Consumer Alert: Hoodia Gordonii weight loss pills scam exposed by independent investigation

Saturday, March 26, 2005 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: hoodia gordonii, hoodia, weight loss

Truth Publishing can now reveal the details of an exhaustive investigation into what may be the largest Hoodia Gordonii supplement scam operating in North America: the Pure Hoodia, Inc. company. (This article has recently been updated with even more evidence, see below for details.) In this exclusive Truth Publishing report, you'll learn how:

• Pure Hoodia, Inc. is selling counterfeit hoodia as verified by independent lab testing (actual documents revealed below).
• Pure Hoodia, Inc. is failing to fill their capsules with the promised quantity of powder. Our tests on a digital scale showed that capsules from the PureHoodia.com company contained only 290mg of powder, not 400mg. (Actual digital scale results and photos shown below.)
• Pure Hoodia, Inc. 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.)
• Pure Hoodia, Inc. 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 Newstarget.com solely and exclusively recommends their product, which is absolutely not the case.
• Pure Hoodia, Inc. 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.
• Pure Hoodia, Inc. operates several companies and brands of Hoodia, including the Hoodonii and Slimtron product lines, which are advertised and promoted as separate companies, but are actually owned and controlled by the same people.
• Pure Hoodia, Inc. 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 Pure Hoodia, Inc. 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 Pure Hoodia, Inc. 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 Pure Hoodia, Inc. is a company now selling counterfeit hoodia. While we believe that Pure Hoodia originally sold genuine hoodia in 2004, we have now completed (and paid for) independent lab testing that shows the Pure Hoodia product to be counterfeit.

The Microscopy test

The microscopy test shows the sample has no physical resemblance to hoodia gordonii. (Click image to see full-size.)

The first test conducted by Alkemist Pharmaceuticals (the lab) on the Pure Hoodia sample was a microscopy test. This is essentially a visual inspection of the microscopic structure of the material. Families of plants show unique structures under the microscope. For example, flowering perennials look very different from succulents. Similarly, leaves, stems, roots and rhizomes all have unique structural characteristics that are readily identifiable by a trained botanist.

The microscopy test conducted on the Pure Hoodia sample had no resemblance to hoodia gordonii. As the lab report states, "The characteristic cellular structures above cannot confirm the identity of Hoodia gordonii."

I spoke with the lab about this, and was told that the sample was definitely not hoodia, although it was, as they explained, "A common adulteration of hoodia seen in many samples submitted by various companies." In other words, it's not only counterfeit, it's also a "common" counterfeit recipe.

Even though the microscopy test is, by itself, conclusive, we wanted to conduct more testing to make certain that our investigation was covering all the bases. What test did we look at next? TLC.

Thin-Layer Chromatography

The TLC (chromatographic) test reveals no chemical constituents resembling hoodia gordonii. (Click image to see full-size.)

This test reveals the chromatographic profile of the sample substance. In layman's terms, each chemical in a sample resonates with certain frequencies of electromagnetic energy. As this energy is directed towards the sample in a progression algorithm that sweeps from short wavelengths to longer wavelengths, chemicals in the sample will resonate, giving off peaks of energy that are detectable by the TLC sensors. It is this combination of peaks and valleys in the chromatographic chart that reveals a pattern (a "fingerprint") for each species of plant.

In the TLC testing, the Pure Hoodia sample turned out to have no resemblance to hoodia gordonii powder. As the report states, "The chromatographic profile demonstrated above cannot confirm the identity of Hoodia gordonii." (Translation: the sample isn't hoodia.)

High Performance Liquid Chromatography

The HPLC test also reveals no chemical constituents resembling hoodia gordonii. (Click image to see full-size.)

Truth Publishing also paid for one final test: HPLC. Without getting too technical, this test is similar to the TLC test, but helps confirm the test findings from another angle. The results of this test confirm, for a third time, that the sample is not hoodia gordonii: "The chromatographic profile demonstrated above cannot confirm the identity of Hoodia Gordonii."

