Michele Singletary’s personal finance column appears in the Washington Post. Today she reports that the BBB and the EPA are trying to warn people about mileage-increasing scams. I thought you guys might be interested.
http://www…01980.html
It’s good that the mainstream media are issuing these warnings. Maybe a few people will actually heed the warnings. But with people desperate to reduce their fuel costs…
I am glad that they are trying to warn people away from this type of scam, but unfortunately, people have a tendency to believe what they want to believe. Desperation and hard times breed gullibility, I fear. So, despite the best efforts to publicize the scam nature of this and similar pseudoscience concepts, some people will continue to waste their money, and it is likely that these will be the people who can least afford it.
“The EPA has evaluated or tested more than 100 devices promoted as gas-saving and has not found any that significantly improves mileage, said Howard Schwartz, director of communications for the Better Business Bureau of Connecticut, which also issued a warning to consumers.”
And there you have it.
There’s even a link to that independent third-party tester. In this case, the EPA.
I’m glad to see the warning…But I would love to see the EPA actually bring charges against these people. They have the authority. They’ve done it before. These CROOKS need to behind bars…PERIOD. Along with the Spammers that work for them. The ONLY way to stop these crooks is with criminal prosecution. Let them spend 10 years behind bars and forfeit ALL money they made from these scams. Why people like Kevin Trudeau isn’t behind bars is beyond me.
FINALLY…PROOF!
IT’S A SCAM!
WHODATHUNKIT?
You can safely bet that a number of people will see articles like this and then blindly plow ahead anyway in blind desperation.
It doesn’t help that many news outlets continue to propogate stories insinuating that scams like these actually work.
And you’ll see the next round of advertising by theses SCUM…
“As seen in the Washington Post.”
I don’t think they CAN get these scammers. Have you ONCE seen any actual contact info provided on the websites for this crap besides some “local sales agent”?
They’d hafta start by arresting those people, then work their way up the ladder of the pyramid scam.
Another trick is to place an ad in a magazine like PM and then say “as seen in Popular Mechanics”. I suspect that’s why we’re getting so many enquiries.