Special Market Protection Unit, Anti-Trust Group, just issued fines to Vemma Italy (100K Euro fine), Asea Italy (150K Euro fine), and Organo Gold Europe (250K Euro fine) for "unfair business practices" (i.e. pyramid sales) of pushing illegal MLM beverage business.

Asea and Organo Gold got extra fines because they also made unsubstantiated health claims. Asea apparently claimed their product strengthens the immune system, promote healing process, and reduce harmful effects of free radicals. Organo Gold apparently claimed that their ganoderma mushroom made it effective in prophylaxis of nerve diseases, vascular diseases, and cancer, without side effects.

http://www.helpconsumatori.it/acquisti/vendite-piramidali-antitrust-decide-multe-per-500-mila-euro/79331

Related articles

• Bad Propaganda: Perpetuating Myths and Misunderstandings to Deflect Criticism
• Evil MLM: Spend Your Own Time on MLM, not your "day job" Time!
• Alarms Raised at Colleges Over Pyramid Allegations of MLM Vemma
• Just what *are* Your odds in Vemma? Is there an "insider's club" in Vemma?

MLM Absurdities: The "Big Placebo" industry that markets nutritional supplement woo

Dietary supplements Do they actually improve your health?
(Photo credit: Andrei Z)

In studying the network marketing industry, MLM Skeptic had come to a conclusion that most network marketing companies deal with nutritional supplements and skin care, or as the somewhat pejorative slang goes: "lotions and potions".

The "potions and lotions" often promise some very vague and generalized health effects, with weasel descriptions such as:

• Support your "stem cell physiology" (Huh? What does that mean?)
• Leading expert on importance of brain health (a chiropractor)

Recently I came upon a quote by Richard Dawkins, and found it very applicable here:

If any remedy is tested under controlled scientific conditions and proved to be effective, it will cease to be alternative and will simply become medicine. So-called alternative medicine either hasn't been tested or it has failed its tests. 

The same applies to any sort of nutritional supplement, really. If any nutritional supplement is properly scientifically tested and proved to be effective, it will be adopted as national or even global nutritional standard. And it's clear that except for a few select examples, most nutritional supplements on the market are just woo, as they have not been tested properly, or have failed its tests to be effective in something.

So why do these nutritional supplements proliferate, and can be found in supermarkets and pharmacies and more?

The reason is quite troubling, as this has to do with growing scientific IGNORANCE and science denial.

Bad Propaganda: Found and Lost on Oprah's Website

Given the amount of woo that had been pushed by Oprah and her various spawns like Dr. Oz, it's very ironic that her own quiz of what's a scam and what's a cure, is no longer available.

Wonder if it hit a bit close to home?

MLM Absurdities: Yes, Your Family Doctor Could Be Selling MLM stuff too

I was reading updates on Tracy Coenan's Sequence Inc. files when I came across a company called Metagenics, which seem to be nutritional supplements sold through doctor's offices (including doctor of chiropractics, i.e. chiropractors).

As most doctors are not nutritionists, one wonders if they are really qualified to do so... or is this just some sort of network marketing that had reached doctor's offices?

You'd think doctors, with proper health education (and I do mean M.D.s, not D.C's  doctor of chiropractics), would know enough to not do something questionable, but there's evidence of even HOSPITALS trying out devices based on pseudo-science.

But it's always possible they know something that we don't. So what can be found by Google?

A quick check revealed that they've been warned by the FDA to stop falsely advertising their product as "good for" (condition), and all there nutritonal supplements, normally classified as "food", had made sufficient claims to be considered DRUGS instead, and that's ILLEGAL!  (Drugs have MUCH more stringent testing criteria).

Here's the first two paragraphs:

WARNING LETTER

English: Logo of the FDA . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dear Dr. Troup:

This is to advise you that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviewed your website at the internet address www.metagenics.com in August 2013, and has determined that you take orders there for the products UltraClear®, UltraClear® Plus, UltraClear® Plus pH, UltraClear RENEW™, GI Sustain, UltraMeal® Plus, UltraMeal® Plus 360, UltraInflamX®, UltraInflamX® Plus 360, UltraGlycemX®, GlycemX™ 360, Ultracare for Kids®, BariatrX Essentials Bariatric Meal, and ArginCor. These products are labeled as “medical foods,” and the labeling claims on your website represent these products as medical foods for the dietary management of a variety of medical conditions.

