Clear for Life

As an internet marketer this kind of deception gets my blood boiling.

I’m about to tell you about a very dishonest tactic internet marketers use. This is not directly related to acne. But I’ve seen this trick played on different markets and I wanted to warn you about it.

For two reasons. First, this scam is very convincing and easy to fall into. Two, falling into this one can get VERY expensive and you end up wasting lots of time getting out of this net. You may even have to cancel your credit cards.

This video explains how the scam works. This example is related to the ‘how to make money in the internet’ niche, but the way it works in the other markets is identical.

Not a pretty things to watch - eh?

This video explains how the scam works to promote Acai berry weight loss product.

The first part of the scam is very similar to the internet marketing scam video. But go to about 5 mins and 10 seconds and you’ll see another way this scam works.

I hope you learned something from these videos.

I haven’t seen this scam in the acne market yet, but I’m sure it’s coming soon. For dishonest marketers these offers are just too lucrative to resist. For example, I stumbled on this scam when I research the teeth whitening niche. The offers would pay me $35 to $40 for every person who signs up for the free trial. Get people to sign up for two and you are looking to earn $80 per person!

Getting out can be expensive and frustrating. When I researched the teeth whitening products I found tens of stories where people had lost more than $100 and spend hours and hours on the phone with unhelpful ‘customer service representatives’ in India (they have to earn the $80 they paid to people who referred you to this scam).

Handling the toll free numbers is outsourced to an Indian company. The agents are paid to keep you on the program. If you are willing to spend hours screaming on the phone you might get a partial refund, but please don’t count on it.

Your best choice is to ask your credit card company to revoke the charges and ask them to give you new credit cards (as long as the company has your credit card numbers they can keep charging you).

Please keep your eyes open, and be careful of all the offers that just seem too good to be true.

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Clear for Life - The lifestyle for health, happiness and clear skin

Here’s yet another reminder to remain skeptical before you buy acne products from the web.

I recently stumbled across two dubious ones: Zyporex and Pronexin. Buyers beware as I have a good reason to believe this is a scam.

The scam looks very similar to Acnetix and Acnexus scams by Garret Devore Labs I reported about last year. However this scam involves a larger number of products, such as Zyporex, Pronexin, Acneticin and Acnepril, and they are sold by a company called Experimental Nutrition Research Llc.

The way this scam works is so similar to Acnexus and Acnetix that I believe the boys from Ohio (GD Labs is registered in Ohio) have been busy again; though I can’t be sure about this.

Here’s how the scam works:

• Create an acne product with impressive looking list of ingredients, fancy bottle and weird name. This is very simple and anyone with little bit of cash can do this. It’s not that hard to find companies that do contract manufacturing. You just tell them what you want in the bottle and the label to print on it. Even I get few emails from companies proposing to create my own line of skin care products and supplements.
• Create “independent” review sites that praise your products. The more of such sites you can create the better it looks.
• Hire Indians for $5/hour to create fake testimonials and posts to acne forums, Yahoo! Answers and other places. This creates the illusion buzz that gets people interested.
• Cook up another product and repeat the process.
• Move into other lucrative markets; such as weigh loss pills, fat burners, wrinkle creams, anti-aging creams and pills, night creams and muscle building supplements.

Sometimes you can just bottle the same stuff under a different name and call it good. For example the ingredient lists for Acnepril and Acneticin are identical.

Paying attention to website design also seems optional. Take a look at the so-called review sites below and tell me if they seem strangely similar. And if you are looking for real fun, check out the posts at their blogs. Some really… hmmm, interesting posts.

Here’s a list of websites involved in the scam (not conclusive):

• http://www.avecix.com/
• http://www.acnepril.com/
• http://www.pronexin.net/
• http://www.blackheadstreatment.net/
• http://www.acnetreatmentsreview.net/
• http://www.topacnetreatment.org/
• http://www.besthairlossproducts.org/
• http://www.sybervision.com
• http://www.pronexinconsumerreviews.net/
• http://acnecuresrevealed.net
• http://acnetreatmentguide.org
• http://www.fastweightloss.net/
• http://www.clinicallix.com/
• http://www.zyporex.com/
• http://muradreviews.net/
• http://skinidconsumerreviews.net/
• http://acneproductratings.org
• http://acneprilconsumerreviews.net/
• http://www.acneticin.com/
• http://topwrinklecream.org/
• http://www.topwrinklecream.org
• http://hamchoslim.com/
• http://assobar.com/
• http://www.nightcreams.org/
• http://12hourmiracleacnetreatment.com/

Why you should think twice before buying these products

I want to make it clear that I haven’t used any of these products and know very little about them. Using topical solutions is a bit like going into a casino. You roll the dice and see if you get lucky. If you are lucky the product works, tough luck if it doesn’t.
Given that their business model is based on lies and deceit (creating fake review website and posing them as independent) raises questions of their commitment to customer satisfaction.

