SCAM ALERT: Fend off Fungus Fighting Fiends

Fungus Remover, Fungus Destroyer,  Fungus Terminator, Fungus Free Protocol, Fungus Key Pro and Toenail Fungus Cure are all scams.  Nasty, overpriced scams sold on the Internet.  Even worse, these are just a partial list of some of the Internet fungus we’ve exposed.   We call these sites infoscammers because they mostly follow the same template:   Product Description, Examination Record,  Review or Analysis, Site Preview, Download button,  Pros and Disadvantages and Conclusion.   Many of them also have a Leave Page Pop-Up that makes it difficult to return to your Google search.   They are hawked by affiliate websites that come by a whole array of names, such as “Daily Scam Reviews“, “Review Tools” “Scam Review Today“, “ScamX”, “Queen’s Reviews” and other such sounding websites.  The vast majority of them are  little more than automated shills for these scam sites, designed to conceal real scam reports.   They are authored by professional fake review writing services or “reputation management” companies. While they are all hawking different “products”, the share many common sales tactics:

1.   They have a link or embedded video of the product/service offer.  If the outgoing link on the review product includes an affiliate tracking code, then you can be sure they are being compensated by the link.

2.   They don’t have a link describing the qualifications of the “reviewer”.  In many cases, the reviewers or the doctors touting the “miracle cures” don’t exist.  For example,   Dr. Grant Anderson is alleged to have “discovered” the fungal cures at two websites  (Fungus Remover and Fungus Destroyer).  We searched and searched, and I couldn’t find anything about any holistic clinic run by a Grant Anderson in San Diego. Furthermore, Anderson claims to be ‘an independent researcher in alternative medicine and a frequent contributor to some of the nation’s leading alternative health sites’, yet we couldn’t find any article written by a Dr Grant Anderson in any alternative medicine site.

3.   Many of them don’t have a “Contact Us” menu or reveal information about the reviewing organization itself.

4.   The quality of the writing is odd — either bad translations or boilerplate sounding sentences.

5.   The information at the web site is limited to reviews.    If the entire site is nothing seemingly impartial reviews, then the author has no expectation of having visitors return, and consequently, no risk of losing regular visitors.

6. They make some urgent Requirement for Paying a Fee or Payment.   If the deal requires an advance fee or some kind of urgent response or cash payment. If you feel any pressure to make a decision, don’t do it.  In fact, they should welcome your scrutiny.   Use the Internet to do a search for any transactions in which they’ve been involved and see what others say.

7.  They are over-complicated.  If you can’t explain the scheme to your 13-year old child, cousin or someone not savvy about medicine then you shouldn’t be doing it. Scammers often dazzle or intimidate their targets with their superior knowledge of science. Yet, most all of them get the science wrong.

8.  They raise conspiracies.  Some “government agency doesn’t want you to know about them”, they most all claim.  It may be true, but it’s not for the reason they assert.   The government agencies and “big medicine” aren’t looking to quash their ideas as much as hold them accountable for their unscientific, bogus claims.

9.  They offer guarantees.  Any offer which uses the word “guarantee” or “no-risk” should be viewed somewhat skeptically.  The only deals that is guaranteed are Treasury Bonds, and even there, some governments default on bonds.  There’s risk in almost all transactions because otherwise, your return would be close to the 1% or so that you’ll get from the bank for your savings account.   Scammers love to use those two words, so when you see or hear those questionable words in an offer, be careful.   Many of these “products” are sold by Software Projects Inc or Clickbank — both are notorious scammer havens.

Needless to say, don’t fall for these scams.    Make sure that whatever review site you rely upon has information about the reviewer and the organization and isn’t going to be making any money by linking you to that offering web site.  They are getting increasingly sophisticated.   For example,  “Real vs. Scam” is a very convincing faux review site.   It lists a large number of online product offerings  that are “reviewed” by some guy aptly named “Steven Wright”.   Not surprisingly, EVERY single offering that he “reviews” he seems to love.    And he has links at which you can buy all of these great products,that include the “No Think- Fool Proof Way to Lose Fat” Diet and a number of cellulite elimination programs.     Movie studios would love this guy……….but consumers shouldn’t.

Investigative websites like Isatools, Highya and ContraHealthscams have pretty much verified what we found about the fungus fiends — the doctors don’t exist, the cures are quackery and the information being peddled is overpriced.   Worse yet, their science is fundamentally flawed:  they claim  that the fungal infection of the skin and nails is NOT caused by fungal spores, but by ‘something that’s breeding in your blood.’  But the scientific fact is that fungal infection of the skin and nails are exclusively caused and spread by fungal spores.  Fungal infections are notoriously difficult to treat because they are eukaryotes which have similar cell structure to that of humans. This not only makes it difficult for the immune system to fight them but any drug used to treat fungal infections will be toxic to human cells. That’s why fungal medications often have side effects, especially when taken orally.   The body is capable of fighting off fungal infections, but it takes time.   However, these scammers try to exploit the difficulty in treating fungus by selling snake-oil cures.

While we didn’t download these fungal scams—and we always attempt to avoid lumping any product in with others (especially when we didn’t test it firsthand)—based on the fact that we’re told almost nothing about how the program works, the incorrect science that any doctor should understand, and the bottom-of-the-barrel reviews that accompany most of these e-books, we think you should speak with your doctor about your fungal infection before ordering any of these alleged cures.

The good news is that some large internet companies are starting to crack down on fake review sites.   Recently, Amazon filed a lawsuit against several websites that publish paid-for reviews on Amazon.   According to Amazon’s suit, the websites promise to write bogus five-star reviews for customers that pay between $19 and $22 per review.  They include buyamazonreviews.com and buyazonreviews.com  (owned by Jay Gentile).   Unfortunately, it’ll take more companies like Amazon to bring such lawsuits.   In the meantime, buyer beware of ANY Net-based sales pitch that has uncredentialed, slick video presentations with no independent reviews. It may not be a scam, but it is probably a rip-off because it is overpriced for what it is offering.   In this case, there’s lots of good diet information in the marketplace offered at a fraction of the cost of most weight loss schemes.  Save your hard-earned money.

One additional warning:  once you give them your money, you’ll be tagged as “meat”.  Once they know that you’ll fall for this pitch, the same marketers will be coming back to you over and over and over for other such pitches.  So understand that if you pay these marketers anything….let alone $390…..they’ll continue to hound you with more slick schemes designed to prey on your fears and concerns.  Don’t open your door or wallet to them.