Life Cleanse Scam: WARNING!

competitionscafe · 18 February 2010 at 11:49PM

Found this on another website regarding Trading Planet Ltd (Life Cleanse)

It claims to be an official announcement however it does seem an odd place to post it and it contradicts the statements /claims made here by a person who said they were the Director of the company and that it had never traded:

"The UK company that is legally registered as Trading Planet Ltd is not responsible for selling these pills or taking your money. The company name has been hijacked. The Ordman House address has been visited by the relevant authorities, occupants have been interviewed, and cleared of blame in the sale of these pills. It has no facilities for taking money from your credit/debit card. Trading Planet Ltd, as registered at Companies House, has never traded and does not have a bank account. The name has been used without permission. I live at 31 Arden Close. We are victims too! The address you need is PO Box 13579, Unit 5 Mill Road Industrial Estate, Linlithgow EH49 9AH Scotland. This is the place to send your letters and packets. They are NOT taking the money, just handling the products.
From: http://www.goftp.com/qna/I_want_to_email_to_cancel_trading_planet_acai_berry_detox-qna122364.html

trading planet limited

Posted: 2010-02-05 by The Official Receiver

Notice of provisional liquidation

Complaint Rating:
Company information:
Trading Planet Limited
United Kingdom

The company was incorporated on 04 August 2009. It imported health and beauty products from the US and sold these online to final users.

The company may have used the following trading names: -

Healthscience
Healthscience?
M1-securecollect.com
TJ-expresscollect.com
CTT Singapore
Vitality Clean
Healthtime +4822120179 IRL
Age Health +42 0246019 GBR
EC-billsageco.com +422039903 GBR
SM-safetobill.com
Face factor +442075721232
Amazing Life
Anti-age Access
Global Wellbeing
Beauty Sculpt 358942415769 GBR
Acaiberry
Lifecleanse
Skincare today 61280144926 GB
Age defy
Dermasolution
Goodlife
Healthfocus
Smarthealth
Wellappeal.

Available evidence suggests that in the period 13 August 2009 to 12 November 2009 the company had a turnover of at least £11, 300, 025.

On 08 September 2009 the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills authorised officers of Companies Investigation Branch to investigate the affairs of the company in accordance with powers conferred by Part XIV of the Companies Act 1985. Following the conclusion of this investigation the Secretary of State filed a petition on 27 January 2010 to have the company wound up in the public interest. The grounds for seeking to have the company wound up are: -

(1) The company traded contrary to the public interest in that: -

(a) Its business is dependent upon website offers that are either misleading or contain partial and incomplete information and which are designed to and do mislead potential customers.

(b) Terms and conditions of the company’s offers are not supplied to the customer in a durable medium and are only accessible via another web page.
(c) Customers are pressurised into ordering product and effectively entering into an ongoing contract if they fail to cancel. Furthermore customers have experienced difficulty in cancelling.

(2) Lack of transparency: The Secretary of State has been unable to establish the true identity of those in control of the company.

(3) Failure to co-operate with the investigation.

(4) Failure to maintain adequate accounting records.

On 05 February 2010 the court appointed the Official Receiver as provisional liquidator of the company.

The petition to wind up the company shall be heard in the Manchester District Registry on 09 April 2010.

Please direct all enquiries regarding the company's affairs to the Official Receiver : [EMAIL="piu.north@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk"]piu.north (AT) insolvency.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

From: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/notice-of-provisional-liquidation-c307574.html

competitionscafe · 20 February 2010 at 5:42PM

Case study: ‘I was fleeced by scammers’
Rebecca Farrell, from Manchester, fell victim to a diet pill scam after spotting an advert on Facebook.
The 25-year-old, left, signed up for a free trial of “acai berry” and “life cleanse” tablets from a company called viv3, paying only £1 for postage and packaging using her debit card. The tablets arrived, but they made Ms Farrell feel sick and she stopped taking them after a week.
“I then noticed that two debits of £76.73 each had been taken from my bank account, which I had not authorised,” she says.
Trading Planet, the company behind viv3, had debited the money, but when Ms Farrell rang to query the amount, a refund was refused. “I have since found that viv3 is scamming people all over the internet,” Ms Farrell says. “It advertises on popular sites such as Facebook and Hotmail, so people trust it.”
Luckily, Ms Farrell’s bank, Alliance & Leicester, has refunded her the £153 she lost to the scam. “I won’t believe any adverts I see on the internet again,” she says. “I’ve learnt my lesson and avoid them.”
Trading Planet and viv3 refused to comment.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/article7008367.ece

dawnymac · 5 March 2010 at 6:35PM

arunadasi wrote: »

This has been done, click the second link in post 88 above.

i too have been scamed by health focus for 292.00 in total on my credit card i purchased free tablets just p&p to pay and now have 292.00 on my credit card statement you can not contact them by email their address isn't real i have sent a letter to the address in ireland and phoned 118 118 for their phone number it is a residential address so i cannot have the number.i am still pursuing the bank for a refund of transactions.i have also let scamnesty know via the consumer direct.gov website.
i am so angry that the banks do not recognise this as fraud.:eek::mad::(

competitionscafe · 5 March 2010 at 6:51PM

dawnymac wrote: »

i too have been scamed by health focus for 292.00 in total on my credit card i purchased free tablets just p&p to pay and now have 292.00 on my credit card statement you can not contact them by email their address isn't real i have sent a letter to the address in ireland and phoned 118 118 for their phone number it is a residential address so i cannot have the number.i am still pursuing the bank for a refund of transactions.i have also let scamnesty know via the consumer direct.gov website.
i am so angry that the banks do not recognise this as fraud.:eek::mad::(

This scam has also been reported to Avon & Somerset Police, their contact number is 0845 456 7000. The Crime Number for this case is AS2009 0908/0271.
You can report it to your local police and tell them this Crime Number, because the more police forces that get involved the more likely they are to give the matter priority. You can also tell your bank that this is a fraud and is being investigated by the police (give your bank the crime number for the case).

