Update 10/6/08: I received an email tip that strongly suggests this scammer may be operating out of Singapore.  In addition, one of the aliases being used, Aaron Smith, is an actual real person living in Australia.  He is NOT the scammer, but is in fact a victim of identity theft unfortunately bearing the brunt of harassment by those who have been swindled and believed him to be the actual perpetrator.  DO NOT CONTACT HIM if you managed to find his contact info, as he is NOT the one running these scams.

Update 8/30/08: The Washington State Attorney General’s Office recently visited this site, indicating that the complaints about the spammer are at least being read.  I don’t know if they’ll take action since the Washington address itself may be fake, but it’s good to see they’re at least looking into the matter.

Updates: I received several helpful email tips about the following sites in question, including:

1. That the “pictures” of Aaron Smith vary with each site.

2. That he is apparently based in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla (Australia).

3. There is a known glitch on his sites where you can download all the eBooks without paying for it. (Simply add “/download.htm” after the root address of any of his sites, and the link to directly download the eBook can be obtained.

4. The scammer also uses “Sharon Kresler/Sharon Cresler” as an alias to sell “natural cures” for diseases that afflict women in particular.

There seems to be an insane number of these types websites, all with the same modus operandi, all touting natural cures for various types of diseases, but what’s truly sad about it all is that this only reflects the work of one possible scammer.

As always, exercise due diligence before spending your precious money online. A simple Google search was enough for me to uncover the suspicious nature of dozens (if not hundreds) of these eBook sites.

Original Article:

I was googling around for information on acid reflux, and what kind natural remedies there might be to alleviate some of the symptoms, when I stumbled on to this site.

The author promises a natural cure in less than one week using nothing more than common grocery items. Sounds awesome! Here’s a short quote where he introduces himself:

Hello, my name is Aaron Smith and I’ve been exactly where you are now. I’ve experienced GERD and the feelings of extreme pain, burning, nausea, depression and anxiety that often accompany this condition.

But wait a minute, he has another site, this time relaying his problems with ulcers:

My name is Aaron Smith and for about 2 ½ years I suffered from the pain and discomfort of ulcers every single day of my life. At first, I lived with the pain by taking over-the-counter antacids - lots of them! If you saw me during that time of my life, you would have sworn I owned stock in the big antacid companies. I was popping Tums and Rolaids like they were candy and using Maalox and Mylanta to wash them down - that’s how bad it was!

But wait a minute, he has yet another site, this time sharing his story on how he cured his problem with shingles:

You see my name is Aaron Smith, I live at 300 Elliott Ave, Seattle, WA, USA and I have been exactly where you are. I had Shingles for 3 Months - and they were the most painful months of my life… which is why I was so lucky that I stumbled upon a simple, unique home treatment that I used to heal my shingles in 6 days.

But wait a minute, he has yet ANOTHER site, this time touting a natural cure for genitals warts. I won’t even link to this one because of the graphic images contained therein.

Well I smell a rat, how ’bout you?

Either this guy is one of the most unfortunate (and subsequently LUCKIEST bastages ever) to have endured all these major illnesses only to cure them all with simple grocery related remedies, or he is one scumbag of a scammer trying to rip you off.

I vote on the later.

Each site hawks an eBook that you have to pay 25 bucks or more for, even though they probably contain nothing more than the words “SUCKERS!! HAHAHAHAHAH!!”

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s these blood sucking pieces of amphibian crapballs who have the gall to try scamming those afflicted with serious physical problems, desperately searching for relief. May the Egyptian plagues of old descend upon them.

After tracing the domains, it appears that all the websites have been registered and hosted via Go Daddy. I’ve sent them an email complaint along with a list of the websites. Hopefully they’ll get back to me and these sites will soon be taken down. If not, then I’m dumping their affiliate program, and they can just find somebody else to pimp their services for them.

Update: I received a response from GoDaddy, but they will not do anything about these websites and indicated the burden of ascertaining whether these sites were scams or not belongs to law enforcement.

I dunno, I guess it’s possible that one guy managed to find a natural cure for ulcers, GERD, shingles, genital warts and more, all in one week’s time and using nothing more than common grocery items. Stranger things have happened, right?

For now I would strongly suggest you not do business with any of these websites. In the meantime I’ve dropped Go Daddy’s affiliate program, since they seemed to show little concern over the issue.

If you come across a form during your Internet travels that looks like the one above, I think it’s best you not fill it out.