Mail Scams and Schemes: Medical Quackery

The United States Postal Inspection Service—one of our nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agencies—protects mail, post offices and postal employees. Inspectors are on the ground and on the job, from restoring postal service after a disaster to capturing drug traffickers and protecting citizens from mail fraud. We can all be partners in prevention, by learning to protect ourselves from fraud, identity theft, and other postal crimes.

Learn firsthand from retired Postal Inspector and Postal Museum Docent Dan Mihalko about real postal crimes involving phony health “remedies!”

To learn more about mail fraud and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, visit USPIS.gov.

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Postal Inspectors have investigated medical quackery for years.

There are all kinds of fake cures and remedies out there.

Take the Fat Blocker weight loss program.

The pills contain vitamins and a common allergy medicine.

They might stop your sniffles but you won't lose any weight.

Nobody lost a pound wearing these mail-order slimming shoe inserts either.

Or the Mega II Rapid Weight Reduction Program, only thing mega about this was the size of the book.

None of these programs worked and Postal Inspectors shut down the companies.

But here's my favorite, Smilin' Bob.

He was a pitchman for Enzyte, a male enhancement product.

The pills promised to...

Well, what they promised didn't happen, but they sold like crazy.

The company made a fortune but it all ended when Postal Inspectors arrested the founder and sent him to prison for 25 years, and he had to pay back five hundred million dollars.

Bob's not smiling anymore.

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