You really don’t know what’s in the bottles. The ingredient lists look impressive, but that’s not the whole story. You could fill the bottle with cheap stuff and add miniscule amounts of impressive looking ingredients. That way your list of ingredients looks impressive without actually having to pay for all that expensive stuff.

Also the promised money back guarantee may be less solid than advertised. Heck in some cases people haven’t even received their products, as these complaints show.

This company ripped me off. I was suspicious they were conn artists and the company was a scam but was dumb enough to order anyway. It has been a month and a half and I still have not recvd my order. I called the company (of course their # is no longer listed) atleast 5 times, left 3 voice mails and also sent 4 emails. Still have heard nothing back. I used Paypal and am trying to get my money back but it doesnt seem to be working. I have spent so much time on this its ridiculous. Dont be a sucker and order anything from this ENR company, they’ll just take your money!!!! Im bitter and I want that company out of business!!!

Zyporex - Finally Reviewed… (scroll down to reader comments)

Zyporex is supposed to be a product that helps clear acne. This company is not real. Both the webiste and the testimonials are fake. I think the person or people behind this also made the other webite comparing the best acne treatments. I ordered the product, unfortunately without doing sufficient research, and never got it in the mail. They took $29.99 for the product and $7.99 for shipping. There is no contact info, except for a defunct email. I tried calling the number on my bank statement and I was immediately tansfered to a voice mail box that was full and not accepting new messages.

Zyporex Complaints - Another Internet Scam

This one is about Lipofuze, one of their weight loss products.

Elinalla,
You are lucky than me. I am staying in Singapore and ordered Lipofuze on July 16, 2009 via LLC. I still received nothing from them but they credit my visa more than US100 already.

LipoFuze by Experimental Nutrition Research LLC Complaints - Quality of product is negative

Better Business Bureau doesn’t think much of Zyporex and rates it as F. BBB Reliability Report for Zyporex Here’s what F means.

Company Rating F
Our opinion of what this rating means:
We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.

In case you run into trouble with Zyporex, Pronexin or any other of their products here are their contact details (as listed in the LA Times Yellow Pages).

Experimental Nutrition Research Llc
(213) 389-9044
3580 Wilshire Blvd Ste 1190
Los Angeles, CA 90010

Stop believing in magic and miracles and save yourself tons of trouble

Here’s easy way to avoid all such scams in the future: stop believing into magic and miracles. The reason these scam wagons keep rolling is because people buy into the idea they can just apply some cream or take a pill and get over their acne. Some may get lucky, but for most people it’s not that easy.

Acne is an internal problem and is a result of bad diet and lifestyle choices and, in many cases, emotional health. Start treating it as such and you can forget all these stinking creams and have clear skin for life.

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Clear for Life - The lifestyle for health, happiness and clear skin

Few days back Oliver emailed me and asked if I know something about a product called 7 Day Acne Detox, available at http://www.7dayacnedetox.com/.

Call me paranoid, but the moment I laid my eyes on that page I knew something was not quite right about it. Perhaps I’ve just seen too many of these stories.

It didn’t take too long to discover that the same beloved characters that brought us such heart warming scams as Acnetix and Acnexus are also behind the 7 Day Acne Detox miracle. Namely the colorful characters at Garrett DeVore Labs, or GD Labs.

Now by calling this a scam, I don’t mean that they just take your money and run. No, they probably do fulfill their end of the bargain. So you do get a nice plastic bottle with some nice pills inside it. But I believe that by creating these products GD Labs has their eyes more on your wallet than helping you to get clear.

Let’s see why I believe so.

First, the website just doesn’t look believable at all. It looks like something that’s been thrown together quickly. If I would have spent time, money and effort to come up with a serious product I would also spend time making sure the website reflects that. But perhaps that’s just me.

Enter the anonymous ’she’

Perhaps they are just really bad at this, but when you suddenly introduce a mysterious ’she’ in the middle of the sales letter as the heroine of the story, to me that just smells like a cheap scam. I mean, who is this ’she’? Where did she come from? What’s her relevance to this? Is ’she’ part of your so-called research team that accidentally discovered this 7 Day Acne Detox miracle product?