Based on our review, we have determined that these products are misbranded under section 403(a)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. § 343(a)(1)], because the labeling is false and misleading in that the products are labeled and marketed as medical foods but do not meet the statutory definition of a medical food in the Orphan Drug Act [21 U.S.C. § 360ee(b)(3)] or the criteria set forth in 21 CFR 101.9(j)(8). Furthermore, because these products are labeled and marketed as medical foods, but do not meet the statutory definition of a medical food, FDA has determined that these products are promoted for conditions that cause them to be drugs under section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)]. You can find the Act and its implementing regulations on FDA’s website at http://www.fda.gov.

Ouch, this is bad, having your product slapped by no less than the FDA for making irresponsible claims.  But wait, it gets worse:

MLM Absurdities: When MLM Sells Not Just Woo, but Fake Woo

Back in early 2013, Waiora settled a lawsuit for selling watered down version of their own product (as full strength) That brought back some questions... how do MLM promoters, and I mean the ethical ones who really push products (instead of the scam-y ones that just recruits) actually know what they're selling is actually any good?

They rely on the company being forthright and honest of course. They don't know anything. They have to rely on company literature, genetic fallacy (this ingredient is good, so anything containing this ingredient must also be good!), pseudo-science, anecdotal evidence (which doesn't really count), and bandwagon fallacy (X users can't be all wrong!)  However, that's for another article.

What we're here to discuss is instead, what if the company's literature / promotional material is NOT the whole truth? But actually half-lies?

The Waiora case is a great example... That the product doesn't even contain what it supposedly contains (it has some... but at a far lesser concentration than labelled). According to tests done in 2010, Waiora product called NCD that allegedly has some anti-aging properties through "zeolite" (some sort of volcanic mineral that is supposed to help body purge "toxins"), is supposed to contain 2400 mg of zeolite per bottle.  Actual tests shows it has less than 150 mg... that's less than 10% of advertised strength.  The test was done at a second independent lab, which found the concentration to be even LOWER.

The lab results were presented to the company, who dismissed them, claiming the products were tested and *does* contain the advertised amount. However, a few months later, the company seem to have quietly switched suppliers and the product has a different flavor, consistency, and color than the allegedly watered down version.  A bottle of NCD (Natural Cell Defense) has MSRP of $50 per 15-mL bottle.

Class action lawsuit was launched in 2012, and was finally settled out of court in April 2013. Waiora, without admitting fault, is giving 3 bottles (full strength this time) of NCD to any one who ever bought NCD, as well as 12 million (unknown distribution).

This brings up a serious question... Whose fault was it that watered down the product? Usually a factory wouldn't cut corners like that, as it does them no good cutting corners like that. This heavily suggests there is some sort of complicity in Waiora, and their subsequent action, such as deny any wrongdoing, then quiet change factories and settle out of court would suggest (but NOT confirm) some sort of conspiracy between the factory and a senior official at Waiora.

But the real damage is how can any one in MLM trust that the product they got from the factory is real and contains whatever exotic ingredients it was supposed to contain in the right amount?

MLM Absurdities: Due Diligence is NOT Analysis Paralysis!

One of the more subtle reality inversion techniques used by scammers (and unethical sales people), and cloned by clueless MLM noobs, is misrepresenting "due diligence" as "analysis paralysis". 

Analysis paralysis usually refers to an organization attempting to analyze a certain proposed project or change and the effect it would have, but so much time and resource was spent on the analysis that the project never was actually adopted.  For an individual, it could be that s/he is attempting to reach a decision, but that decision has so many factors s/he was overwhelmed by combination of scope and interactions and end up making no decision at all.

However, a decision to "not participate because I clearly have no idea what I am getting into" is a decision, and reaching that conclusion is NOT analysis paralysis.

Yet many MLM veterans and noobs will mischaracterize their moment of commitment as "overcoming analysis paralysis". Here is one example from MLMBlonde(dot)com:

Or they may have been polite but also declined and you were crushed
SO you went into what I call "Analysis Paralysis".
You began to question if this could work for you. You start to analyze
your decision.
YOU FREEZE. You begin to think something may be WRONG with you
or you made a bad decision, after all, if those closest to you don't "GET
IT", how you possible speak to a stranger.
You sit back and think and think , and then you just NEVER
get up the nerve to move forward. You lose your excitement. You
just DO NOTHING. 

The problem is MLMblonde had NOT described analysis paralysis. She described "self-doubt paralysis", but slapped the "analysis paralysis" label on it. 

And she's not alone in doing so. Many MLM noobs seem to think any sort of doubt is analysis paralysis, even a full on analysis (i.e. "trust, but verify"). 

And due diligence is NOT doubt. 

