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Smilin' Bob Not Smilin' Anymore
Consumerist reports an Associated Press release that Steve Warshak, 42, was found guilty of 93 counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. His 75-year-old mother, who has cancer, was found guilty of conspiracy and other charges, and was sentenced to 2-years, but is free pending appeal. US District Judge Arthur Spiegel, in Cincinnati, OH, denied Mr. Warshak's request to remain free pending appeal, but gave him 30 days to wrap up his affairs and report to prison. Besides Enzyte, Washak's company, Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, who also distributes products to boost energy, manage weight, reduce memory loss and aid sleep, will be allowed to stay in business — but must forfeit $500 million. Among their most egregious offenses was a requirement of a Notarized statement from a doctor certifying that they had a small penis. Amazingly, remarkably few customers availed themselves of the refund offer. Unfortunately, it looks like the commercials will still be able to continue...
People with little dicks will do anything for a cure. One that doesn't require them telling people about their sexual problems is even more likely to make money given their desperation.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
So he has to go to prison, and his 75 y/o mom stays free? Screw that! put her wrinkly ass in the pen too.
To be fair, we're living in one of the few times in human history when typical snake oil claims 'can' be real. There actually are drugs that can decrease wrinkles, increase hair growth, or keep you awake when you should be asleep. I can't blame people quite as much for not understanding how to do proper research on something, or knowing signs of a scam.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Its easy to get people to believe something they want as opposed to something they don't.
Trying to convince the religious that their religion is a sham is next to impossible.
Trying to convince the poor that they can become rich overnight is easy.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
How do people suspend their critical thinking enough to believe these things?
Two letters: T.V.
She had pleaded with the judge not to send her to prison. "I have grandchildren," she said. "The time I have left, I'd like to spend with them. I don't think it's fair to take me away from them."
I don't understand how it matters that she has grandchildren or how old she may be. She was convicted of fraud and other crimes, so the law she punish her the same.
Anything and Everything about the Net
For as long as there's been culture, there's always been con men. It's always a sensitive balance for a society to decide how much fraud to allow to go on, and what to call fraud. From countless iterations of fortune tellers, to confidence schemes, to games of chance, to plain old commercial advertising, there have always been the grey areas where the clever can take from the gullible, but find ways to avoid the usual punishments for theft or fraud.
Most societies find ways to prevent too much subjective productivity from being lost to these schemes, but sometimes more than just public awareness is needed to counter the effects of such large scale con jobs. In the 1950's, there were bunco squads, or sections of the police force organized to find common fraud, such as fortune tellers, rigged games, confidence swindles, and the like. I think we could use more of those today - law enforcement devoted to tracking down leads on swindlers for the public interest. Skeptical communities and movements are nice - but very few people are really interested in learning how scams work before they're fooled by them, and it seems there's always a multiplying number of desperate swindlers looking to fool more folks out of money while hiding from consequences.
Ryan Fenton
A lot of people start out somewhat but not completely skeptical, think "hmm I'll try a few and see", and think they see signs of it working so get sold.
Of course, this should be harder with something like penis enlargement where in theory you could actually measure it. It's a lot easier explanation for why things like homeopathic sleep aids work, because falling asleep is a very placebo-susceptible sort of thing.
And of course, it's not just snake-oil salesmen: a large portion of modern "lifestyle" pharmaceuticals work more through the placebo effect than they do through pharmaceutical means, even the ones that do have demonstrable more-than-placebo effect.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The thing is that a lot of people only think they have a small penis, when they are well with in the normal range for "average". Luckily people don't normally see your penis. Women have to deal with snake oil salesmen for boob size and thinness, and it's harder to resist these charlatans when their size is apparent to everyone.
I also blame society's preoccupation with sex. (not anything new there)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
...it was shown that this stuff doesn't do anything. It's just a combination of every herbal 'aphrodisiac' in one pill. I admired the ads early on because they were so cheeky and it otherwise looked like a 'legitimate' pharmaceutical. Shortly after that they just became annoying. Besides, when you can get something like this without a prescription, over-the-counter (or worse, by TV mail-order) you must understand that it will not do anything useful.
Probably because most people are clueless about their rights as credit card customers. People simply aren't aware that they can call their credit card company and get instant action on any fraudulent charge.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
Actually they are more well known as "supplements" which fit into a nice little loophole in our system.
There are many cases of supplements causing health issues and the cases have been going on for quite some time. Since supplements do not require "evaluation by the FDA" they can claim just about anything as long as there is some thread of truth to it. And remember, that long term health effects have not been studied by ANY supplement, and since this is the case, you should always be careful with supplements and ALWAYS talk to a doctor first.
Doctors will probably not know, but its better then letting the commercial decide for you. At least an educated person who can NOT disclose what you talked to them about will give you some advice verses some well-scripted commercial.
As for smiling Bob, if you notice the commercials they never once state "this will make your dick bigger". Its assumed by innuendo. They claim "male enhancement" which can mean just about anything. Maybe you will lose weight, or maybe you will have more energy...but there are millions of ways you can interpret those commercials which was what really bothered me about the commercials in the first place. However, the innuendo was so strong that you had to think they were claiming their product increases dick size.
Which is only part of the problem to begin with. Supplements need tighter restraints to begin with.
And more time than Hans Reiser (15 to life means he'll be out in 10).
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
If I got scammed on something, I'd be livid, and I'd have the time, money, and skills to try to get the cops involved.