Please don’t keep me in suspension. I want to know!

 

But the surprises aren’t over yet.

Introducing the family where everyone has acne!

Perhaps this is another conincidence, but the mysterious ’she’ is really fortunate that her equally anonymous family and friends also have acne! Another blessing from the lady luck is that her miraculous discovery cured them all in one big swoop.

Boy, she really must be onto something if her whole family and all of her friends cured their acne with these miracle pills.

Why isn’t she on Oprah already? The people need to hear about this miracle!

Unfortunately in the midst of their excitement to bring this miraculous product and alleviate your suffering they forgot to correct the rather obvious typos in their sales letter. But we can forgive that since this is obviously one small person fighting the system in altruistic quest to alleviate the suffering of others.

But wait there’s more.

You just gotta love these FAQs

The 7 Day Acne Detox pills seem better by the minute. Just look the answers to these FAQs.

I mean, this product is so good that they have to warn you that your skin might clear up too quickly!

Boy, I wish I had something that good. But I guess 7 Day Acne Detox just wipes the floor with the competition. I guess I just have to quit doing this now, and get back to 9 to 5.

Perhaps you are smarter than me and can explain the dangers of skin clearing up too quickly. Perhaps it’s just too much for some people to handle and it makes them go crazy or something.

Please use the comment section to enlighten me.

Another amazing feature of the 7 Day Acne Detox is that the more acne you have the faster it clears up. Boy, do I now feel sorry for those with only a mild acne. Well, another reason for me to pack up and start writing my CV.

And of course the 7 Day Acne Detox doesn’t just cure your acne, it also reduces fine lines and wrinkles. And on the other page it said that users also lose weight.

In an earlier post I mentioned that GD Labs is a diverse company marketing weightloss, anti-aging and wrinkle reduction products in addition to their acne treatment line. I guess this is where the diversity really pays off. They can pull from their research and experience in many fields to create one super product.

It really gets depressing when you are faced with such overwhelming competition.

OK, let’s get serious again.

I touched on this when I wrote about Acnexus, but it seems that there’s a ring of few ‘review’ sites that post glowing reviews of all the GD Lab’s products. Other products are referred with less than admiring comments.

Coincidence again?

Maybe, or perhaps the same people are also create these review sites. So far I’ve identified these as part of the ring:

• http://www.researchacnetreatments.com
• http://www.sybervision.com/reviews/reviews.php
• http://getacnetreatments.com/
• http://www.pricesexposed.com/
• http://www.acnecuresrevealed.net/

There are probably more. And they seem to come up with new review sites all the time. Just like they seem to be creating new acne treatment products all the time.

They also post and ask questions at Yahoo! Answers and other similar sites. Of course their products always seem to work so well.

And the same thing happens at acne.org and other acne forums. For some reason the people posting good reviews of these products are always new members with one or only few posts. More established members seem a bit more skeptical.

They also sell their products at eBay.

At least these guys are involved:

• http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/nickzolo
• http://myworld.ebay.com/itchy22

At the time of writing at least other one of these had less than admiring comments on his/her guest book.

The smoke screen operation continues with supposedly independent people writing guides and reviews of these products at eBay. Just makes me wonder why they only review the products by GD Labs?

Here’s one example http://search.reviews.ebay.com/members/mckayster_W0QQuqtZg

Finally Rip Off Report had quite a few complaints about Garrett DeVore Labs. Here’s a link to the search results:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchresults.asp?q1=ALL&q2=&q3=&q4=&q5=&q7=&q6=Garrett%20DeVore&searchtype=0

Again, I’m not saying they are going to take your money and run. But perhaps you want to hear the other side of the story also before putting your trust on these people.

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Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear Skin.

Few days ago Dobre emailed me asking about alkaline water.

I recently started doing a little research on the effect of alkaline/acidic water on acne and health in general, and to be honest, I`m really amazed at what I found.
The reason I`m writing this email now, is because I want to know your opinion on the subject, and maybe you could do a blog-post-response something like that, to let people know if this is a scam or it may help.

As you may guess from the title I don’t share her enthusiasm.

This looks just like the other health fantasies and miracle cures that plaque the natural health field.