Scam Psychology: Why Do People Believe Celebrity Endorsement of Woo Products?

English: Jenny McCarthy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Celebrities pushing bad science and bad medicine is nothing new.

Jenny McCarthy -- Playboy model, actress, "celebrity", "former" anti-vaxxer, pusher of various bogus autism "treatments" (basically told parents "try anything (whatever it costs)")  [ see wikipedia entry ]

Suzanne Summers -- actress, singer, celebrity, and promoter of "Wiley Protocol", a hormonal replacement therapy that was NEVER proven with scientific study and may be dangerous, among other things. [ see wikipedia entry ]

English: Lisa Oz and Mehmet Oz at the 2010 Time 100. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And let's not forget the Oprah spawned... Mehmet Oz, i.e. "Doctor Oz"...  who seems to often fail basic grasp of science despite his medical training, as he had featured such pseudoscience on his show as homeopathy, Reiki (his wife's a Reiki master), bogus report of arsenic in apple juice, bogus "magic" ingredient of weight loss, and "curing homosexuality" among many others. [ see wikipedia entry ]

People who follow these and many other celebrities out there giving BAD ADVICE are very likely to take these people's BAD ADVICE seriously... JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE CELEBRITIES. 

And their reasoning process is virtually the SAME as people who got scammed out of money.

Just what *are* Your odds in Vemma? Is there an "insider's club" in Vemma?

Previously, MLM Skeptic have, through SaltyDroid's little expose on the Tartol Clan of Herbalifers, illustrated how what you thought are good odds are actually not so good for you average Joes in Herbalife, though absolutely great for the "insiders". John Tartol is on Herbalife board of directors, and 12 of his clan are among the top earners in Herbalife. Still think you have the same odds as them?

Science_getting_rich (Photo credit: kas10900)

Today, we shall explore Vemma... and whether someone closely related to the top of the company, unlike you, has an edge that you don't.

Any one heard of Bob Proctor? That's him in the middle there, in that beige suit. He was part of "The Secret", or "law of attraction", which, IMHO, is just positive thinking wrapped with mysticism and bogus psycho-babble. But that's not what's important here.

Turns out his wife, Linda Proctor, has rank of 'ambassador' in Vemma, with estimated intake of $14500 a month, according to a "top earners" website.  She was even profiled by Vemma themselves in a short video (where she goes to shop in some fancy store and have lunch in fancy restaurant) earlier in 2013.

According to Vemma dashboard, Mrs. Proctor appeared at "Star Presidential" rank on June 2011.

Which is actually... "level 10" on Vemma chart. Ambassador is only one level above that. And according to separate Vemma news, she achieved that on November 2011, the first Canadian to do so.

What's her secret? She claims it's great salesmanship and great inspiration from her husband, Bob Proctor.

What if it's not that? What if she has an "inside track" and has been "predestined" to success?

What if I told you that her husband, Bob Proctor, is a personal friend of Vemma head BK Boreyko, and Bob Proctor had appeared at many times at Vemma conventions as keynote speaker? Would that affect your view of her "success"?

What if I tell you that at least one OTHER person in the Proctor household is also a Vemma ambassador?

More Hilarious Woo Endorsements: Having a Chiropractor as your "Chief Science Officer"

Folks, I have no problem with you buying woo, as long as you UNDERSTAND it's woo, that any claims to benefit are merely CLAIMs, for worse, UNPROVEN claims. 

However, the marketers of woo should at least pick REPUTABLE and SCIENTIFIC people to be their advisors, to look legitimate. 

Previously, MLM Skeptic have pointed out some other woo products (a patch that claims to affect accupressure points through 'wireless communication', sea 'scum' dried and packed into pills as ULTIMATE nutrition, and a product that's based on assuming that the seller's hypothetical position paper about stem cells is true) MLM Skeptic now must add another item to the list of woo: a Chiropractor selling brain supplements as co-founder and "chief science officer". 

First, before the "haterz" (a term I borrow from my, well.. haterz)  jump all over me, I have nothing against chiropractors... other than they shouldn't pretend to know stuff they know nothing about... same as anyone else. There are special chiropractors, such as Ted Carrick, who may have invented something called Chiropractic Neurology. On the other hand, there are also chiropractors who want to be family M.D. can't get the degree, but want the job any way. 

So what's wrong with this guy? Let's start with the premise: brain supplement. I.e. nutritional supplement that helps your brain, with 14 important ingredients! What are they? They ain't telling. 

