[SeniorTech] Scam Alert: Fueling Fraud
- From: "Jerry Taylor" <jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "SeniorTech listserv" <seniortech@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:55:25 -0500
Tired of sky-high fuel prices? Phony gas-saving devices will cost you even
more.
Last winter Florida retirees Liz and Rocky Rothwell were looking for a way
to supplement their pensions-preferably in a way that would benefit others,
too. Sky-high gasoline prices presented a perfect opportunity.
"With gas prices as they are, anything that we could do to help people spend
less money and protect the environment would be a good thing," says Liz, 63,
of Maitland, a suburb of Orlando. "Or so we thought."
They signed on as distributors for a Texas company that sold little green
pills that, when dropped in a gas tank, supposedly boost a car's gas mileage
by at least 30 percent and cut dangerous emissions in half.
Within weeks of paying a $495 "distributor's fee" last March for a supply of
BioPerformance Inc. tablets, Liz smelled troubled...literally. "I was
overwhelmed by the fumes coming from the sealed bottle" of pills, she
recalls. "It made me sick."
And with good reason: It turns out that the "top secret gas pills" were made
of nothing more than naphthalene, the toxic ingredient in mothballs. "When I
tried it in my own car, my mileage actually decreased," Liz says. She adds
that her car mechanic said that "if we kept using the pills, they would have
damaged our car."
After their questions to BioPerformance about the product went unanswered,
the couple-Liz is a former writer for the federal government, and her
husband's a former fire department captain-asked for a refund. "We never got
it," Liz says. "I wound up repaying everyone who bought the pills from us
out of my own pocket." The Rothwells lost a total of $1,200.
They are among some 50,000 investors who officials say were scammed by
BioPerformance. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott shut the company down in
May after its pills were chemically evaluated at two universities. He says
company officials-including President Lowell Mims, who allegedly used
investors' funds to pay off his mortgage and to buy cars and luxury
goods-reportedly made millions running an illegal scheme that wooed
distributors and customers with false promises. Mims and other
BioPerformance executives, who could not be reached for comment, await trial
on fraud charges and are being investigated in Florida and other states.
When gas prices began escalating after Hurricane Katrina, sales of bogus
gas-saving devices, costing from $10 to $400, proliferated. Experts say
nearly all the products are useless; some are downright dangerous.
"I've tested a dozen different devices promising to improve fuel mileage,"
says automotive expert Mike Allen, senior editor at Popular Mechanics
magazine. "None of them resulted in any improvements at all. Several of them
actually decreased fuel economy, and several others also reduced engine
power."
Allen tested the devices in 2005 and in August 2006 at the Universal
Technical Institute in Houston. Although the new findings haven't been
published yet, Popular Mechanics reported the earlier results in September
2005:
Magnets attached to a fuel line allegedly make gas burn more efficiently by
breaking up clumps of molecules. "But gasoline molecules don't clump," Allen
says. "And they don't respond to magnetic force anyway."
Vortex generators installed on mass airflow sensors are intended to combine
fuel and air more thoroughly to boost horsepower. In tests, none improved
fuel economy.
The electronic engine ionizer fuel saver is supposed to increase combustion
efficiency. But in tests, the "increased combustion" not only decreased
power, it also resulted in an engine fire.
Vapor injectors installed in the engine compartment convert raw fuel into
vaporized fuel, supposedly to improve a vehicle's performance. In reality,
engine computers prevent any such benefit.
Water injectors use the same technology that provided emergency power in
fighter planes in World War II. But tests showed that the technology doesn't
work in cars.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has evaluated dozens of similar
gas-saving products, finding a small improvement in fuel efficiency in only
a handful. In August the Federal Trade Commission ordered the manufacturer
of the FuelMAX magnetic "fuel-saving" and emissions-reducing device to pay
$4.2 million for making false advertising claims.
"The bottom line," Allen concludes, "is that none of these products work."
The FTC and the U.S. Department of Energy offer gas-saving tips. If you
bought a phony gas-saving device, contact your state attorney general or the
FTC at 1-877-382-4357 to learn how to get a refund.
(from an online AARP article)
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Jerry Taylor
SeniorTech
<http://www.seniortech.us/> http://www.seniortech.us
Personalized In-Home Computer Instruction
for Senior Citizens and Retirees
585-964-3319
"Computers are not just for kids!"
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