According to promoters alkaline water is supposed to:

• Bring the body back to healthy alkaline state
• Detoxify the body
• Hydrate you better than normal water
• Act as an antioxidant
• And pretty much cure every ill that has plagued humanity aside from global warming - but hold on that one will probably be added to the list also.

And it’s as simple as drinking water treated with their special machine or drops.

So excuse me if I’m little skeptical.

I couldn’t find any independent verification to these claims. Most positive comments come from people selling these machines and drops. And many of their claims would pass as science fiction. Most credible scientists laugh at them.

I know scientists aren’t always the best source when it comes to new developments in the health field. Energy healing and mind over matter are just few examples. Still the evidence against these claims is staggering.

Let’s look at alkalizing the body first.

Most of this acid/alkaline theory is complete nonsense. The body controls the pH of blood very carefully. It has to because even minor variations would be dangerous or even lethal. It has very good mechanisms for doing this.

Breathing is the primary mechanism for this. As a result of cellular metabolism you develop acidic wastes. Breathing out removes this waste through the lungs. The body also has buffers of alkaline and acids minerals that it uses to maintain proper pH. Any excess acid or alkalinity will be removed via kidneys.

This system works very well and you do not want to mess it up by trying to over-alkalize your body.

Decades of eating acidic and unhealthy foods do degrade the body, and it’s forced to store these acids or toxins into your tissues. Simply because it cannot eliminate them quickly enough. The only thing you have to do is to stop eating these. Instead eat healthier foods.

I don’t believe alkaline water does anything to remove these acidic wastes. Simply because alkaline water stops being alkaline the moment it hits your stomach. Stomach acids are highly acidic and mildly alkaline water does nothing to neutralize them.

And you wouldn’t even want that. Because your stomach needs to be acidic for digesting foods.

When you drink alkaline water the stomach responds by producing more stomach acid to maintain acidity. Due to nutritional deficiencies most people have far too little stomach acid to begin with. Further depleting it simply causes more digestive problems.

Another detox miracle

It seems that almost every week we discover a new miracle substance or process and easily, gently and thoroughly detoxes or flushes toxins out of your body.

They are all based on delusional fantasies about detoxing and how it works. They are always based on the idea  that something external is capable of removing poisons from the body. Somehow these inert substances spring into life when they come in contact with toxins and shovel them out of the body when you just kick back and relax.

Last time I checked I had to use the power within my body to put them into my mouth. I have yet to discover a substance that would on its own spring into my mouth. They are no more capable of detoxing your body as they are getting into your mouth on their own.

It’s always the body that detoxes and nothing external can affect the process.

Yes the body uses water to dilute toxins and then eliminate them. But you don’t need alkaline water for that. Simple, pure water works the best.

Antioxidant potential

Alkaline water is also claimed to act as an antioxidant.

The ‘proof’ of this is that oxygen reduction potential (ORP) of alkaline water is much better than normal water. They have nice looking meters to show you this is the case. ORP means the potential to reduce oxygenation (for example rusting or the process that turns cut apple brown).

I just haven’t seen any evidence that this ORP would have an antioxidant effect in the body. Further when you consider that real antioxidants (such as oranges) sometimes have positive and sometimes negative ORP values (alkaline water has negative ORP that that is claimed to be the key to antioxidant power). So if real antioxidants sometimes contradict this ORP claim I wouldn’t put much weight on it.

The hydration claim seems equally bogus.

The claim goes that alkaline water is restructured. They say normal water has clusters with 10 to 12 molecules. Restructuring reduces the cluster size down to 5 or 6 molecules. These smaller clusters are said to be able to penetrate cell walls better and thus hydrate you better.

Of course they forget the fact that water enters cells one molecule at time. So the cluster size is irrelevant to the hydrating power. There’s more to this story, and at the end of the post I’ll provide few references for you to check out if you are interested.

What about all the people alkaline water healed

The most impressing thing in the sites selling machines that alkalize water are the testimonials from normal people and doctors. So many people seem to have been cured from various illnesses by drinking alkaline water.

So it must be the real deal - right?

Well, the human mind is an interesting system. Once you’ve bought into something you’ll do everything to prove you are right. That’s simply how the human mind and our beliefs work.

So any potential health benefit is immediately attributed to alkaline water. Even though there could be many explanations to it.

Most people are dehydrated anyway and that leads to many illnesses. Simply drinking more water can ‘cure’ people. They could have also become more health conscious and change their diet and lifestyles.

Then there’s the placebo effect.

As humans we are quite capable of imagining all the evidence we require to convince us that we and our beliefs are correct.

