Frank Sarcona was sentenced to 20 years in US federal prison for bilking more than a hundred thousand consumers out of at least $16 million. To sell his product, called Lipoban, Sarcona mailed letters to consumers inviting them to participate in an exclusive nationwide test of a new product that would allegedly promote large weight losses without diet and exercise. Consumers were asked to purchase the product in order to participate in the test. The mail order house was called the Lipoban Clinic, and the letter stated that the Lipoban Clinic was conducting a nationwide study with limited participation. Each customer was told that he or she was test participant number 731. Each letter had a fake medical insignia as well as phony endorsements from medical doctors.
Archive for February, 2010
Diet pill creator sentenced to 20 years
Friday, February 26th, 2010Anti-Drug Project by Polytechnic University Wins Government Grant
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Dr Vincent Ng and his team have been granted a sum of HK$459,000 by the Beat Drugs Fund Association of the Hong Kong Government for their anti-drugs project, “SunShine Pioneer – A ‘ No Drug ‘ Web-based Interactive Platform”. The project uses data mining technology on the Internet to help teachers and social workers to discover possible drug abuse cases. The aim of the project, spanning from October 2009 to February 2011, is to establish a digital channel that passes anti-drugs messages to students through the effective use of Web 2.0 technologies that engage students, teachers, social-workers, and parents in an interactive way.
