Formlife scam aka. health-c-p.com

Tuesday, July 9. 2013

The classic Formlife-scam popped up again. This is widely documented by authorities around the world. For example Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority have two articles about Formlife ja Vital Nordic (in Finnish): Kuluttaja-lehti 2/2013 about number of Formlife complaints and bulletin about Corex and Life Detox products from May 2012.

Formlife-scam has very simple modus operandi: They lure you in, from example from Facebook ad like this: and you end up in a web page. In this case the web page is http://wnmobile.com/fin/. In the page there is lot of health-related stories about how good their product is including customer testimonials. In the page they offer you an opportunity to purchase a sample package with 4 €. The price is not too bad, unsuspecting victims enter their credit card details and submit the order for a sample. Since I don't think that web site will survive very long, I have the web page as a PDF here. http://wnmobile.com/fin/ as a PDF

That scam-site of wnmobile.com is hosted by liquidweb.com in Lansing, Michigan, USA. It is obvious, that Network Solutions, Inc. has nothing to do with this scam. They simply are a hosting company.

Nowhere in their page they reveal anything about Health-C-P, nor Formlife, nor any of those already "burned" words. When postal services deliver the "sample" package, it does not contain a sample, but the full product, actually two separate products. Also it appears that they billed your credit card twice for the amount of 165 €. A shipping manifest will look like this:

It clearly states the fact that you have been scammed! They even mention, that your next shipment will arrive in a three months time. I don't think that they are that consumer oriented, and I strongly suspect that the next shipment will never arrive. If it will, they'll charge you for another 330 €.

The sender address of shipment is:

Health Care Payment
Postboks 313
9100 Aalborg
Denmark

According to GoDaddy domain information, the domain of health-c-p.com is registered to:

Anders Dahl Pallesen
Health Care Payment
Lyngby Hovedgade 10
2800 Kongens Lyngby
Denmark

The above address is real. Such an address exists, but I have no means on verifying what is in the building there. These two addresses are 400 km apart. The ownership of domain wnmobile.com is protected by WhoisGuard and cannot be accessed without government official involvement.

Company site of Health-C-P is (as you can expect) a rush job. In the bottom of the page it also has the address of Lyngby Hovedgade 10.

It breaks often. Especially when you try to access their customer service.

It is alwo worth noting that their customer support number of +44 203 598 2170 is in UK. It was operational when I called it, but it contained a recording saying that their "customer support is under maintenance and nobody can answer the call". The website of health-c-p.com is hosted by Hetzner Online AG in Gunzenhausen, Germany. Hetzner Online is well known for two things: cheap hosting of websites/e-mail/shell and ton of suspicious activity from those cheap accounts. It is generally listed as an Internet Bad Neighbourhood.

I'm sure that the same website will appear with another name and/or domain in a near future. The delivered product has the name of Formlife in it, so it is confirmed that this case is part of the long-running Danish/Swedish health product -scam.

Update (Sep 2013):

Finnish police publicly announced, that they won't investigate any foreign scams further, unless the damages exceed value of 5000 €. For the bad people, this is a license to keep on scamming. There is zero possibility of getting caught, because there won't be an international investigation.

In the above case the credit card company informed the victim that some money will be returned, if possible all of the lost money. Anyway, it will take months for the credit card company to process the issue.

by Jari Turkia in Security at 14:51 | Comments (15) | Share in LinkedIn

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Mirella filippini on :

I just wrote a email to them about it, and phoned my bank,but the bank can't do anything about it, they just take the money from your account, and there is no way to stop it! the only thing is to block your credit card, just say you have lost it,and in 5 working days you get a other one from your bank. But so they will not be able to take any mony from you. and next time read the conditions before you buy enithing, I can asore you I will!!!!
Comment (1)

gerard C Netherlands on :

My wife also ordered stuff from Helth-c-p in Demark. A first sample is very cheap, but the follow-up very expensive. Health-c-p speaks about a cool-off period of 14 days in which you can send back their deliveries, but in reality (customs i.e.) is nearly impossible to get the stuff back in time. Result: nearly 200 euro down the drain, and our money gone... My advise
DON'T ORDER ANYTHING FROM THOSE BASTARDS!!
Comment (1)

catharina Rubin on :

