Titaniumprox.com scam (Titanium Pro X)

Another Facebook supplement ad showing some pumped up guys while teasing the user with some "secret method" to get ripped.

I suspect them all of being scams, but let's take a closer look at this one.

The ad leads to a localized version of weareallfitness.com. From here, you are lead towards another site titaniumprox.com. Sometimes their websites claims to be "Men'sHealth", but this is a lie. Men'sHealth magazine has nothing to do with this product.

Celebrities that they claim are using "Titanium X Pro" are (but not limited to): Hugh Jackman, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Chris Pratt, and Gerard Butler. Come on, these people have personal trainers and strict diets. That's the key. I dare claim that none of these guys have ever tried "Titanium X Pro", but I can not prove it.

What surprized me was that this site actually has a valid SSL certificate. So the communication between the person who enters his creditcard details and the owners of titaniumprox.com is SECURE. If it was NOT secure, I'd already tell you it was a scam for sure. But I'm still not convinced that it actually is a scam - nor that is isn't a scam.

Someone has "raised the question" before. In this "blog" a "Jenna" has written a post asking "Is Titanium Pro X complement a scam?". The article is not critical at all, and does not attempt to try to find out if it's scam. Instead "she" writes about how good the product is. It is obvious to me that this article is written by the owners themselves, trying to make it seem more legit by having a "independent blog" write about it. Checking out the blog further, there are 11 posts total. All of them are about Titanium Pro X, and all of them seem to ask common questions. "Is it a scam, is it legit, pro's and cons" etc. Now who starts a blog to write purely about one product?

Checking up the domain name, titaniumprox.com, I see that the owners are hidden behind "DomainsByProxy". The owners of this website certainly don't want to be found or identified! Don't you want to be able to find out who you are doing business with? I know I do, and I would never do business with a online shop without knowing who they are and where they operate.

When I check out the "references" on titaniumprox.com, I see they link to a few studies. The purpose is to make you think that there are studies made on their product, and that their product actually works. However, when I check out these studies, I see that the studies are about various subjects within supplements and steroid usage, but the studies were never written about this product! But hey, most people don't understand these studies anyway, so they are thinking that they might get away with it.

Checking out their "terms and conditions", I see that the text is translated by Google Translate or similar. Also, I tried to Google search a phrase that I found in this text, and google came up with another website that has the exact same "terms and conditions". This site is probably operated by the same people. This site is called vitaketone.com and guess what it's about? Some supplement!

I found their address on this website. "PO Box 642, Main Street Charlestown, Nevis 800-17-399" - This would be somewhere in the caribbean. I doubt you will find them there though. Searching on this address on Google gave me some other sites: mightyraspbketone.com and supragreencoffee.com - I didn't look closely, but looks like these are some "magical health products" as well.

I don't know HOW this scam works, but I guess that they will steal your creditcard information and try to deduct money from your creditcard. I was convinced that people would never receive any products, but it appears some do. They could still use your credit card information again though.

The website claims that the product helps you with the following:
- Rapid Fat Loss
- Prevents The Growth Of New Fat Cells
- Improved Stamina And Muscle Recovery
- Higher Levels Of Sustained Energy
- Delayed Onset Of Fatigue
- Quick, Effective Muscle Growth That Lasts
- Enhanced Sexual Performance

I mean, come on, if this product REALLY did all those things, why do everything appear so sketchy? This product should sell itself, no reason to set up fake blogs, lie about celebrities, fake testimonials etc. And why can't you find this product in the stores? You'd think everyone would want to sell this. And I could not find the ingredients of this product anywhere. I mean, what exactly is this product? You have no idea, do you? If this product made you ill, who would you get in touch with?

Another advice is: Order supplements from stores from your own country. They will sell anything you will ever need. If they don't have the magic products you see on Facebook advertisements, it just means that these products are not real (or any good).

So have you tried to order "Titanium Pro X"? What is your experience? Did you get your product, or did you never hear from them again after you paid? Where did you hear about this product? Please share in the comments. It could be helpful to others!

They also promote a second product called "Adrenalast". They claim that this product is best combined with "Titanium Pro-X". If that's the best combo, why not just make a pill that does it all? And the website doesn't explain which "benefits" you get from "Titanium Pro-X" and which you get from "Adrenalast".  Wouldn't that make sense? If you only bought "Adrenalast", what would that do for you? What would you be missing from "Titanium Pro-X"?

