Friday 1 June 2012

O24 Scam


It is getting difficult now to keep up with all the scam products appearing on the net at the moment. My post on the Nutrascience scam has now attracted over 10,000 visits and is still getting comments on a daily basis, but this is just one of the slimming products out there using the same modus operandi to swindle people out of their money. I say products, in fact it is usually the same product just renamed and put back out there, promising unfeasibly spectacular weight loss.

The latest scam product to catch my eye is a topically applied concoction of various random oils called O24, making unsubstantiated claims to relieve pain that I have no doubt breach Advertising Standards Authority rules, just as Finitro Forte did. Perusing the terms & conditions you find the phrase “authorising us to charge payments against your debit or credit card that you provided.”  That’s the phrase that gives the whole game away.

This variety of scam should be well known by now, but there are, I am sure, lots out there who will be lured in by the “special introductory offer” which will subsequently be very expensive for them. Don’t be one of them.

38 comments:

  1. Thanks

    I am in pain and nearly tried it. There is one thing though that may work for me half tsp each of ginger, turmeric and cinnamon with a spoonful of xylitol/sugar in a mug of hot water. It's strong tasting but seems to help with the pain.

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    1. I have been caught by this scam. I have had my credit card debited for £79.99 followibg a trial pack costing £ 19.99 I have phoned them and they are denying responsibility My credit card people are investigating

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    2. Dear Anonymous, Thank you for the above posting. As you'll see from my posting below, I too have just been caught out by the same scam. I will be interested to learn if your credit card investigation has any success.

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  2. Exactly as with Anonymous above, I have been caught by this scam in exactly the manner in which s/he describes.I have just received my credit card account which has been debited for £79.99 when all I expected to pay was £19.99 for the trial pack. I received no help from their helpline, who told me that I had agreed to this when signing up for the offer. Not having copied the original advert, I have no way of checking on this. I too will contact my credit card people and would be pleased to hear from anyone who has successfully negotiated a refund. What a huge lesson this has been about ordering from the Internet.

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    1. This has happend to me also

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    2. Yes I fell for same, I found out this was scam when I thought I would contact them to see where trial offer had got to, I had saved web page, clicked on it, it no longer exists! What sold the blasted stuff to me was Helen Mirren's pic swearing by it, hope she knows she's being exploited in this way !!! Off now to see if bank can stop payments as they have my debit card details, scrrreeeeam!!!!

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  3. I've been caught by this as well. interesting that the £79.99 was removed from my account 16 days after odering and the product arrived 3 weeks after ordering giving no chance to cancel and return it. Also headline price and total order price on confirmation is £ 19.99. credit card company investigating

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    1. Dave, your experience of the "trial" product arriving after the expiry such that your bank account is raped is quite common. He has no UK address now that I am aware of although he hasn't changed website details. Robert Tallack registered a UK company "Revive BioScience" late last year with an accommodation address in Haselmere. This is what the address management company told me:

      "I just wanted to let you know that we resigned as registered office for the above company in June this year after receiving numerous complaints. The name of the director is on public domain with Companies House should you wish to contact him directly. As mentioned we have no further dealings with this company and have asked our client to ensure that they remove Fletcher Kenney’s address off their website and any other material with our address on it. Unfortunately as we don’t have another UK address for them we can’t change the registered office address with Companies House."

      See my post below with who is the Trading Standards contact

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  4. Just one more thing. If your card company havn't canceled your existing card, make sure they do it now otherwise more funds could be removed

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  5. I have also been caught by this advert which I saw posted on facebook. When i rang to complain about the £79.99 withdrawal from my credit card account they said it was in the very small print, which it was, but hard to find even with direction. My invoice had NO mention of 14day trial and needing to return stuff. I am totally disgusted with allnaturalpainmanagement.com and recommend no one buy the stuff from them. Does anyone know where we can complain to?

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    1. Hi, I rang them on the supposedly free toll number( I am waiting for a huge telephone bill!) they tried to fob me off saying it was in the terms and conditions ,I insisted that they refund my money immediately they offered me a £20 refund ,I said no I want my £79.99 back eventually they agreed but only after telling me to return the product at my cost and my refund will be returned within 30 days !