I’m not saying this is necessarily the case. I’m just saying that the testimonials are not really credible proof that something works. Neither, or I should say especially so, is not discussion at curezone.com. Curezone is perhaps the best source of health fantasies on this planet.

So in conclusion I’m highly skeptical that alkaline water would have any healing power over normal, pure water. It may, but given that the promoters make such ridiculous claims and have no credible proof to back it up, I remain highly skeptical, and would rather use the $1000+ those machines cost to something else.

Until proven wrong, use this as a rule of thumb.

Anytime you see anything that promises to fix or heal you without you having to change your diet or lifestyle, it’s probably not worth your time or money.

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Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear
Skin

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Here are few resource to check out regarding alkaline water:

“Ionized” and alkaline water - snake oil on tap: http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html
Does Alkaline Water Promote Health? by Dr. Weil: http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA98873
Ask Alice: Alkaline water - Is it better for your body?: http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/4067.html
ACID OR ALKALINE? by Dr. Gabe Mirkin: http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/1603.html

 

UPDATE

After looking into the matter a bit more it seems that ‘alkaline’ water might have antioxidant properties.

I found few studies from Asia that indicates that alkaline water could protect against oxidative stress.

Still, I wouldn’t jump to conclusions from abstracts of few studies. It’s too easy to rig the studies to show what you want. Plus from the abstracts it wasn’t clear whether the studies were human or in vitro (in the test tube or petri dish).

So it’s possible alkaline water has antioxidant properties.

If you are interested of looking at the papers here are few links:

• The mechanism of the enhanced antioxidant effects against superoxide anion radicals of reduced water produced by electrolysis.
• Electrolyzed-reduced water scavenges active oxygen species and protects DNA from oxidative damage.
• Reduced hemodialysis-induced oxidative stress in end-stage renal disease patients by electrolyzed reduced water.

Here’s another money saving tip for you. Actually two acne books you should avoid. One pure and simple money-making scam and other an honest attempt to help acne victims but still not worth the money.

Let’s start with the scam.

It’s a book called Understanding Acne: Causes, Cures and Myths. The cover is on the left. If you see that, run.

So why it’s so bad.

First, Understanding Acne gives you no useful information on curing acne. None. It just repeats the same old and tired myths and information you can find on any average acne website.

Second, this book is written by marketers with the sole purpose of making money. They have no interest in helping you to cure your acne.

Click here for more detailed review of Understanding Acne: Causes, Cures and Myths.

In short, don’t make the marketers who are just out there to make money any richer.

And now for the second acne ebook you should avoid.

It’s called… well… I don’t even know the name of the book. So I just call it Acne Guide: by Sufferers for Sufferers. John Dunne stands behind this book.

Acne Guide is actually an honest attempt to help acne victims. I do believe Mr. Dunne’s intentions are good.

It’s just that the execution falls short on intentions.

I liked the fact that Acne Guide emphasized the connection between health and acne. There’s even something on detoxing.

So it’s pointing to the right direction.

The problem is that the advice is too simple to be useful for anyone. Diet advice is at the level of ‘eat more fruits and vegetables and avoid greasy foods’.

Nice, but not very useful.

Here’s more detailed review of Acne Guide: by Sufferers for Sufferers.

Unfortunately most of the acne books in the market suck. Acne is such a big market that money-hungry scammers gravitate to it like flies on manure. You can see it in the quality of these ebooks.

Besides my own book Clear for Life, I’ve only found one good ebook that I can honestly recommend to people with severe acne.

That’s Acne No More.

Acne No More outlines a rigorous fasting and detoxing regimen that, if followed, will cure your acne - no matter how severe it is. Of course the problem is that following such a regimen is no walk in the park. It takes lots of discipline. For my liking Acne No More relies too much on supplements, so following it is going to cost a bit.

Still, despite these limitation Acne No More is a good book and gets you clear. I’d even go so far that it’s going to get you clear faster than Clear for Life. So in that sense it’s better than my book.

On the other hand, Clear for Life is not so difficult to follow. It focuses more on building diet and lifestyle habits that get and keep you clear for the rest of your life. There’s less detoxing so it’s much easier and more practical to follow.

Anyway, if you are looking for a surefire way to cure your acne both Acne No More and Clear for Life will show you how.

Honest review of Chris Gibson’s Ginale skin care line.

Ginale skin care line looks like Chris Gibson’s attempt to enter the lucrative acne product business. So instead of selling you something once he hopes to get his hands on your wallet every month.