Thanks for reading, please share/comment/like if you found the information you were looking for.

Take a look at another story about a similar Facebook scam: MuscleShop247.com

Or check out this other article about a sketchy product that might be from the same people that came up with "Titanium Pro X": "MaxMan"

Here are some other domain names they use to promote this scam:
mensmusclemag.net (they closed it, it appears)
maksmuskelkraft.com
bestotbe.com

Facebook scam MuscleShop247.com

I saw a MuscleShop247.com ad on Facebook. They pretend to be marketing some magic supplement that will typically help you gain 4 kg of muscle in 1 week. Something like that. There are many similar ads like this. They also make the ads in your own language just so that you are supposed to trust them more, thinking that they operate in your country.

First: There are no magic supplements (at least not that are legal in most countries).  Anyway, if the stuff they claim to sell really works, that stuff would officially be called "performance enhancing drugs". And even if you wanted steroids, you would not get it from MuscleShop247.com.

Anyway, the site is a scam because they don't protect your credit card information by using SSL-encryption. Long story short: There is absolutely NO excuse for having having SSL-encryption when you accept credit card information. To learn more about how to see if a site is secure, check out this link which has a great video about the subject: http://info.ssl.com/article.aspx?id=10068

This thing about the missing SSL-encryption alone is enough to draw the conclusion that this site is a scam. However, let's point out a few more things.

As far as I could see, there is no way for me to see where this shop is operating from. What country? What city? Checking out their domain name I find out that the owners of the domain name are hidden behind a "proxy". Why hide who they are?

They use a support site called MensHealthNews24.com... Wow, they put a lot of effort into this. They have localized this site into multiple languages so that people will believe it's a local website.

For example, they have made a Norwegian page where they talk about some product(s) and claim that "you have probably seen it on TV" as they list up the logos of 5 Norwegian TV channels. Check it out here (copy and paste the link as I will not support them by linking directly):

http://n72g.menshealthnews24.com/?ref=fb1-mus247&affid=435&subid=

But if you go straight into http://menshealthnews24/ (excluding the n72g part of the host name) you will see the same page in german language. And this  time the TV channels are replaced with some other logos.

Most of the links doesn't work on this site. If you click on "Fitness", "Health", "Food" or any of the top menu items, nothing will happen. Serious website, you think?

Some links work, and it gives me a chance to list some other domain names that are related to this scam:
- unbouncepages.com
- maxmanpower.eu

At the bottom of menshealthnews24.com there is a comment section. However, on the german page the same people comments, but in german. Also, there is no way for YOU to make a comment so this comment section is just fake, to give you the impression that other people care about this product.

But yeah, no SSL encryption -> Scam!

If you see Facebook ads about how go get insane gains in "2 weeks", don't start a discussion about sterioids, because it will take the attention away from the real issue. It is most likely a fraud attempt. You can check for your self to see if they use SSL encryption. You can also google the name of the web site to see if anyone else has written about it. Add the word "scam" in the search query to see if anyone has written about that in particular.

Hope this was helpful! If you find other similar web sites, feel free to add them to the comments, that will help other people in the future.

Had any experience with MuscleShop247.com? Please share it with others in the comments.

JPS Enterprises Hong Kong - Rosalin Santacruz

(Rosaline Santa Cruz)

Got a phone call from "Rosalin Santacruz" today. She's calling from "JPS Enterprises" in Hong Kong.

Rosalin: Am I talking to the manager of the company?
Me: Which company?
R: Kelson Consulting
Me: Yes, I am.
...
R: Do you have any investments in the financial market
M: No, I haven't done any of that yet, but I'm kind of looking into it.
R: Oookay, so you've never tried investment, however you are looking for -a- opportunity, right?
M: Eeeehm, well, yeah, just...
R: (interrupts) All riiiight
M: ... the right time or
R: (interrupts) of course, if it makes perfect business sense, right?
M: I guess so, yeah.
R: (laughs) ok, I do understand you mr. Kelson. So Mr. Kelson, in your line of business are you the one who is making the decisions on it, or do you have to consult a broker or a financial advisor?
M: Uuuuhm, I'm making my own decisions. I'm the sole owner, so...
R: So if I may say so, you are the captain of your own ship, Mr. Kelson, am I right?
M: Yes
R: All right, so Mr. Kelson, as I said, I am not calling you for any commitment or investment, ok? We are a business consulting company that provide a first class information on fast growing companies in the world wide market. So Mr. Kelson, if you do business - if you do investment are you looking for a short term profit or a long term profit?
M: Uuuuhm, I don't know, uh, whatever gives the best profit, I guess.
R: Ok, so you are trying to say that both long term and short term, right?
M: Yeah, I think so.
R: As long as they are profitable, right?
M: Yes
R: All right. So Mr. Kelson, this is the final point I want to go over....