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    2. Surrey County Council Trading Standards are involved and the contact there is philip.leshirley@surreycc.gov.uk so mail him as, to my mind, they are being way too slow in closing him down and putting a bit of pressure might help.

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  6. This mob of charlatans must be doing rather well, I too sent for the trial pack and my credit card was debited £19.99. Advice from Dave very relevant as, on return from holiday, my statement showed £79.99 debited and on checking online I now find the following monthly payment of £79.99 has also been debited. Contacted credit card who refer me to their Disputes team but alas they only work 9 to 5 Mon to Friday and I hold out little hope of any joy after reading previous comments. Wonder if BBC Watchdog would be interested?

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    1. jon - go to your bank and get them to start a chargeback. They might say they can't do this. Just keep saying "chargeback" to them and eventually they will agree
      HTH

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  7. I've had a refund of 79.99 after posting back they're trial pack at a cost of 12.99 so down 22.98, told them I'd be contacting facebook, which I've done.

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    1. Am about to return mine as well.....actually they owe us £89.99 because we paid £9.99 for it in the first place and they get the product back ! Ah well we live and learn
      I will never buy from the internet again !
      ever

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  8. Hi Dr Zorro, jeez; I've been following this scammer for months and amassed loads of information and given advice to others where possible (I'm SteveJC on complaintsboard). A very clever scam across about 10 websites launched in early 2012; set up of a UK company late last year with the money starting to roll in from UK in late May and little change in his tactics, although he is starting to vary slightly. "He" is Robert Tallack, aided and abetted by Gerry Bolivar. Tallack is CEO of Revive BioScience; his email is rtallack@gmail.com
    Surrey County Council Trading Standards are involved and the contact there is philip.leshirley@surreycc.gov.uk so mail him as, to my mind, they are being way too slow in closing him down and putting a bit of pressure might help.

    I've emailed 1and1 legal (his websites hoster) with appropriate scam evidence and they have replied; they won't do anything to take his sites off-line!!!!!!!

    Tallack is changing tactics; for the last week he has been using internet viral press releases for further promotion and now restyled his scam and calling it "Pain Management System"

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    1. good grief SteveJC I pity Surrey County Council Trading Standards with you watching this case!! Good on you, I shall watch for your 'What happens next !'

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  9. Use the link to report the scammer - Revive Bioscience address is

    Revive BioScience
    160 Greentree Drive,
    Suite 101.
    Dover,
    Delaware
    USA, 19904

    https://ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en

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  10. Hi Jane,

    re "What happens next?" As I expected then Revive BioScience have let the financial scam die and they now appear to look more legal. Diddly-squat was done by anybody or any "body" with the authority to shut them down.
    There's another one I'm starting to track;

    I'm referring to a "product" called Advance7.
    http://www.advance7online.com
    There is a reference on the website to Aquil Laboratories and a google search for them reveals another product called Size Zero. If you look at this site:
    http://www.sizezerouk.com/index.php?pac=PDW12A
    then it is the same set-up, style as the Advance7 site and the payments page is the same.
    Now do a complaintsboard search for Size Zero:
    and BINGO; loads of complaints - it's the same style and financial scam as the 024 Pain Management System perpetrated by Revive BioScience earlier this year.
    Aquil Ltd - so it's a UK company and is not found on Company's House, does not state it's trading address, or Terms & Conditions, or Distance Selling Regulations - so all in all it looks like the start of a scam; and as the site only went live in the UK recently then I am watching for the first scam report and will take it straight to UK Police/fraud and Trading Standards.

    Cheers,

    Steve

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    1. Hi Steve, Have you noticed Tapout as a product. Terms and ref same as O24 and same uk address.
      A new development today. Post office holding a parcel ex EU, duty and fees £18.24 or they send it back in 21 days.
      Although cancelled membership in July and cc blocked further charges, a new charge appeared for £79.99 for August 18. cc eventually reversed the charge.
      Regards, mick

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. Hi everyone,

    Yes I am victim of this scam too.Still trying to figure out a way to stop money coming out. 2 monthly payment now. arghhh!!!
    Anyway what I'd like to know is if anyone tried cancelling the card they paid with and did it work?

