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The following article is one of the finest examples of fraudulent Hoodia Sales on the internet I have ever seen. This is the reason I created this site. This is why you MUST buy from the companies I list on the Hoodia Sales page or risk fraud!
NOTE - on 5-10-2005 I received an email which stated that if I did not remove this information that I would be sued. I have been forced to remove the name of the fraudulent company in the following text and replace it with "the company" to prevent legal action. However the name of "the company" for those interested might be found on the site of those that first exposed them...
Article Courtesy of: Truth Publishing - reveals the details of an exhaustive investigation into what may be the largest Hoodia Gordonii supplement scam operating in North America: "the company", company.
"the company", is selling counterfeit hoodia as verified by independent lab testing (actual documents revealed below).
"the company", is failing to fill their capsules with the promised quantity of powder. Our tests on a digital scale showed that capsules from "the company" contained only 290mg of powder, not 400mg. (Actual digital scale results and photos shown below.)
"the company", has sought to steal intellectual property from a competing hoodia company by attempting to preemptively register / steal its trademark and product name. (Documents shown below.)
"the company", has stolen Truth Publishing content, modified the text, and posted a distorted version on their own website in an attempt to mislead readers into believing that we solely and exclusively recommend their product, which is absolutely not the case.
"the company", operates out of a Nevada corporation set up and run by individuals who operate hundreds of small Nevada corporations, most likely for lawsuit protection reasons.
"the company", operates several companies and brands of Hoodia, which are advertised and promoted as separate companies, but are actually owned and controlled by the same people.
"the company", operates a series of fake "consumer comparison" websites that deceive consumers into purchasing their "top-rated" products, which are always products owned or controlled by the "the company", operators.
Revealing the Scam
This story begins in mid-2004, when hoodia was appearing on the scene as an appetite suppressant . At that time, Truth Publishing purchased several hoodia products, conducted interviews, and began listing hoodia suppliers known to offer honest products. At the time, we were convinced this included "the company". To further verify this, Truth Publishing attempted to locate laboratories in the U.S. that could conduct specimen authentication testing, but no such labs could be found (we called dozens).
As the popularity of hoodia skyrocketed since mid-2004, the bulk materials hoodia suppliers in South Africa were getting squeezed. Demand was skyrocketing, but the supply of hoodia couldn't be ramped up overnight. In fact, the hoodia gordonii plant requires 5 - 7 years to reach maturity, so there was a sudden shortage of raw material.
Selling sawdust and calling it hoodia
As Truth Publishing has now learned from a variety of interviews with the chief scientific officers at two different laboratories, the South African suppliers responded to this heightened demand by doing three things:
1) Blending plant roots into the bulk materials as filler. Roots, unfortunately, have none of the active chemical constituents that give hoodia gordonii its appetite suppressant qualities.
2) Wild harvesting species that appear similar to hoodia, but are not hoodia. While this may allow the bulk ingredients to pass a simple microscopy test (because it all looks like succulent material under the microscope), it will not pass HPLC and TLC testing (chromatographic tests) that reveal the active chemical constituents of the sample.
3) Cutting their bulk materials with silica, leaves, sawdust and other filler products that provide bulk, but no active ingredients.
Many commercial buyers in the U.S. were duped by South African hoodia suppliers who used these tactics.
Bait and Switch
Another favorite tactic of the suppliers was a "bait and switch" strategy: when a U.S. buyer wanted to test a sample, the South African companies provided a genuine sample of hoodia gordonii. But once a large-volume order was placed, the bulk ingredients turned out to be counterfeit. Truth Publishing can confirm that at least one U.S. hoodia supplement company is now engaged in legal action against a South African hoodia supplier who used this bait-and-switch tactic.
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., hoodia supplement companies were raking in astronomical sales as demand for hoodia weight loss pills skyrocketed. With all the money flowing, some companies decided that using authentic hoodia was irrelevant. As long as people were buying the product, they apparently thought, it didn't really matter what was in the capsules.
Truth Publishing can reveal that "the company", is a company now selling counterfeit hoodia. While we believe that "the company" originally sold genuine hoodia in 2004, we have now completed (and paid for) independent lab testing that shows the "the company" product to be counterfeit.
Source: hoodiagordoniiguide.com |