These were three separate tests all confirming that the sample was not hoodia gordonii. The only two possible conclusions to draw from this are that either the lab has no idea how to conduct tests (highly unlikely) or that the sample isn't genuine hoodia. Truth Publishing believes that the test results are accurate and that the Pure Hoodia product is counterfeit.

But this is only the beginning of the investigation. Once you take a closer look at the business practices of Pure Hoodia, Inc., plus the deceptive labeling and online marketing techniques used by the company, you will not be surprised at all by the counterfeit findings revealed above. What you are about to read may shock you. And if you were a customer of Pure Hoodia, it may in fact enrage you.

Unscrupulous business practices exposed

Pure Hoodia, Inc. tried to register the trademark of a competitor's product name. (Click image to see full-size.)

After receiving the test results described above, Truth Publishing began to look further into the business practices of Pure Hoodia, Inc. One of the first interesting things we found was a trademark application filed by Pure Hoodia, Inc. in 2004 for the phrase, "Hoodoba." Sounds like a hoodia product name, right? It is... except that it's the product name of a competitor (the StrictlyHealth company at http://www.hoodia-dietpills.com) who had been using the Hoodoba name for a considerable period of time, long before Pure Hoodia, Inc. filed for it.

The likely strategy here? It seems likely that the Pure Hoodia company was trying to register trademarks for the names of competitors' products. The only purpose for a tactic such as this would be to gain ownership of competitors' intellectual property, then sue them in order to take over their domain names or product branding reputation. It's a dirty tactic, and would only be pursued by someone with a very low standard of ethics.

Click on the image shown here, and you'll see the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filing by Pure Hoodia, Inc. for the "Hoodoba" trademark on July 15, 2004. You'll also that the trademark application reveals a link to a Nevada corporation.

Seeing this, we decided to follow the Nevada lead and check with Nevada's Secretary of State...

A corporate front for illicit operations

Nevada Secretary of State documents reveal a corporation mill and the name of an operator. (Click image to see full-size.)

At Nevada's Secretary of State website (http://sos.state.nv.us/), I ran a search for the Pure Hoodia, Inc. company. This turned up the record shown at right, which reveals that the company is operated by a corporation front organization named Budget Corporate Renewals, Inc.

From this document, we also learned that the officer of the corporation was Darrell M. Carriger, a person who has a more substantial role in this investigation, as you will see below. It's important to note that Carriger is not the owner of Pure Hoodia, Carriger is basically a front-man for corporations set up in Nevada. For those who don't know, there are basically two reasons to set up a Nevada corporation like this: 1) for legitimate asset protection reasons, in case you happen to be a lawsuit target from unscrupulous ambulance chasers and the like, and 2) for con artists, scammers and criminals who want to be able to conduct business while making it nearly impossible for them to be sued. You can guess which category Pure Hoodia probably belongs to.

The Nevada Secretary of State reveals a web of corporations for which Carriger serves as officers. (Click image to see full-size.)

Running a search on Carriger, we discovered 510 records with the State of Nevada, representing potentially hundreds of corporations (see right). This indicates Carriger is most likely an individual who will register and operate Nevada corporations for anyone willing to pay filing fees and annual maintenance. Although Nevada corporations certainly have legitimate uses, this pattern is simultaneously indicative of a corporate shell game played by con artists.

There's more to the corporate shell game, as you'll see below. But now let's shift gears and take a look at the marketing tactics of Pure Hoodia, Inc.

Deceiving consumers with rigged comparison charts

This rigged comparison chart deceives consumers by only recommending companies operated by the same guy. (Click image to see full-size.)

One way many companies use search engines and websites to deceive customers is to construct bogus comparison charts that imply a fair comparison among hoodia products, but that actually place self-serving product recommendations at the top of the list. You can see one such chart in the image shown here.

This originally appeared at http://www.thehoodiafactor.com/, but may have been changed by the time you read this.

This chart purports to show a collection of various independent hoodia products along with rankings from five stars down to one star. The top three products on this chart are Hoodonii, Pure Hoodia and SlimTron.

