"100 Medical Discoveries that Cure What Nothing Else Will"

The claims?  One is that you can "dry up cancer with bread." Another claim is that you can stop smoking in 5 seconds.  And many more just as wacky.

This mailing is from the "Health Sciences Institute":
P. O. Box 925
Frederick, MD 21705-9913

We've seen this address many times.  We get cures and hot stock tips from the same group.  The physical address is 14 West Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD, shares the address with Agora.  For the BBB report, http://www.bbb.org/greater-maryland/business-reviews/publishers-book/agora-in-baltimore-md-211

The membership, with 12 issues, costs $49 -- and you get the free book on cures.  Wow, what a deal.

"GUARANTEED to help you restore up to 12 years of memory"

Today's mail brought several items.  One is a pitch for the newsletter "True Health", which will help you learn about restoring your memory. [ Dad fell for a lot of these "cures" for memory loss as he entered dementia, thinking that he was putting off memory loss.  Well, it didn't work.] You can join the "Gold Club" if you order a 12-month supply (with "free" reports and "free bottles of Memory Formula") for only $288.96. What a deal.

The company promoting this cure is:
True Health
P.O. Box 3703
Bessemer, Alabama 35023-9970

Also at P. O. Box 3703, Hueytown, Alabama 35023


The primary ingredient in the "Ultimate Memory Formula" is Phosphatidylserine, which is not found to be effective [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphatidylserine].  While an earlier derivative was effective, there was risk of mad cow disease, so another formulation, using soy, is marketed. However, the test results on the bovine formulation are not necessarily transferable to the soy formulation.  In other words, scientific evidence does not support the key ingredient in Ultimate Memory Formula as effective in preventing memory loss.

The shame is that this marketed to the elderly, who want to hang on to their memory.  They are very susceptible to the marketing pitches, that have healthy, active seniors in the pictures and lost of testimonials.

The advertisement claims that this is FDA approved. Please check out the FDA website -- you'll see that it is not approved: http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/LabelClaims/QualifiedHealthClaims/ucm073006.htm

False claims, targeting the elderly with very expensive "cures". Shame on them.

More from FC&A Publishing

Want the equivalent to Heloise -- helpful household hints -- in a more expensive book form? Well, for "only" four "easy" payments of $6.99 each, plus shipping and handling, you get the book "Fix it, Clean It and Make it Last".


This is the same group that sent a medical information "newsletter" last week:

Gayle K. Wood
FC&A Publishing
103 Clover Green
Peachtree City, GA 30269

Gosh -- they are experts in medicine and cleaning.

They don't seem to give up.  Dad has not bought anything from this "publisher" for over two years now, and they still send weekly newsletters with exciting offers.  Gotta give them credit for persistence.

Time Sensitive Documents: Oh my gosh, I must act fast.

Today's mail included a "Time sensitive Document: Reply Requested with a return address of Customer Service Dept., Post Offie Box 925, Frederick, MD 21705-9913.  This is so special that it was presorted bulk mail out of Bolingbrook, Illinois.

Inside were two items:

• A form to allow us to subscribe to "True Wealth" for only $49.50 for one year or $69.00 for two years.
• A newsletter made to look like tax forms, entitled "Get Social Security No Matter What Your Age".  This newsletter promises that you can qualify for $12,000 every year, file a secret 521-B and get an interest free loan up to $144,000, use a Form '3881-BK' and get $8,400 per year, and "time your filing of form 'SSA-25' and get an extra $700 per month for 8 years or more."

Gosh, this sounds good. It even is printed on something that has a form number "SA TW38" with something that looks like a bar code (similar to print outs from Social Security). Looks so "official". Gosh, this must be something important from the government.

But alas, this is a promotion for the newsletter that promised "secrets", with claims that other people have been able to get money from these secrets.