If I got scammed, I'd be mad at myself.
That said, I'd still go to the cops.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Well, that is partially true, but a lot of those are borderline scams too. Or, as marketing likes to call it, "creative puffering."
What I don't understand, though, is the insecurity about being within the normal parameters for your species. Let's face it, the human species just doesn't have the DNA for huge penises, nor a vagina design which would require one. Unless you were planning to fuck a mare, I guess. Last I've heard most women find over 7-8 inches outright uncomfortable. And most of the nerve endings are on the outside and first third of the vagina, so basically, if there was a modification to keep her happier, it would be girth, rather than length.
Even most of the male porn stars with huge "tools", had surgery to that end.
So, seriously, it seems to me just about as stupid as if, I dunno, I were to get upset because I don't have feet as big as the clowns. It wouldn't be an improvement to walk, but, boy, I wanna be above average. I wanna be like those clowns too. 'Cause you know what they say about men with big feet. (They need big shoes ;)
I mean, seriously, when and how did the penis size obsession get started anyway? (Including all the stupidities that serve as substitute penis size symbols.) Did marketing just manage to make half the male population insecure and unhappy about being normal human beings? And we still think that marketing is a _good_ thing then?
That said, I find it ironic, but nevertheless a good lesson in that this company required a doctor's affidavit that you have a small penis, to get your money back. Because unless someone was well below the normal size for a human, they didn't need to have it extended in the first place. I would have required a notarized declaration along the lines of "yes, I'm an idiot and insecure about being a normal human", but I guess their version is good too.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Well, you did get instant action. It was just followed up with more, negative action....
Your experience is pretty atypical from what I know of. I've never really experienced credit card fraud departments directly. The closest I've come was one card where the card company caught the fraud themselves, and automatically cancelled my card and gave me a new one. This was a bit stupid on their part because they forgot to actually tell me about this so I was very surprised one day when my card quit working, but there's a reason I always carry several.
But more importantly, even though you went through a lot of crap that you shouldn't have, you still won out in the end, and you still had a lot of options left at that point. The great thing about credit cards is that they only get your money when you give it to them. So whenever you're defrauded or the company screws you over, you are the one with the money and therefore you are the one with the power. If they try to screw you over, they still have to convince you to actually pay the mistaken charges and fees. You may take a hit on your credit score by refusing to pay, but even then you should (should!) be able to get that removed by explaining the situation to the credit agencies, and even if you can't it's still a small price to pay.
This is, incidentally, why I never use a debit card. With a debit card the money comes straight out of your bank account leaving your bank with the money and the power.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
Turmeric is fantastic for joint pain. I use it for my arthritis. My doctor also has me on several other supplements such as Omega-3 fish oil. So, some supplements are legitimate and do work. I do wish there was some kind of quality control so that we'd know what we're buying is the real thing.
life is all about learning from experience. everyone makes mistakes at some point in their life. you just hope that as you get older, you start making them less often. so i wouldn't blame the victim for being scammed.
however, i do get frustrated with people who continue to give business to spam sites or fall for classic e-mail scams. if people would just wise up then we wouldn't have such a big problem with junk/spam e-mails anymore. i think that's one particular case of a small group of stupid people ruining things for everyone else.
Women are insanely insecure about their bodies. I've known a lot of great looking women who are perfectly fine and they all have body image issues. Some so bad they're afraid to be seen in public in swim suits or sports bra's.
And by "perfectly fine" I mean body's that are athletic and toned, but aren't that Maxim perfect tone you see in the magazines.
Men are just as insecure, but we care about our penis size and our sexual prowess. Hence all the viagra and penis enlargment spam on the internet.
It's really pretty sad and a huge waste of energy. Men really don't care too much about a woman's body size so long as the girl is in the range of "average". And women could care less about penis size and some silly idea of how awesome a guy is in bed.
I mean, if you're an average guy with a decent job, has his own place, is a stand up dude, honest, caring, and isn't a push over, that's pretty much the dream man.
But we're basically stupid animals so we fret over the dumbest things and worry ourselves into being complete fuck ups.
I wouldn't go so far as to say it should be encouraged. At the time I posted though, it was the only thread and the memory of that conversation still makes me smile (the things people say!).
As for the ad's making you crack up uncomfortably, thats perfectly natural. Ad's for condoms or tampons used to do it to me as well. Our inhibitions are part of our social training, and are very hard to get rid of. Look on the dark side, if you seriously ever want to hurt a man, tell him he has a small penis. He will always wonder.
I reserve the write to mangle english.
Actually, I've mostly heard that in spam, rather than from any actual woman.
I'd warn against trusting marketing and PR "testimonials" too much. Especially when they tell you what someone else wants.
As a non-penis-size (well, or rather indirectly;) thing, take diamonds. Nobody gave much of a damn about them until the PR campaign to convince men that every woman wants a diamond. What actually happened there is that they actually asked some women, and were expecting to hear them confirm that they want jewellery. To their surprise, most said that they'd rather have the guy invest that money into something useful for both, like getting a home after they get married.
The whole point of that campaign became to convince you to _not_ ask a woman. Trust _us_, not her. We know better that she really wants a diamond. Just buy one already.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Further, we here at Slashdot, who are probably biased heavily to the educated, analytical, and practical, will always see through more of the scams.
...because we here at Slashdot never fall for bogus news articles, inflated claims by hardware manufacturers, or the promise of yet another best programming language ever.