Sounds like three different products, right? Think again:

• Pure Hoodia, Inc. is registered as a Nevada corporation, formed by Budget Corporate Renewals, Inc., with officers as follows: President: Darrell M. Carriger. Secretary: Darrell M. Carriger. Treasurer: Darrell M. Carriger.
• Hoodonii is sold by a company called Globebix, which is registered as a Nevada corporation, formed by Budget Corporate Renewals, Inc., with officers as follows: President: Darrell M. Carriger. Secretary: Darrell M. Carriger. Treasurer: Darrell M. Carriger.
• SlimTron is sold by a company called Lugan Technologies, Inc., which is registered as a Nevada corporation, formed by Budget Corporate Renewals, Inc., with officers as follows: President: Darrell M. Carriger. Secretary: Darrell M. Carriger. Treasurer: Darrell M. Carriger.

This Nevada document also shows the Globebix company being operated by the same outfit. (Click image to see full-size.)

Starting to get the picture here? What this con artist does is sets up shell corporations in Nevada, pumps counterfeit hoodia powder into capsules, then slaps three (or more) different labels on the products, making it look like it all comes from three different companies. Then he sets up a rigged consumer comparison website and, coincidentally, happens to list his three hoodia companies all as five-star, top-rated recommendations.

Whatever company the consumer chooses, this guy wins. And he wins big, because buying counterfeit hoodia is a lot cheaper than buying the real thing. The consumer, meanwhile, gets screwed by paying retail prices for fake products.

Stealing even more intellectual property

This screen shot shows theft of a Newstarget.com article along with editing designed to mislead readers. (Click image to see full-size.)

When Truth Publishing started to uncover this information in our investigations, we of course removed our original link to the Pure Hoodia company which had appeared in earlier hoodia articles. The Pure Hoodia company didn't like that, so they decided to steal entire pages of content from Newstarget.com, edit those pages to make it seem like we were exclusively recommending their product, and then post those edited pages on their own website(s) such as www.TheHoodiaFactor.com.

This was not only a blatant theft of Truth Publishing's intellectual property, it is also causing untold damage to the Truth Publishing reputation due to Pure Hoodia's editing of the content page, making it misrepresent Truth Publishing's position on their products.

Sending a warning email to Pure Hoodia accomplished nothing. It was completely ignored, and the intellectual property theft continues to this day.

But this part of the investigation is by no means over, because by stealing content from Newstarget.com, the Pure Hoodia con artist has, in effect, motivated us to further pursue investigations and, potentially, support criminal charges against the Pure Hoodia owner / operator (who we will not name here, but whose identity is well known to us). You'll read more about this below. We are now fully aware of this con artist's multiple products, corporate fronts, and even his criminal history, all of which we are currently holding off on making public until we can put together a more complete investigation.

New information: Pure Hoodia rips off content from yet another hoodia website

After this article was first published in March, 2005, we received hundreds of emails thanking us for pursuing this investigation and reporting our findings. We also found out that Pure Hoodia has been busy stealing content from other websites as well. Virtually all content from the Australian website Hoodiaman.com was ripped off by Pure Hoodia and posted at the Pure Hoodia website.

Naturally, the original author of the content (Hoodiaman.com) was appalled and has been trying to get Pure Hoodia to take their content down, but it has been no use. The Pure Hoodia con artists believe they can freely steal content and scam the public without repercussions. And so far, that's exactly what they've been able to get away with.

Pure Hoodia, Inc. violates federal labeling laws

Thinking that a con artist who would sell counterfeit hoodia, steal feature articles, play nasty trademark games with competitors, deceive consumers with bogus product comparison charts and use Nevada shell corporations might also be up to other questionable activity, we decided to find out if the Pure Hoodia product was possibly violating federal labeling laws. As it turns out, we were right: the Pure Hoodia product is deceptively labeled and is right now being sold in violation of federal laws and FDA regulations.

To find this out, we purchased a high-end digital scale called the i2600. It is accurate to .1 grams (1/10th of a gram) and is calibrated with a 1kg weight (1000 grams).

Ten empty capsules weighs .9 grams. (Click image to see full-size.)