I placed an order with them but cancelled it immediately in the middle of the night and coud you believe, they answered, and cancelled the order by mail.
I wonder if I still have to change my credit card, or if I am now on the sure side.
Regards,
Catharina
Comment (1)

Dianne Weller on :

I also ordered in Belgium as I ordered 2 products and they sent 3 new creams for my next 3 months and charged me 375 on my credit card. I cancelled the billing with the company, AND resent the packages which arrived in the cooloff period. They agreed to re-credit my card. I have it in writing from them AND I have been trying to phone without success and to find a number in Denmark through a friend living there but he also found out it was a scam. I am going to write to American TV personality Ellen Denegres about it as they used her as a spokesperson for the cream to bring public attention to them. I am also going to follow up Chris Wouters posting to see if I can at least get my money back. This is disgusting !!!
Comments (2)

Jari Turkia on :

I feel you. Any publicity about this issue will be good. Innocent victims will know about the fraud and not fall for this scam.
Comments (2)

Van Duyse on :

The organisation is also operating in Belgium, same modus operandi...
Comment (1)

B. W. on :

Also we had the same trial order for only 2 x EUR. 4,00. However when you confirm this there is also a confirmation for an order for 2 x EUR. 165,00 each three months. READ THE TERMS AND POLICY VERY CLEARLY AT THE BOTTOM OF THEIR WEBSITE. Once you received the trial products the next shipment will be within 10 days. You have to return within the cool off period of 14 days, but the address they give to you, does not exists, so you cannot send the goods back in time. You never will. My advise to you BLOCK YOUR CREDITCARD IMMEDIATELY !!! That is the only thing you can do to prevent financial disaster !
Comment (1)

Suri on :

It also happened to me. (The Netherlands), and im not the only one! They took 334 of my creditcard and my creditcard company cant do anything about it! I blocked my creditcard immediately but it was too late.
Im going to the police today and a friend of my who is a lawyer is gonna help me.
I hate those kind a people! So watch out guys!!
Comment (1)

Robbertjan on :

How can we stop those people and their business .I llost 165 euroos .Cancelled my next shipment in time according to terms ..Next shipment arrived and was unopened returned by me and yes ....they took 165 euroos from my credit card ...
Comment (1)

Jari Turkia on :

Apparently the criminals are very good. They know that they can operate from Denmark and if they amounts are small enough, foreign police won't investigate their crime. Also they seem to create new companies and get the credit card payment companies to work for them. This type of crime cannot be fought with traditional methods. This is The Internet era and to stop this type of crime there is a clear need international action!
Comments (2)

Arie on :

My payment went to a Cyprus bank. I filled out a report of a Cybercrime on the webssite of the Cyprus police. You should do the same and mention the account number and your specific data. Refer to the advertisement used to mislead you (in case it is still online).
https://cybercrime.police.gov.cy/police/CyberCrime.nsf/subscribe_en/subscribe_en?OpenForm
Comment (1)

KATRIEN WIJNANT on :

I also lost 334 euro!!!! I asked free samples and a week later they took money from my credit card ( mum's credit card!), cybercrime!!!!!
Comment (1)

Chris Wouters on :

For Belgian victims of this fraude, have a look at the page of the European Consumer Centre that gives you specific instructions on how to deal with these assholes:

In Flemish (Dutch):
http://www.eccbelgie.be/health-c-p-wat-kan-u-doen-om-uw-geld-terug-te-krijgen-s76491.htm

In French:
http://www.cecbelgique.be/health-c-p-que-faire-pour-tenter-de-recuperer-votre-argent-s76501.htm

Unfortunately, there's no English version, but it shouldn't be to difficult to understand the steps you have to take.

Good luck!
Comment (1)

Dianne Weller on :

I just wrote to the Ellen show in the US to explain what happened to me as I also jipped by the for €375 for my trial of the face and eye cream. i saw they used her as a promoter of the product. I doubt she knows that. So hopefully it can also bring international attention to this issue.
Thanks Chris for the heads up on the websites.
Comments (2)

lillian martinez on :

great post for who are relevant to this type .
Comment (1)

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