The Avon and Somerset Police also have an online form to report internet crime (Scams, Fraud etc) at: https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/community_safety/internet_advice/report_form.aspx

There is also some more info about this scam on this website which has investigated it: http://strangelyperfect.tv/6568/dangerous-effectivecleanse-and-scams-too/

hmh123 · 27 March 2010 at 6:10PM

Hi have been caught by this scam as well. Credit card company have refused a refund claiming I agreed to terms and conditions which I did not do. Can anybody advise as to what legislature I can quote to them?:mad:

Paul_Varjak · 27 March 2010 at 6:22PM

@competitionscafe

I admire your selfless tenacity in investigating these crooks and 'outing' them on a public forum. The ease with which these companies can repeatedly advertise on otherwise well-respected websites is what I find most disturbing. Maybe more attention needs to be directed at the sites taking these adverts?

competitionscafe · 3 April 2010 at 1:25AM

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

@competitionscafe

I admire your selfless tenacity in investigating these crooks and 'outing' them on a public forum. The ease with which these companies can repeatedly advertise on otherwise well-respected websites is what I find most disturbing. Maybe more attention needs to be directed at the sites taking these adverts?

Indeed.

Here is an an article in the Huddersfield Examiner about these tooth whitening scams: http://www.examiner.co.uk/views-and-blogs/columnists/2010/04/02/denis-don-t-be-bitten-by-tooth-whitening-scam-86081-26159302/

The page that the article is on is plastered with ads - for teeth whitening scams!! The ads are served by doubleclick which is owned by Google.
http://www.doubleclick.com/contact/index.aspx
So Google is helping these scammers to advertise their scams and profiting from selling adspace for scams. So much for their (Googles) 'do no evil' policy!
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=google+do+no+evil&meta=&aq=0

Facebook -same story. Plenty of Fish - ditto. Not to mention the local and national newspapers that run the ads on their sites too.

competitionscafe · 28 May 2010 at 5:13PM

‘Free trial offers’ can be costly advises the Insolvency Service as 3 companies are wound up in the public interest

May 28 2010
Three companies involved in the mis-selling of health supplements including Acai Berry Detox, Life Cleanse and Resveratrol have been ordered into liquidation following an Insolvency Service investigation.

An investigation by The Insolvency Service on behalf of the Government found that customers of Vivera Limited, Viv3lab Limited and Trading Planet Limited were enticed to sign up to a ‘Free Trial Offer’ that required only a small charge to cover postage and packaging, typically £3.95. However, if the customer failed to cancel the offer within the cancellation period, usually 15 days, they were deemed to have agreed to an ongoing supply of the product from the companies, at a cost of around £70 to £80 each month.

The investigation found that the three companies were under common control and that between them, during March 2009 to November 2009, they dealt with over 947,000 customer orders in excess of £25 million. Trading Planet Limited and Viv3lab Limited also used the trading style ‘Healthscience’.

Commenting on the case Alex Deane, of The Insolvency Services, Company Investigations said;
“Companies using deliberately misleading offers for financial gain is serious misconduct and it undermines the confidence the public have in business. I hope the action taken on this matter sends a clear and simple message; if you set out to defraud you will be closed down.

“This action should also serve as reminder to anyone interested in signing up for a ‘free with postage and packing’ offer, if it seems to good to be true, it usually is. Always check the validity of any company that requires your personal banking details and quickly inform your financial provider if you notice any subsequent unusual activity.”

The grounds for winding up the companies were that the promotion of the ‘Free Trial Offers’ was misleading. In particular:-

· The websites used by the companies misled customers into believing that the trial offer was risk free and limited in nature;

· The terms and conditions of the offer were designed to confuse the customer and were not provided in any durable medium;

· The length of the trial offer was not made clear. Customers were provided with a 30-day supply of the product, but had, typically, only 12 days from receipt of the product in which to cancel any future supply;

· Charges to customer credit/debit card statements were applied in one of up to 23 different trading names in a deliberate act to confuse and mislead.

The companies also failed to keep proper accounting records; failed to co-operate fully with the investigation and operated with a serious lack of transparency as to who controlled the companies. The investigation found that all three companies were controlled by a company registered in Malta.

Source:
http://www.creditman.biz/uk/members/news-view.asp?newsviewID=11846&id=1&mylocation=News&chksrc=NNow4251

Barneysmom · 28 May 2010 at 5:24PM

A silly question from me.
wouldn't it be just as good to take Fibogel for a while?
It really helps me when my IBS flairs up.

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100001120.html

adouglasmhor · 29 May 2010 at 9:27AM

Barneysmom wrote: »

A silly question from me.
wouldn't it be just as good to take Fibogel for a while?
It really helps me when my IBS flairs up.

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100001120.html

You are correct, I posted another related option earlier in the thread, phsylum husk from an Indo Pak grocer.

Life Cleanse Scam: WARNING!

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