Check out:

• There is no extra benefit or short-cut to social security. If you want to check out eligibility, see http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10035.html.
• A Rip-off report about this company: http://www.ripoffreport.com/home-based-business/michael-j-palmer/michael-j-palmer-ripoff-secret-ne989.htm
• One of the strategies is to withdraw your SS application if you retired at 62 [521-B]. This sounds interesting, but there is always a catch -- like repaying the government the money you already received.  See http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.15/handbook-1515.html. 
• Another relates to "3881-BK", which is the SSA questionairre for children claiming social security benefits.  
• The letter is supposedly from Steve Sjuggard (who uses "Dr." in some of his newsletters and websites). Want to see how Steve Sjuggard's investment "picks" turn out? Check out: http://www.cxoadvisory.com/individual-gurus/steve-sjuggerud/  You see that some win, some lose; but there is not a consistency in winning.
• Investment U, Stansberry Research and  Agora are all related. It is likely that the website of the "Stock Gumshoe" is also connected to this group.
• For more on Agora and Stansberry Research, see the SEC complaint at http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/comp18090.htm.
• The bio on "Dr." Steve Sjuggerud states that he has a doctorate in finance (and some say "International Finance").  I cannot locate any school claiming him as an alumnus, and his name does not appear in the WWW Directory in Finance (where most folks with a PhD in Finance are listed).
• In the Division of Corporations, Florida, records, Steve Sjuggerud has three businesses: Sugarberry LLC, Beacon Street LLC, and Sjuggerud Capital.

There is a lot of drama in this newsletter about "secrets", social security, the government, and gold.  Similar drama as in the newsletters coming from the same source (Agora and gang).  What are these secrets?  They are just telling you what you could find out at www.ssa.gov. No more, no less.  Do you need to subscribe to a newsletter to find this stuff out? No.  Just go to the government web sites and the information is all there.  What you will learn is that none of these "secrets" really pertain to you.

"Exclusive" membership in The Oxford Club

Gosh,  this is such an "exclusive club".  We are so honored, so thrilled.  Of course, with this membership, we get exclusive stock picks (buy low, sell high).

There is even reference to Harry Markowitz, who won a Nobel prize in Economics (they even got his first name wrong).  But Markowitz has nothing to do with this club or newsletter, but you might not interpret it that way as you read the newsletter that is enclosed.  You can "implement the strategy in just 20 minute and then go fishing."

Well, first off, Markowitz portfolio theory is not about picking hot stocks, avoiding inflation, and consistently outperforming the S&P.  I doubt that the newsletter author has even read Markowitz's seminal paper on portfolio theory.  Second, as it has been shown time and time again, no one can consistently beat the market on a risk-adjusted basis.  If you don't believe this, then you are ripe for falling for cons and "pies in the skies" (e.g. Madoff).  The scientific evidence debunks most of what this newsletter purports.

Much of the newsletter is devoted to oil, and is prepping you for their stock picks,which are likely penny stock exploratory companies.

So what is "The Oxford Club"? It is one of the organizations connected to some of the other groups at P.O. Box 925, Frederick, Maryland.  Check them out at the BBB: http://www.bbb.org/greater-maryland/business-reviews/publishers-book/agora-in-baltimore-md-211 Apparently, not only can this company pick hot stocks to generate unbelievable returns (I am being sarcastic here), but it also has nutrition advice, hawks "cures", and helps you avoid taxes, among other things.  Exclusive?  It means that you are on the mailing list of this company and are considered susceptible to mail-order advertisements. 

Want to know more about "The Oxford Club"? Check out:
http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2008/12/claim-your-gas-rebate-check-oxford-club.html  for a discussion of one of their "tips".

The hype on The Oxford Club is also provided by Investment U, which happens to be a website of the Oxford Club.  Note the disclaimer on this website-- the folks dispensing advice are not registered to do so.  This is a big warning sign.  These folks are not qualified to give investment advice, but are doing so any way.  Check out the qualifications of the "Investment Advisers", and then run the names through BrokerCheck at www.finra.org .  It's always a good idea to check out the folks giving the advice.

The old adage, "If it is too good to be true it probably is" applies to The Oxford Club. At random, one out of many "picks" will hit the jackpot, but the odds are that you will lose your money by following hot stock tips from anyone. If they were so hot, then the "Club" would really be exclusive and would trade on these -- and not have to make money touting a newsletter.  As you read the newsletter, consider that anyone can look back at stock movements and identify a big mover and its gains -- and talk this up as if they predicted it.