The company is called Brain Abundance, where they claimed the following:

In fact, thanks to our Co-founder Dr. Pejman Behrouzi, along with our team of top experts in the fields of neuroscience, nutrition, medical science, and product formulation Brain Fuel PLUS is the most complete supplement for your brain ever created!

On a different page Dr. Pejman Behrouzi is listed as "chief science officer" along with head of the company. 

Notice the word "neuromusculoskeletal"? That's codeword for "chiropractor". 

MLM Woo: Marine Phytoplankton and Rose As Nutritional Supplement

Simple question: Do you eat algae?

Of course not. Waterborne insects, small fish and crustaceans, and amphibians like frogs eat algae. Remember those aquarium mini catfish that sucks the bottom and the sides? They're eating algae.

In large bunches, fresh water algae is also known as "pond scum".

How about marine phytoplanktons? That's just microscopic algae that live on the ocean. It's "sea scum" (instead of pond scum!)  Whales and some other cetaceans eat them. Crustaceans like shrimp and zooplanktons (micro-shrimp and others) eat them too. Marine invertebrates like sea stars, sea cucumbers, and so on also eat marine phytoplanktons.

Would you eat marine phytoplanktons? I don't see why you would when you won't eat algae. Clearly, fruits and vegetables are much more delicious for us land lubbers.

Or to put it even more plainly... Do you prefer eating this:

Or this?

The choice is clear, isn't it? You'd choose the latter.

So why is "marine phytoplankton" being marketed as some sort of super food?

Think about it, folks. Why would a LAND animal, such as human, achieve full absorption of MARINE phytoplankton? When there are plenty of LAND phytonutrients available as fruits and vegetables?

Or put it another way, why would any one pay to eat sea equivalent of pond scum, when there's plenty of delicious fruits and vegetables prepared any way you like?

And how much do you actually get any way?

When Scientists are Skeptics, We All Win (Yes, this is Related to MLM, sort of)

Alan Sokal is a physicist that read the journals where his papers (and tons of other papers) are published, and wondered... Does someone actually read all that stuff? So he proceed to write the WORST paper he could possibly write. It's complete bull****, filled with buzzwords ("quantum gravity..." Ooooohhhhh! Aaaaahhhhhh!" )  but completely bull****. The paper was called "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity", and it was submitted to a journal called "Social Text", an academic journal of postmoderncultural studies.

It got published in 1996. When Sokal revealed the whole paper is pure bull****, and he basically "trolled" that journal, the feedback was definitely mixed. Some are horrified at the "lack" of vigor the editors of the journal demonstrated. Others are angry at Sokal for ridiculing other "scientists". There's also question on what exactly is "postmodernacultural studies", and why would a physicist try to troll them, and so on. The whole thing was dubbed "Sokal Affair" and even has its own Wikipedia entry.

The point is a scientists was skeptical of something, and he built a test to test that something.

How many of you would be willing to do that, or have done that, and I mean really test it, not merely "I tried it, it works, I got paid"?

Alan Sokal just struck again, when he and some friends took apart two psychologists, Fredrickson and Losada, who attempted to apply Lorenz Equation (huh) to "positivity ratio", and how feeling too happy will lead to a happiness inversion (what?) when the positive emotion to negative emotion ratio reached the tipping point of 2.9013 (huh?)  Sokal, along with Nicholas Brown, and Harris Friedman basically destroyed that other paper for all of the various reasons, including bogus math, bad logic, and much more.

Now you say, what does *that* have to do with MLM? Ah, but you see, this "positivity ratio" was a popular topic among the various "motivational speakers" who often show up at MLM events to "inspire" the crowd, and it was simply never challenged (cited over 1000 times, according to Google Scholar).

So what exactly is this "Positivity Ratio", how motivational speakers are citing it, and why is it bull****?

HILARIOUS: When even woo is bad woo

English: Cat litter in box (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Woo, short for woo-woo, are ideas that are extremely irrational or based on very flimsy evidence, and is also sometimes used to stand for material / products  that has no effect other than placebo. They often claim some revolutionary (allegedly) ingredient that supposedly has such benefits to the body, and is normally a version of "quackery".

Recently, Waiora settled a class action lawsuit when it essentially admitted that they had been watering down their product, something called "Natural Cell Defense", or NCD, which supposedly contains "zeolite", derived from volcanic rock that balances your pH and helps your body purge toxins.

What they don't tell you is zeolites are mined out of earth to the tune of 3 MILLION TONS PER YEAR.

How much does your little bottle of NCD contain? Supposedly 2500 mg (that's milligrams)

Except it doesn't even hold that much in reality, hence the class action lawsuit.