I wouldn’t recommend them because they are expensive, risky and, like all quick-fixes, dubious.

Let me tell you why.

When I started researching Ginale it struck me how little information I could find. I could find only few comments and reviews at popular acne and skin care forums.

Perhaps the product is still new, or perhaps there’s another reason for this.

At least I wasn’t greeted with barrage of paid reviews and comments that’s so common with most acne products.

Points for honesty, in that regard, to Mr. Gibson. Because I don’t think he would have paid for the few comments I found. They were all negative, such as this one.

I stopped using the antibiotics and proactive alltogether and bought the book acne free in 3 days. I did the stuff in the book along with acnezine. My face was cleared up. But I thought hey this new Ginale Skin care treatment that Chris Gibson made looks good, and I bought that. Worse thing I have ever done in my whole life. It broke me out completly worse than I have ever had before. I wish I could post before and after pictures of how good my skin looked when I was using Proactive or the Derm stuff.

http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php?showtopic=202611&hl=ginale

So far not so good.

Then I found this from the Ginale sales page:

The products you see below work at the cellular level by healing, hydrating, and renewing your skin like no other product on the market.

This is probably just harmless buffing, but it gives me an excuse for a reality check.

Please understand that none of these products ‘work at the cellular level and heal your skin’. That’s complete and utter BS.

The only thing that can heal your skin is your body. Healing is a complex function. Skin care products, such as Ginale, are inert and very much dead. How could dead substances suddenly achieve complex tasks (that are encoded into your DNA)?

Of course they can’t.

It’s just marketing buff designed to make you believe these products actually do something useful.

And please don’t think Ginale, or any other creams or lotions, can somehow nourish your skin. The nutrients in these are not in a form your cells can use. Nourishment happens from the inside out. Not the outside in.

They can only clean your skin and scrape dead skin cells off.

Sure that’s useful, but do you need 5 bottles for that? Especially at the cost of $85. When a normal soap and baking soda can do the same thing.

And I’ve seen too many complaints about Chris Gibson and his Acne Free in 3 Days to trust anything he says.

I mean, he claims that Acne Free in 3 Days is “Scientifically Proven Way To Permanently Clear Skin In Just Three Days”. On top of that he wants to put you on auto-ship program and send his Ginale skin care products to you every 60 days.

Something stinks here.

At least this time he’s honest about the money back guarantee. At the time of writing the sales page for Ginale reads (emphasis mine):

Better Than Risk-Free 30 Day Money Back Guarantee

As always, your order will be backed by the following better than risk-free 30 day money back guarantee:

“We promise the item(s) being received will be brand new and unopened. If you are not totally satisfied with the quality of the item(s), simply return the item(s) within 30 days of receiving them for a complete refund of the purchase price (less shipping and handling). The item(s) being returned must be unopened (package seals must not be broken) and unused to receive a full refund. Opened or used item(s) are not eligible for a refund.”

http://www.acnefreein3days.com/catalog/ginale.php

So as long as you are willing to order the products and only admire the beautiful package you are eligible for a refund. But if you try the product and find out they stink - tough luck.

Just makes me wonder how do you judge the quality of the items without using them… If you know, please enlighten me.

Finally I noticed that some items in the Ginale package make you sensitive to sunlight. You should avoid sun at all costs, and on top of that one of the jars contain sunscreen.

A bit of sunlight is essential for permanently clear and healthy skin. As I wrote in this post: 4 Ways sun helps with acne.

In my books avoiding sunlight to have a healthy and glowing skin is idiotic. It takes a dermatologist to recommend something like that.

I know this review has been negative. I hope I presented my case and reasons clearly.

I just don’t see a point in paying $85 to support a person with questionable business ethics. Especially since Ginale skin care line won’t offer anything you could find at less than 1/2 price from your local supermarket or health store.

You might as well just flush the money down the toilet. Long term the effect on your skin is the same. And at least you won’t produce 5 bottles of plastic waste doing so.

Real solution to clear and beautiful skin comes from the inside out. It won’t break your bank, but it does take some self-discipline. Get your act together and decide to do it. It’s not that difficult once you decide to do it.

I show you how in Clear for Life.

In earlier post I exposed what seems to be a massive scam by Garrett Devore Labs. Read all about it here: Acnexus - smells like a scam.

I just discovered another addition to the scam.

Acne treatment product called Acnetix.

