On another thread about a sect called Desteni, some info came up about their similarity to a scammer named Kevin Trudeau. [
forum.culteducation.com]
A webpage on Gary Smith like this, could be started on request at SkepDic.
www.skepdic.com/trudeau.html
Kevin Trudeau is doing basically the exact same thing as Gary Smith, just with a different content.
But Kevin Trudeau has gotten in serious trouble with the FTC over and over, for making false and illegal claims, and false health claims.
Now Kevin Trudeau is trying another tactic, moving into the New Age area, as that is harder for the FTC to convict, one assumes.
The point is, the false health claims of miracle cures being made by Gary Smith and his associates, can be collated, and then sent to the FTC as well.
If a consumer feels they have been financially scammed by those false and misleading health claims, then they could file a complaint with the FTC.
These scammer's can't just start making claims they can cure cancer.
The bigger scammers know this, and just "infer" it indirectly.
But Gary Smith, being a small potato, has been able to fly under the radar, and get away with making those outrageous and false claims.
If they were reported to the right people, whoever is making those false cancer cure health claims, could be in serious trouble, and not just with the FTC.
In reality, compared to more sophisticated sects, the "Gary Smith" sect is totally vulnerable and wide-open in this area.
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www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/01/trudeau.shtm
For Release: January 15, 2009
Judge Orders Kevin Trudeau to Pay More Than $37 Million for False Claims About Weight-Loss Book
A federal judge has ordered infomercial marketer Kevin Trudeau to pay more than $37 million for violating a 2004 stipulated order by misrepresenting the content of his book, “The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About.”
In August 2008, Judge Robert W. Gettleman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had ordered Trudeau to pay more than $5 million and banned him, for three years, from producing or publishing infomercials for products in which he has an interest. The ruling confirmed an earlier contempt finding, the second such finding against Trudeau in the past four years.
Urged by both the FTC and Trudeau to reconsider aspects of its August order, on November 4 Judge Gettleman amended the judgment to $37,616,161, the amount consumers paid in response to the deceptive infomercials. The judge also revised the three-year ban to prohibit Trudeau from “disseminating or assisting others in disseminating” any infomercial for any informational publication in which he has an interest. On December 11, the court denied Trudeau’s request to reconsider or stay this ruling.
The FTC filed its first lawsuit against Trudeau in 1998, charging him with making false and misleading claims in infomercials for products he claimed could cause significant weight loss and cure addictions to heroin, alcohol, and cigarettes, as well as enable users to achieve a photographic memory. A stipulated court order resolving that case barred Trudeau from making false claims for products in the future, ordered him to pay $500,000 in consumer redress, and established a $500,000 performance bond to ensure compliance....(cont'd)
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