Today, Don Lapre, or one of his agents, or somebody representing him, left two spam comments on MaxPower. I’ve never heard of Don Lapre before today, but thats because I don’t watch infomercials. Apparently, Don Lapre is the king of infomercials having made millions from them during the 90’s. I’m not sure why Don would need to spam MaxPower, but he did. I could tell they were spam because A) both comments were exactly the same, and, B) one of the posts he commented on is clearly marked as as spam bait (Spam this please (no, not you)). Here is a sample from the spam harvesting post he commented on:

…Did you ever wonder what happens when a bus full of young girls get into an accident on their way to an online gambling site? They probably hoped to make millions of dollars playing poker, Texas holdem and blackjack. Now they need a personal injury lawyer to sue the bus company! (Yes, this is splog bait.)…

The other post he commented on was a collection of mashup MP3’s I published for MaxPower’s birthday. Here is the comment left by Don Lapre (remember that on both posts the comment is exactly the same):

What i wonder is - could a product be leveraged out of this? Is there something we could produce or contract to produce and sell. If anyone has any ideas - I’m always looking for fresh ideas, email me at ‘talk’ at my website above (its justmy personal bio site, no sales - ps hoping to add my own blog soon) any shoot me a line if you want to discuss more in detail, for the right idea i would sponsor all the costs - Don

The first thing I do when I get a hand crafted piece of spam like this is find out who sent it. The IP that left both comments originates with an ISP in Arizona. Next, I look into the website that the spam was advertising, espailleure.com. Turns out it’s all about Don Lapre, a guy who likes to sell vitamins. Google the phrase “Don Lapre” and the first result is a page hosted on the site quackwatch.org.

Quackwatch.org professes to be, “Your Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions.” Don! Say it isn’t so, would a vitamin pushing infomercial king stoop to spamming websites? Here are a few brief things I learned at Quackwatch and Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

• In 1990, [Don] and his wife opened a credit repair business called Unknown Concepts, which led prospective customers to believe that they could obtain credit cards and other benefits but merely provided contact information about companies that might provide them. The Arizona Attorney General’s office charged the couple with violating the state’s Consumer Fraud act and obtained a consent judgment permanently enjoining from operating, assisting or participating in any credit services organization and from engaging in any misrepresentation, deceptive act or practice, false promise or concealment of material fact in connection with charitable solicitations or marketing of credit repair programs.
• In 1994, Lapre was forced to pay the State of Arizona $45,000 for unemployment and withholding taxes that he neglected to file in 1993 and 1994.
• In 1999, Lapre had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on behalf of himself, New Strategies, Tropical Beaches, Dolphin Media, Don’s Making Money, and National Reminder Service. His filing listed assets of $9 million and liabilities of $12.5 million.
• In video tapes about New Strategies and Don Lapre’s life and financial success, the company repeatedly suggests that $50,000 per month or more is easily attainable for anyone, with little effort and no experience required, simply by following Don’s instructions for starting a business with 900 phone numbers.

OK thats enough really to get the picture (there is a lot more like that). The main thing to remember is that Don lives in Arizona and that he does what many (including the law) people think of as shady. Oh, and he has a history of making bad decisions. Like for example, spamming websites. I’m sure this is just a coincidence, but the spammer’s address comes from same state where Don makes his home — Arizona.

Anyway, on to Don’s Vitamins. According to the wikipedia:

Currently, Lapre pitches a multi-level marketing scheme to sell health products, including a multi-vitamin dubbed “The Greatest Vitamin in the World.” In July, 2005, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Lapre to stop claiming that his vitamin products could prevent or cure diseases.

Here is what Quackwatch.org has to say about them and his claims:

The vitamins in “The Greatest Vitamin” are similar to those available at any drug store for a few pennies a dose. “Not synthetic” is just an excuse to charge exorbitant prices. Vitamins are chemical compounds and are exactly the same regardless of how they are prepared.

Here is the definition of Snake oil (emphasis mine):

Snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine used for joint pain. However, the most common usage of the words is as a derogatory term for medicines to imply that they are fake, fraudulent, and usually ineffective. The expression is also applied metaphorically to any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality.

Is Don Lapre a Snake Oil Salesman?

This is my favourite quote from the Quackwatch.org site:

Considering Lapre’s bankruptcy record, do you think it is likely that “Millions of Dollars in research” (or any scientific research dollars at all) were spent on developing The Greatest Vitamin?

Don seems to know a thing or two about TV advertising but nothing about how to really go about spamming. Here is a free tip: next time you want to spam, do it like the pro’s and use some intermediate doorway page so there is a kind of plausible deniability regarding who made the spam. Next, make sure to never spam from your home state — that’s just stupid! Use a proxy or hire out a professional in another country for pennies on the dollar! In fact, if you’d like, I have written an eBook on how to make money using WordPress that I can sell you for the low low price of 5 dollars. I personally guarntee that if you follow the instructions, you’ll be making hundreds of thousands (hand over fist) in under a month. What will you do with all that cash — pay of your creditors?

So to get back to Don’s comment. No, we cannot leverage a spam bait post to make money and I do not need sponsoring (or any financial backing) from someone who has gone bankrupt, twice. The only reason I wrote this post is the hope that over time, this post will probably retain some Google Juice for the phrase(s) Don Lapre, spammer, and The Greatest Vitamin in the World, and maybe will also help keep the Quackwatch website at #1, so that when people search for information regarding the products that Don sells, they find the truth.