This scam is so bad, it’s almost hilarious. Look at the error they’ve made in the sales letter.

In the sales letter they talk about Acnetix, how wonderful it is and how it’s going to save the world from certain annihilation. But then at the FAQ-section, they suddenly talk about something called Leptirex.

I had to take a screen capture of this before they change it. So here, take a look.

Leptirex is of course a weightloss pill that gets amazingly good reviews at the same sites that say Acnetix and Acnexus are hot selling acne products.

Besides these glaring errors, their all the sales pages look suspiciously similar. They have the same FAQ-sections and follow the same template.

I bet their business model is something like this.

1. Quickly cook up a new product
2. Invent an exotic sounding name (Bruunhause, Acnetix, Acnexus, Lepitrex, Freezox, Dermavisu, Reneuvitol… do I need to go on?)
3. Copy an existing website and try to remember to change the product name
4. Add it to your ‘independent’ review sites
5. Create fake accounts at popular forums and review sites and post positive comments about your products, such as this: http://www.acne.org/messageboard/acnetix-t203032.html (notice that that’s suzy8834’s first and only post)
6. Start selling on eBay
7. Cash in on desperate people that are willing to hand over their money for false promises printed on a nice looking bottle
8. Laugh your way to the bank

Lather, rinse, repeat until the FTC hauls your ass in jail.

Please, please, please don’t fall for these scams.

In many ways acne market is like weightloss market. Both are filled with desperate people looking for quick and easy solutions. And in both cases the solution is really simple, but it takes some work and discipline.

Getting clear is really, really, really simple. No secrets or magic required. Acne cannot survive in a body that’s in good health.

It’s so painfully obvious once you get it. And I mean really get it, not just nodding your head and forgetting it after five minutes. Once you get it, you really kick yourself on the ass for wasting years or decades with quick-fixes, when you could have been permanently clear in few months.

You can do it all by yourself. You don’t need to buy anything to get clear. Not even my book Clear for Life.

But if you are not quite sure on what to eat and how to go about this, Clear for Life can help you. I spent 7 years waddling through all the BS in acne and natural health fields to get to these simple truths. I took the simple and really obvious things that work and built the Clear for Life program around them.

Just look at what Nicole wrote to me.

Hey Mr. Pusso! I am so glad that I bought your book. I love all of your ideas, and I find my self nodding along with everything I am reading. Everything finally makes sense! I have been juicing greens everyday and i see and feel the benefits!

Once you get this everything does make sense. Getting clear can be simple. You just need to kick your butt and do it. If you don’t know how, let me take you by the hand and show how.

Another scam warning.

I got this email yesterday:

i tried acnexus, it made my face worse, i cant figure out how to get my money back or contact them. have people complained to you about them before?

I had never heard of Acnexus before, so I decided to look into it.

What I found smells the like the biggest scam of the millennia to me.

After a little digging I found that Acnexus is marketed by an obscure company in Utah called Garrett Devore Labs or GD Labs.

Little more digging revealed that this is a really ‘diverse’ company. It seems they market

• Weightloss pills
• Acne products
• Wrinkle creams
• Anti-aging products

If that product range doesn’t get your alarms going then I don’t know what will.

First Better Business Bureau has an unsatisfactory rating with Garrett Devore Labs with many unanswered and unresolved complaint. The BBB report also has address and phone number (in case you need them).

http://utah.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=139&bbb=1166&firm=22213772

Second there are at least two very pissed complaints at RipOff Report.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff146848.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/245/RipOff0245808.htm

The whole operation seems a little dodgy. From what I’ve read it seems that Acnexus arrives in a plain package with no:

• Invoice
• Brochure
• Promotional material

You simply get the bottles and nothing else. The labels on the bottles also had obvious spelling errors, which now have been corrected.

The company claims Acnexus has been a big hit in Europe and is just entering the US market. Funny enough, I live in Europe and haven’t heard anything about them. And Google search reveals absolutely nothing about Acnexus in Europe.

Next the lifetime money-back guarantee might not be as solid as advertised. As this poster at acne.org forum found out.

I got it from the acnexus website. I e-mailed them about getting my money back and they said that because of rock bottom pricing, the lifetime money back guarantee is no longer in effect. So for all of you who ordered this product from their website thinking you were gonna get your money back like I did, think again!!