To do the math on Pure Hoodia's capsules, we first needed the weight of empty capsules. We purchased and weighed 10 gelatin capsules on the scale, which gave us a reading of .9 grams (900mg).

Then we read the Pure Hoodia product label, which claims 400mg of hoodia powder per capsule. Using that figure, the total weight of 10 capsules should be, of course, 4g, plus the weight of the empty capsules (.9). This means that if the capsules were properly filled with 400mg of hoodia powder each, the resulting total weight of capsules plus powder should be 4900mg, or 4.9 grams.

The Pure Hoodia capsules weighed only 3.8 grams, indicating a 25% shortage of hoodia powder. (Click image to see full-size.)

However, as you can see from this photo, the actual weight of ten Pure Hoodia capsules was only 3.8 grams. Subtracting the .9 grams for empty capsules, this leaves only 2.9 grams of actual hoodia powder. This is less than 75% of the promised amount of hoodia according to the product label and website (which should be 400mg per capsule).

The bottom line? Pure Hoodia capsules only contain 290mg of powder each, not 400mg. Of course, even if they were to contain 400mg of powder, the powder is counterfeit hoodia to begin with. But what this indicates is a double scam: the powder is counterfeit, and customers are being short-changed on the dosage.

Pure Hoodia uses the wrong capsules

A closer look at the capsules used by Pure Hoodia reveals the problem: the company is using capsules that are too small to hold 400mg of powder. The capsules themselves are simply too tiny.

Pure Hoodia capsules are too small to hold 400mg of powder while a competing product, Hoodoba, uses larger capsules and genuine hoodia powder. (Click image to see full-size.)

Take a look at this comparison photo on the right. You'll see that both of these products, Pure Hoodia and Hoodoba (a product from another company that actually sells genuine hoodia powder) claim 400mg per capsule, but the actual size of the capsules is quite different. The Pure Hoodia capsules are tiny compared to the Hoodoba capsules.

This is why a careful weighing of these products reveals the Pure Hoodia capsules to only contain 290mg of powder, far short of the 400mg claimed on the label. This puts Pure Hoodia in violation of product labeling laws.

Hoodoba, a genuine hoodia product, provides 6.1 grams in ten capsules. (Click image to see full-size.)

In contrast, take a look at the actual weight of the Hoodoba capsules from an honest company selling genuine hoodia (see photo on right).

Here, we see the Hoodoba company's capsules weighing 6.1 grams. Subtracting the weight of the empty capsules (.9), that leaves us with 5.2 grams (5200mg) of powder in 10 capsules, or 520mg in each capsule. This means the Hoodoba company is actually over-delivering, giving customers MORE hoodia than required.

Hoodia Products "Powerslim" product provides an honest weight of 5000mg for ten capsules. (Click image to see full-size.)

Another company offering genuine, lab-certified hoodia powder is Powerslim from the Hoodia Products company (www.HoodiaProducts.com). Subtracting the .9 grams of capsules leaves 4100mg of powder in ten capsules, or 410mg each (slightly above the promised amount per capsule).

As you can see then, other (honest) hoodia companies are delivering 400mg or higher per capsule.

The bottom line

As you can clearly see from this report, the assertions made about Pure Hoodia, Inc. at the beginning of this report are well documented and fully backed by hard evidence. Truth Publishing believes that the Pure Hoodia company is operating a hoodia scam, deceiving customers on multiple levels, and flouting the law in order to make a fast buck by riding the wave of popularity for a weight loss product.

They are, in effect, preying upon the desperation of people who are trying to lose weight with hoodia gordonii as an appetite suppressant, and in doing so, they are discrediting the entire hoodia industry.

Furthermore, until Truth Publishing initiated this investigation, no consumer safety organization, nor the FTC, nor the FDA were working on putting a stop to this. Pure Hoodia likely could have continued selling bogus products to unsuspecting consumers for many months or years.

