Techie-Micheal

I was surfing around today, and came across some “miracle” wrinkle prevention/fix/whatever stuff. The blog style looked very familiar, but like Acai berry weight loss scam.

Once again, this blog detected where you lived to make it some sort of sympathy thing to get you to buy the stuff. But this time they made it blatantly obvious.

Here’s the code that did it:

<h3>My name is Judy. I live in <strong> <script src="http://j.maxmind.com/app/geoip.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- document.write(geoip_city()); // --></script>, <script type="text/javascript"><!-- document.write(geoip_region()); // --></script> </b></strong> and I started this little blog to share a wrinkle removal secret I discovered that literally changed my life.</h3>

Seriously? In case you don’t follow, all it does is use the maxmind geolocation service, looks at your IP’s city and state/region location to make it appears as though the person lives there. Absolutely ridiculous.

I’ll come out and say it, the Acai berries that you read about on the internet are a scam. It is that simple. Why? You need only look as far as the websites that alleged users of this “magical weightloss tool” run. In this post, I’ll be going through five different sites, supposedly run by five different people, but when you start looking at the websites, you’ll see that the sites have a lot more in common than using the same “unique” weight loss plan.

The first of these sites on this scam tour is a site that is owned by someone that claims to be a “Melora Brown.” Now, before I continue, I should note that if you decide to visit any of the websites I mention, you do so with JavaScript disabled. Some of these websites require a proxy, and I’ll explain why when I get to those.

Site 1:

URL: http://melorasweightloss.com/

URL: http://melorasweightloss.com/msn.php

Before going any further, take note of the differences in those two pages. How can someone have 3 kids and a wonderful husband, and then turn around have suddenly have 2 kids, but not a wonderful husband?

Image 1:

Image 2:

I’m also curious how she lost 47 pounds in one, but 43 in the other. Something not adding up here.

Site 2:

The next site on our tour is a blog supposedly owned by a Marie Campbell. She too claims to the a mother have 3 kids and the wife to a wonderful husband. You’ll soon notice a pattern here too.

URL: http://www.mariesweightlossdiet.com/blog/

Image 1:

Among other things, I want you to take note of the attractive blonde lady in the pink shirt. You’ll see that very same image on someone else’s site …

Site 3:

Next up is someone supposedly named Tracy Johnson. She too has 2 kids and an amazing husband.

URL: http://www.tracysweightloss.com/

Image 1:

Site 4:

This next blog is owned by someone who is supposedly named Ann Dickinson. She too has 3 kids and a wonderful husband.

URL: http://www.annsdietjournal.com/mystory20.html?t202id=747

Image 1:

Now I want you to take a good look at this. See the attractive blonde lady with the pink shirt? Apparently she gets around, and has at least two different names, Ann Dickinson and Marie Campbell. Are you noticing patterns yet? You should. Both in the “profiles” and what each blog entry says. Some of it is verbatim. Let’s keep going!

Site 5:

This blog is owned by someone who is supposedly named Maria Stevens, who also has 3 kids and a wonderful husband.

URL: http://www.mariasdietblog.com/?sub=mm_01

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 2 is what is on this person’s blog. Yes, the entire image. The blog tries to fool the reader in to thinking the blog is “social” when it really isn’t. Someone just took all these images, put them together in to one image, and didn’t link the image to anywhere.

Site 6:

This blog is owned by someone who is supposedly named Becky Edwards. She doesn’t claim to have 3 kids or a wonderful/awesome husband, but take note of her picture. You’ll see her face on another body on a different site with someone else’s name. I won’t show the site here, but it is out there.

URL: http://www.beckysweightloss.com/

Image 1:

Site 7:

This site is owned by someone who is supposedly named Melissa Bishop. She has 2 kids, allegedly. This is where you’ll need a proxy. I won’t post an image to this one, but I’ll give you the URL to visit. Check out how where she supposedly lives changes depending on what IP you currently have from your proxy … Remember, disable JavaScript!

URL: http://melissasdiet.com/

Site 8:

This last site is owned by someone who is supposedly named Mandy Matthews, and claims to have 2 kids and a wonderful husband. This is another site where you’ll need a proxy. You’ll note that once again, where she claims to live depends on what your IP address is currently. It is really quite funny.

URL: http://www.mandysdietingblog.com/

So what’s my point? All of these sites are what I consider to be scams. They mislead people, try to get the empathy thing going by claiming to live whereever you live, they all say the same thing, and in some cases, images are reused! I still can’t understand how two different people can have the exact same face …

Stay away from Acai berries! It is a scam!

<div> <span id="lblMessage" style="font-weight:bold;">Your browser must have Javascript enabled in order to access this website.</span></div> <br /><a href="javascript:void history.back();" id="lnkBack">Back</a>

In case you don’t see the problem, the message is saying JavaScript is disabled in my browser (which it was), but the link uses JavaScript. Tell me, how is JavaScript supposed to be used when it is disabled?

There have been times in my life where I’ve wanted to get in to 3D graphic design. There’s this great program called Blender that I play around with from time to time. But there is just no way I can get to this level of incredibleness anytime soon.

Anybody have some tips for a graphic artist wannabe?

In this article, the writer complains about being invisible to women. The problem I have with this article? He has a girlfriend! He does not need to worry about being invisible to women when he isn’t invisible to his girlfriend.

I, on the hand, am invisible to women, and still single.