Here’s another post at the same forum:

My concerns were with the seller’s false claims so there seems to be something wrong with all this. For that reason, I wouldn’t trust what is in the bottle. In fact, only God knows what’s in it! I purchase allot on the net and I have never been more skeptic of a product before. Many other people on this board saw weird things with it: product shipped from Utah (not Europe), stamps on the box (major companies don’t use stamps), no invoice, no “thank you” note, spelling mistakes on bottle, incomplete instructions to use product, no ways to reach seller by phone (you can only live messages and hope to be called back), and so on. There is not even a return policy on acnexus.com “because of bargain price of 50% offered” but the product always sales at 50% (???).

If you are interested there’s a long Acnexus thread at acne.org forums.

As many posters on that thread pointed out it seems the people behind Garrett Devore Labs post fake reviews of their products on different review sites.

I can’t say for sure, but it seems to me that at least these sites are associated with GD Labs:

• http://www.pricesexposed.com/
• http://www.acnecuresrevealed.net/
• http://www.sybervision.com/reviews/reviews.php

The glowing reviews on those sites are so obviously fakes that my computer probably reeks of scam a full week after visiting those sites. So consider yourself warned before entering.

They also peddle their wares at Ebay with many angry customers complaining about them.

Based on my research it seems to be that GD Labs is behind at least these acne products:

• Bruunhause
• Asso Bar (supposedly contains gold)
• Oxycerin
• Orovo
• Acnetin
• Zyporex
• On The Spot
• Juliets 3 Step Acne Solution
• Biodermazen
• Lipovox

The websites for all those products are both dubious and alarmingly similar.

My guess is they just formulate (cook up) one product after another, invent exotic sounding name for it and put up a website to market it.

Based on everything I’ve seen I wouldn’t trust GD Labs even with a rusty old penny. If you’ve been scammed and can’t get a refund file a chargeback with your credit card company.

I got this email from one of my readers. I think this might be relevant for you too.

She wrote:

“I subscribed to a free newsletter about acne and now get emails from someone named Bob Grant about his CBS System. Just wondering if you heard of this system (he’s promising that he’ll clear you in just 7 days).”

First I want to say that when you subscribe to Acne 101 the system offers you additional newsletters. I don’t like it at all, but there’s nothing I can do to it. I use a third-party service to deliver these emails. All of them have something like this.

Those other emails are not from me, and I have nothing to do with them. Better just click the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the end of them.

I looked at the CBS (Clear, Beautiful, Smooth Skin) System and here are my two cents.

Save your money.

I don’t mean to bash a competitor here, just to offer you friendly advice.

Here’s why I think you should hold on to your wallet and skip this CBS System.

First, I have to admit that I haven’t bought it. I only read the sales letter. But once you understand how to write sales letters and know a bit about getting clear and natural health, it’s easy to ‘decode’ the whole program from the sales letter alone.

I think it’s little more than a glorified ‘Acne Free in 3 Days’.

The CBS System starts you off with a ‘3-Day Cleanse’ (you already learned this from Acne 101 lesson 6) and then continues with some type of herbal cleanse in what they call ‘A Personalized System For Your Skin’. The rest of the program concerns itself with keeping you acne free and eliminating acne scars.

The CBS System is based on the idea that toxins cause acne. While it’s true that toxins play a role clear skin and health is much more than simply toxins.

I have no doubt that by following the CBS System some people get clear. It’s a step to the right direction. I’m just warning you that don’t buy into the delusion that you can permanently cure acne in 7 days.

It doesn’t work that way.

It took years, or decades, to develop acne. It’s going to take more than 7 days to cure it. Even if you fast 7 days with pure water and follow it up with 100% raw food diet your acne most likely comes back after the fast.

The healing process simply takes longer.

Yes, by combining a detox and medicating yourself with herbs it may be possible to get clear. But please don’t delude yourself into thinking this is real healing.

Please keep in mind there are no secrets to clear skin. Just like weightloss it comes down to the same old and boring story: healthy lifestyle. In both markets there’s no shortage of people who want you to believe they have finally, after years of backbreaking research and testing, and interviewing hundreds of experts discovered the elusive and long-hidden secret that gives you what you want easily and quickly.

They all play to the same human ‘flaw’ that we all want a quick and easy solution to our problems. Simply walk away when you see these kinds of offers.

Finally remember that clear skin and health is more about how you live your day-to-day life than what you do once in a while.

Because Clear for Life teaches you the nuts and bolts of day-to-day life that gets and keep you clear, I believe into it so strongly. And, sometimes shamelessly, promote it to you. I know it’s going to rock your world and skin.