Harder Than Chinese Algebra

OK, so it's taken me two months to get around to posting about this article but I still think it's worth a mention. From Forbes:

Great Expectations
By Peter Beller | Nov 13 '06
Selling penis-enlargement pills made Steven Warshak rich. Charging $100 million to hapless customers' credit cards got him indicted. You've probably seen the commercials for Enzyte with the Ward Cleaver-ish pitchman, Smiling Bob, who sports a creepy ear-to-ear grin after taking the "once-a-day tablet for natural male enhancement." In September Enzyte's maker, Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals of Cincinnati, and its owner, Steven Warshak, were indicted in federal court, but not for selling the pills. Such a case might have given rise to a drawn-out battle of expert witnesses or prickly first- person testimony. The simpler issue presented in the indictment is whether Warshak extracted $100 million over 5 years via a credit card scam. Berkeley's alleged M.O. could be a textbook case in the art of fraud. According to the feds, customers who saw the ads and called to order a free 30-day sample were persuaded to give up their credit card numbers to pay for shipping and handling and soon found themselves receiving and being charged for shipments of Enzyte, Those who complained were given a scripted runaround starting with an offer of more free pills. "No case refunds," said Warshak while instructing employees to remove the company's return address from boxes so customers would have a harder time tracking him down...

Does Enzyte work? Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Cincinnati says, "We don't care if it makes you harder than Chinese algebra. That's not part of the case." Warshak, who faces up to 30 years, has pleased not guilty.

This is Bob. Bob is looking... sued. This case is getting more interesting by the day though; ArsTechnica reported on 12/27/06 that Warshak's email was searched by the feds without a warrant, presumably for evidence and not copies of v14gr4 related spam. Think twice about what you're sending through those web mails...