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Heightmax Scam Shutdown by FTC
Posted on Dec 13, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Heightmax is a scam that offered an herbal/vitamin supplement that promised to help young people grow. It cost around $60 a bottle which was supposed to be a month’s supply. Looks like the FTC finally got wise and nailed the fraudster (Sunny Sia) behind it. The website is down too. See the FTC web page “Federal Trade Commission v. Sunny Health Nutrition Technology & Products, Inc., and Sunny Sia.” It has the complaint, final order for permanent injunction, and news release.
Background: I started writing about Heightmax quite a while ago back on my old ScamSafe blog. In fact, if you Google search for “Heightmax” a ScamSafe blog post of mine is the #1 result (and has been for a while). One of the largest sources of traffic to my blogs are people interested in Heightmax information. Not to sound self-serving, but based on dozens of comments and emails, that one blog post probably saved hundreds of people from getting scammed. Unfortunately, thousands of people did get ripped of.
Check out some of the comments on my blog post:
AND THIS SITE THAT REALLY TELLS YOU WHAT A SNAKE THIS GUY IS
http://www.dc.bbb.org/report.html?compid=W7003694So not only is this company's supposed customer service phone number a CELL PHONE number, it's out of service to boot!
my friend actually got these...and they do NOT work. They give ugly side effects as well...at least for him.
I used this and got stomach sick in the morning after breakfast.
This is crap I just bought some pills and it hasn't even came in the mail so it took my 63.99 now
NEED SOME HELP !!!!!!! I ORDER IT TWICE FOR MY SON THEN NOTICE THAT WITH PAYPAL ACC THAT I HAD TO SET UP THEY WERE STILL TAKING OUT 63.99 EVERY MONTH .
But the FTC injunction is not the end of the story. (1) My gut tells me that Sia laundered funds and is hiding revenue, and (2) it appears that Sunny is still charging people’s accounts, fraudulently and without authorization.
First, why do I think Sia hid scammed funds from the FTC? C’mon, the injunction says
To settle the charges, defendants Sunny Health Nutrition Technology & Products, Inc. and its owner, Sunny Sia, will pay $375,000 in consumer redress.
$375,000?! At $60 a bottle, that means Sunny claims he only sold around 6,250 bottles. That’s absurd. My blog post received 20 comments. And it’s not easy to post a comment, you have to type in a special code which blocks spambots. How many Heightmax customers do you think actually took the time to Google search, find my blog, read the post, scroll to the bottom, and post a comment? I would guess 0.10% to 0.01%. If you believe my math, that means Sunny had between 20,000 and 200,000 customers (20 / .001 or .0001).
Second, why do I think Sunny is still at it? Just read the blog comments—people’s accounts are being charged after the injunction was stipulated. The FTC needs to call in the Secret Service or FBI and investigate this.
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