It's almost as bad as the pharmaceutical industry, except for the fact that bogus hoodia powder probably doesn't kill people like prescription drugs do (prescription drugs kill at least 100,000 Americans each year, and that study was conducted before the truth came out about COX-2 inhibitor drugs that may have killed tens of thousands more). But many of the marketing tactics are the same: distort the truth, deceive customers, and disseminate propaganda masquerading as "public educational materials" such as the hoodia comparison chart shown earlier. Certainly, the lack of ethics shown here by Pure Hoodia, Inc. mirrors the dishonesty at large pharmaceutical companies who push hard to sell dangerous products to customers in order to maximize shareholder value and annual profits. If you think this hoodia scam is bad, you should learn more about the drug racket in this country and how the FDA rubber stamps dangerous (even deadly) drugs in order to prop up the profits of Big Pharma.

Action item: What you can do

If you have purchase products from Pure Hoodia, Truth Publishing strongly urges you to take the following steps:

1. DO NOT consume capsules labeled as Pure Hoodia, Hoodonii, or SlimTron. Truth Publishing does not know what powder is actually contained in these capsules, but the lab results are telling us it is definitely not hoodia gordonii powder. Do not throw out bottles of Pure Hoodia. Keep them. Law enforcement officials may want to contact you in the future in order to obtain samples of the counterfeit capsules.
2. Call your credit card company and dispute the charges, citing this new report showing the Pure Hoodia products to be made with counterfeit hoodia powder.
3. Spread the word: forward the URL for this report to your friends, family, or anyone who may have purchased hoodia products on the internet. Help protect them from this hoodia scam by inviting them to read this Truth Publishing investigative report.
4. Contact your local state Attorney General and file a complaint. You may include a copy of this report, if you wish (full permission granted to copy this). If you are in California, strongly consider this option, as the operator of Pure Hoodia resides in California.
5. If you purchased Pure Hoodia products by clicking on a search engine advertising link, complain to that search engine about the fact that they are unknowingly promoting a company with a fraudulent product. Help these search engines purge their pages of fraudulent products and promoters.
6. Consider contacting the FTC or other law enforcement officials on this matter. Only through law enforcement efforts can we get con artists shut down.
7. If you were harmed by the Pure Hoodia company, financially or otherwise, please email Truth Publishing at the email addresses listed on this site, so that we may compile a list of complaints for law enforcement authorities. We may also publish those complaints in an update to this investigation (we will not publish your name or email address, rest assured).
8. Help us track down other unscrupulous activities by the Pure Hoodia scam artists. Have you been scammed by another product that you think may be operated by the same con artist? Let us know via email, and we'll do our best to continue this investigation and bring this man to justice.

And finally, subscribe to the NewsTarget Insider email alert (see form at top left of this site) so that you can stay informed about new events in this ongoing investigation. What we've covered here is only the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot more to this story, because the operator of Pure Hoodia, it turns out, is involved in a whole series of other products and companies.

Newstarget receives threatening email from Pure Hoodia

Following the first publication of this report, we received a threatening email signed by Pure Hoodia, Inc. The subject was, "You have been dooped! [sic]" The email went on to say, "I sure hope that you have deep pockets because our lawyers are going to take you and your stupid little website down! ...you will be bought to justice for slander reguardless [sic] of your intent!"

This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, it indicates that the Pure Hoodia people can't spell. Secondly, it's a good demonstration of the operating tactics of this con artist: steal from everybody you can, rip off the public with counterfeit products, then threaten those who shed light on your scam. They obviously hold some faint hope that by sending threatening emails that look like they were typed by a high school dropout, they can frighten Truth Publishing into retracting this story.

It would be rather hilarious to see Pure Hoodia attempt to take all of this to court, because then there would be a public record of all the evidence presented here, plus more that we haven't yet published. And that's the last thing they want. They don't want any of this to come to light. They want to keep it buried and uninvestigated. As long as nobody knows the truth, they can keep running the scam.

Take notice of a couple of things about Pure Hoodia: 1) They never reveal actual names of people running the company. Even the email we received wasn't signed by a person's name. 2) It's run out of a PO Box and they never print a physical street address. 3) Emails from Pure Hoodia come from "freebie" email accounts. Basically, these people (person, actually) don't want to be tracked down. Everything's a front, starting with the Nevada corporations (all three, plus more, actually).