Be careful out there.  In general, stocks are risky.  When you start getting in to the penny stocks, you are really talking about significant risk -- that most of us should not consider.

Scott Smith's Swiss Confidential

Today's junk mail comes in the form of a newsletter/booklet "Special Alert, "Secret Gold Deal" that "could make 10 times your investment in the next 4 months."

Sounds great, right?  Well, here are a few observations:

1. Making 10 times your investment in 4 months is, effectively, earning a 900% return on 4 months, which on an annual basis (without even considering compounding), is a 2,700% return. Sounds great!  But the reality is quite different.  Out-sized returns like that just don't happen.  
2. Yes, the penny stock that is his hot-stock pick has just bought mining rights from another company, but:
• This is not news (the transaction began last year and was finalized this year), and
• The fact that a successful mining company sold mining rights to a not-yet-developed want-to-mine company, should tell you something about those mining rights [if they were so valuable, why didn't the succesful company keep them?]
3.  The author claims "My inner circle of investors put their money into ..." and claims that they had a great return. Well, you and I could look back on many stocks and state "If only ..".  The author goes on to says that a 50 cent investment per share grew to $39.50 per share. 
• The risk of all the investments he discusses are significant. 
• The stock he claims to have predicted a movement for is Seabridge Gold.  It's stock history dates back to 2004 and it has never traded at 50 cents and has never closed above $38 per share. 
4. Looking at a stock in isolation is not a good idea.  Is it appropriate for your portfolio?  Are you prepared for the risk?  The company that he is touting is a penny stock company, Constitutional Mining, CMIN.OBB.  This is a company that has not had operations -- it is in the exploratory stage.  This means: high risk, no proven track record.  Not many of us have portfolios that can handles this risk.

The "newsletter" has lots of drama in terms of economic news, which is the usual "buy gold" fear-mongering.  He even has testimonials from investor who earned high returns.  Don't believe these returns -- this is not typical. You cannot earn out-sized returns without out-sized risk (or fraud). Just consider the investors in Madoff's scheme or any other investment fraud.

What is he selling?  His reports, sent through email.  The "best value" is only $362.90.  And, if you act fast, you can also get a free book with your subscription.

A few things to consider:

1. Is the person recommending this investment a successful investor? The author claims to have worked with Credit Suisse in Derivatives, but you don't know much more than that.  Having been employed by an investment house does not make you an expert. 
2. Is he trained in analysis?  Anyone can look back and identify great investments. If you cut out the drama in his verbage, is there substance there?  Not much.
3. What is this person's track record with respect to the advice that he is giving?  Track his hot stock (CMIN) and any other of his pitches over the next year before you take him seriously. It is best to gauge performance over 1, 3 and 5 years.
4. Is there any information that you can get from him that you could not get elsewhere? I doubt it. The "news" he mentions is at least 6 months old. Check out the company he is touting at www.sec.gov, using the links to the company filings, and at finance.google.com.  
5. Should you really be in penny stocks?  The answer for most everyone is No.  These are high risk stocks and you should be prepared to lose everything you put in them.

Mind, Mood & Memory: the "cure" for memory loss

The mailing from Mind, Mood & Memory has a return address of P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL,  The claim on the envelope is "Loss of memory does not have to be part of aging!", with a Free Issue sticker shown from the outside.

Inside is a letter with the heading is "Massachusetts General Hospital", along with flyers for a newsletter.

I don't doubt that there is science in this newsletter, considering the source, but the newsletter is sent to our address each month without use subscribing.  We simply toss it when it comes, but we never subscribed.  Perhaps they are counting on the "guilt" factor: we receive the newsletter and therefore feel obligated to pay for it.  However, we checked with the post office and if we never subscribed, we don't have to pay.

Unfortunately, when the elderly receive these mailings, they may feel obligated to pay for the subscription even if they never wanted it.  This is a tactic that we can attribute to the publishing company, Interlink Media, rather than Massachusetts General Hospital.