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Senior Citizen Alerts
Senior Citizens Scammed by Fake Pain Relief Tape
May Get Money Back
FTC gets settlement of $2.5 million in consumer
refunds
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Darrell Stoddard
inventor of Biotape |
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Sept. 20, 2007 Senior citizens who fell for the
Biotape scam, an adhesive tape sold as a pain relief product, may be
getting their money back. The Federal Trade Commission reached a
settlement with the promoters that will provide up to $2.5 million in
consumer refunds.
Senior citizens, the age group most often seeking
relief from pain, are assumed to have been significant customers of the
two marketers of the alleged pain relief product Biotape: Smart
Inventions, Inc. and Jon Nokes.
In addition to providing up to $2.5
million in consumer refunds, a federal district court ruled that a third
defendant, Darrell Stoddard the inventor of Biotape who appeared in
the products nationally televised infomercial violated federal law
and must give up the $86,000 he received from infomercial sales.
The FTC had charged that all three defendants
deceptively claimed that Biotape an adhesive tape provided
significant, permanent relief from severe pain and that it was superior
to other pain-relief products. The product infomercial claimed that
Biotape was a space age conductive mylar that connects the broken
circuits that cause . . . pain. The FTC will contact consumers
regarding refunds.
The FTCs settlement with Smart Inventions, Inc.
and Jon D. Nokes, who disseminated the infomercial, bars them from
claiming that Biotape, or any other substantially similar purported
pain-relief product, produces significant and/or permanent relief from
severe pain or is superior to other products and treatments in
eliminating or relieving severe pain.
The order also prohibits Smart
Inventions and Nokes from making claims about the health benefits,
performance, efficacy, or safety of certain products, including any drug
or device, unless the claim is true and backed up by credible scientific
evidence. The order additionally prohibits the defendants from claiming
that a patent proves the efficacy or safety of those products.
The order against Smart Inventions, Inc. and Nokes
enters a monetary judgment of $2,510,511 the net consumer sales of
Biotape. The judgment is suspended as long as they fulfill their
obligations to provide funding for consumer refunds. Using information
from a database, the redress administrator will send forms to all
Biotape purchasers; if they return the form indicating they want
redress, they will receive money back.
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Looking to cure a serious ailment?
Unfortunately, consumers spend
millions of dollars every year on unproven - and often useless - health
products and services. Health fraud trades on false hope. It promises
quick cures for dozens of medical conditions - from arthritis and
obesity to osteoporosis, cancer and AIDS.
Fraudulently marketed health products can keep people from the medical
treatment they need, and some can cause serious harm.
The Federal Trade Commission is targeting false and unsubstantiated
health claims on the Internet through Operation Cure.All - a law
enforcement and consumer education campaign.
This website offers
information for consumers on how to recognize health fraud, guidance for
businesses on how to market health products and services truthfully, and
information about the FTC's initiatives.
http://www.ftc.gov/cureall/
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In addition, the defendants must either recall or
repackage and re-label all of the products already in the marketplace
that violate this order.
The order against Stoddard, entered after the
federal district court granted the FTCs motion for summary judgment,
contains the same prohibitions against claims and the same repackaging
and re-labeling requirements as in the order against Smart Inventions
and Nokes. The order also requires Stoddard to give up $86,000, which
represents the ill-gotten gains he received from infomercial sales of
Biotape.
The Commission vote to authorize staff to file the
stipulated final order was 5-0. The stipulated final order for permanent
injunction as to Smart Inventions, Inc. and Nokes was entered in the
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on July 12,
2007. The summary judgment against defendant Stoddard was entered in the
same court on July 27, 2007.
NOTE: A stipulated final order is for settlement
purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant of a
law violation. A stipulated final order has the force of law when signed
by the judge.
The FTC works for the consumer to prevent
fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide
information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in
English or Spanish, click
http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.shtm or call 1-877-382-4357. The
FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other
fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online
database available to more than 1,600 civil and criminal law enforcement
agencies in the U.S. and abroad. For free information on a variety of
consumer topics, click
http://ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm.
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