All of a sudden, Pure Hoodia welcomes your refund request!

Also following the publication of this investigation, Pure Hoodia has posted a message on their website reading, "It has come to our attention that our competition along with a so called Independent Consumer Guide and a Consumer News Alert website is trying to discredit the contents of our Pure Hoodia capsules so let it be know that if for any reason you are unsatisfied with our Pure Hoodia or Pure Hoodia Plus product feel free to return the unused portion along with your original invoice within 60 days from the time your paypal payment was received for a full refund!"

Why are they making this offer? Because, of course, they don't want the merchant account chargebacks. You see, they know that the only way they can keep scamming people is to keep their ecommerce merchant account up and running. If enough people request chargebacks, then their ecommerce chargeback rate goes through the roof and, eventually, gets yanked. And if they don't have ecommerce running, then they can't keep scamming people online. So now all of a sudden, they're welcoming product returns.

What's really interesting about this statement on their website, however, is that they're calling us a "so-called" independent consumer guide, and yet they are the ones operating their own rigged comparison websites as exposed in sections above. Interesting, huh? The fact is, we really are independent. And Pure Hoodia or anybody else can look all they want, there is absolutely no payola, no funny business, no kickbacks, etc., between Truth Publishing, myself, or any company or product we recommend. We're 100% clean, 100% independent. Which is, of course, why we tell it like it is. And that infuriates those who are used to calling the shots just because they're writing the checks.

What Hoodia products can you trust?

As this investigation reveals, not all products in the hoodia industry can be trusted. Truth Publishing is currently in the process of testing other hoodia products, and we hope to be able to bring that information to the public as quickly as possible (although, keep in mind, it is rather expensive for us to continue to do product testing, given that we receive no financial benefit whatsoever from sales of hoodia products, and we do not accept payments from hoodia companies).

In the mean time, here are the three hoodia supplement companies we have verified are using genuine hoodia gordonii:

1. Strictly Health / Hoodoba. This is the company that actually over-delivers on the hoodia powder. Their capsules contain an abundance of genuine, verified hoodia gordonii powder.
2. HoodiaProducts.com / Powerslim. This is also a 100% verified authentic hoodia product, sold with high ethical standards, with honest and accurate filling of capsules.

There certainly may be other companies who are also selling honest hoodia products. As of this writing, however, Truth Publishing has only been able to verify the three companies listed above. None of these companies pay to be listed here, nor has Truth Publishing received any funds whatsoever from these companies or the sale of their products. Our research results are NOT for sale (unlike some other so-called "consumer" supplement testing companies on the Internet).

Absolutely no payola

Just to reiterate, this investigation was conducted at considerable cost and effort to Truth Publishing. We spent well over $1,200 on lab tests, equipment and hoodia samples. We also spent countless hours conducting this investigation, interviewing various people, writing this report, and so on. Yet we have not been compensated in any way. No person or company has paid us to create this report. We receive no financial benefit whatsoever from the sale of any products mentioned here.

Permission to reprint is granted

You may freely reprint this report, along with the images and documents, as long as full credit and a link is given to http://www.Newstarget.com. Please spread the word about this hoodia scam to prevent others from being scammed.

A message from Mike Adams

If you found this investigation and report to be valuable, you may be very interested in the Health Intelligence Files. In the Health Intelligence Files, I use the same hard-nosed investigative know-how you've seen demonstrated here to find little-known strategies for preventing and even reversing chronic disease.

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To learn more, visit the Health Intelligence Files.

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This entire report is copyright(c) 2005 by Truth Publishing, Inc. Permission is granted to reprint. DISCLAIMER: While the information presented here is deemed accurate at the time of publication, Truth Publishing is not responsible for accuracy errors. Nothing in this report is intended as medical advice of any kind. This information is provided as-is, with no warranty of any kind. Your use of this information is subject to the Terms and conditions of the Newstarget Network.