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  12. I am currently down 3 x payments of 79.99 - the last has just been debited to my barclaycard account after barclaycard confirmed that they would block any further payments ... I will call in the morning to see what is happening - I was actually checking to see if the refunds I was promised by barclaycard had been processed! I have only received the trial package - the post office tried to deliver the ex UK package with custom charges and when I realised what was happening I decided to not collect it from the post office. I emailed the company and got a, you signed up for this, response. I am very angry with barclaycard right now because my response to the company was, you aren't having any more of my money. I have not received additional goods so the cc company can claim back the charge as goods not received - so a hint is to not accept delivery of more packages from these crooks.
    I ordered this product in a moment of weakness after suffering months of pain post shingles and I am so angry to have been desperate enough not to have spotted the scam. I wrote to these people telling them explicitly that I was cancelling any agreement and required nothing more from them and they continue to charge me - I have received nothing - surely this is straightforward fraud and requires police action?

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    1. Anon: go to your bank and keep saying "Chargeback". Go look at "complaintsboard for other information I have posted

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  13. ANONYMOUS yes I am another caught out by this scam wanted product as it sounded it might help
    my wife with fybromyalgia pain - all we have is
    stress about payments taken from our credit card companies like these should be stopped from trading.

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  14. O24 has a facebook page and twitter account perhaps everyone here should post the fact that they will continue to take money from your account and that it is a huge scam.

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  15. UK Advertising Standards:
    "The ASA was concerned by Revive BioScience UK's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code..."

    Read it all here:
    http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2012/10/Revive-BioScience-UK-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_197916.aspx

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  16. Hi Steve. Any more news on Advance 7 being a scam. I have recently ordered some and a friend pointed out to me that it might be a scam. I can't see anything on their website but what should I do to take precaution in case they are going to start taking more from my debit card. Would appreciate any advice. Lin

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  17. The Romsey address is a Mail fullfilment House I have spoken to one of the staff at one of their phone numbers and she explained to me that the products were made in Europe, sent to Malaysia and then dispatched from there to customers. She said she could never understand why it went this route....I must say that I have sent products back to Aquil and received full money back.

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  18. Hi, I feel I have been scammed by this aquil ltd and the Advance 7 product.. after trying a sample of the green clay product I ordered some, but eventually after a long wait, the received product wasn't the same in any way shame or form.. I've made two phone calls to Aquil, both times I've been fobbed off and told it's the same cream, which it's obviously not, one being green and claylike with a lovely strong aroma, the other a white, thin fluid with little scent at all.
    Customer service were blatantly lying to me on the phone, even to the point he kept tripping himself up.
    I'm sure trading standards would be interested in this discovery and I would love some advice on how to proceed please, as I'm not prepared to pay for a substandard cream that was not what I was led to believe I'd be receiving.
    Emma.

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  19. Hi, An elderly relative has just bougt Advance 7 cream with a money back guarantee. Fortunately he always pays with postal orders [expensive I know!] so at least his back / credit card account won't be dipped. The product came in an envelope marked with a Singapore franking mark, but the product carton says it is distributed by Aquil Ltd, Braye Road, Vale, Guernsey, GV3 5XB. Reading the contents list, and not being a chemist, the main ingredient appears to be water. I tried looking at the Aquil website but it is not there.
    Ray

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  20. I have just received an offer from Aquil Ltd. for CollagenicaPlus. When I thought about ordering their lowest offer for the product I was told they would then be sending monthly orders. I immediately put the phone down. Their address is The Stable House Glos. UK. This is a scam.

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  21. I have just purchased a product for pain relief from aquil ltd it is a gel called arthro pharma it does not help pain at all it makes things worse I will be sending it back I have returned goods to aquil ltd before and recived refund

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  22. I am waiting for a knee replacement op also I have a tear and a bone spur I am in agony and I bought Arthro Pharma and as yet it has not helped at all This was from Aquil UK who should I report this to

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    1. A five minute search reveals that only two studies have ever been done on this substance. Both were funded indirectly by the company that makes it, though this fact is obscured. That raises some doubts. Secondly the list of ingredients leads one to doubt the plausibility of the claims made. What exactly do you want to report them for?

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  23. Partner just received details of Quercetin Max, promoted by Aquil Laboratory. Anything to do with Aquil Ltd. Is this another scam?
    Pete Mason

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    1. Just another random product with no evidence to support it's use. If you really want to try it you can get it from the health food shops for a tenner without worrying about your credit card being bled.

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