The conversation goes on for another 4 minutes. I'm not going to go through all that, but you can listen to it in this clip:
 

My comments to this are:

• This person sounds exactly like everyone else who calls about these things. It's like she's talking into the microphone, then the speech is transcripted into text, and then the text is read by a computer. Something like that. You notice especially when she reads numbers; "that is 5... thousand... dollars". Why can't they use their actual voice? Well, I guess if they end up in court, there would be less evidence against them - or a specific person in their "organisation". "There is no Santacruz in this company and we do not recognise that voice!"
• Scam or not, why would I trust a company in Hong Kong? If I want to do investments, I would use an acknowledged broker - preferably in my country. They might say that are famous, but what do I know - I found nothing about them online. Sometimes I will find a company with the same name, but who knows - maybe they are not REALLY representing this company. 
• These people are well-trained in saying exactly the kind of things that would make it hard for you to resist. Notice how they compliment me or try to be understanding about things they know nothing about? "So, you are the captain of your own ship?" she asks. I'm tempted to feel flattered, "Yes, I guess I could be compared to a captain!" She is doing a reading on me, so will only go as far as she things I'm willing to accept. The more enthusiastic I get, or the more welcoming I am to flattering, the more she will play on this. I wouldn't say I was being overly enthusiastic, but I tried to seem a little open-minded so that she would have a hope that I would be interested. If they sense that I'm not REALLY interested, they might just hang up.
• This is only phase 1, to get a good read on me and my situation. They might have categorised me as "not in their target group" (I would think they are looking for really dumb people, which I may portrait badly), but if not, I should expect another call - phase 2. Phase 2 is where they start presenting me with some actual investment "opportunities". I think the longer they wait, the LESS prepared I will be. If they had called the day after, I would have this mind and I would have a better defence prepared, but if they wait a week or so, I might have forgotten all about this.
• I think the name is fake and something that they might generate a new name for each case. This way, it's not that easy to google that name and find something bad. If there were 100 articles online about a fraud related to "Rosalin Santacruz", more people would stay away from this "opportunity". But if they operate with thousands of different names, there might only be one article for each name, but that doesn't matter, because that name will never be used again for others to dig up dirt on.
• JPS Enterprises appears to have no website. According to a google search, there is a "JPS Enterprises" listed in some company directories for Hong Kong companies. But yeah - no website for this professional "advisor"? Don't trust a "company" with no website, that's my advice. Especially if they don't operate in your country and you have no chance of meeting them.

So I still don't know exactly what this is, but it's fishy enough for me to recommend you to stay away. Find an acknowledged advisor if you really want to invest in something.

Did you get a phone call from JPS Enterprises? What was the name of the person that called you? Please type it in the comment field to help others find this.

Apple "verify your account" scam

I got this today, from supposedly "apple" (not Apple), service@apple.com via gator673.hostgator.com (the fact that it was via hostgator.com was the first sign that this was not authentic)

"Dear Apple Customer,

A failure to Verify your information may result on a suspension of your account. To Verify your Apple ID information click on the following link: 

Verify Now >

Link does not work? Try again may be affected by the speed of the Internet or the site

For more information, see our frequently asked questions.

Thanks,

Apple Customer Support"

This is a scam. The link you go to when clicking "Verify Now" is not going to apple.com but you end up at http://id.apple.com.verify.information.cmd.login.submit.dispatch1q2w33s3f5g6h7.greapm.com.br or something like that. At first glance it might look like a real apple URL because it starts with id.apple.com, but as you can see it continues with a bunch of other stuff and at the end you see that it contains "greapm.com.br", so this site is not on apple.com at all! This an old trick by internet scammers.

Why do they do this? Well, they want you to enter your apple ID on their website, which looks exactly like Apple's web site. They've just copied Apple's look. You must not enter your information here, because you will send it to the scammers instead of Apple. And then they get access to your apple account.

After giving away your account information, they will ask you to verify your creditcard information. Of course, if you do this, they will get access to your credit card information and they will be able to use your card online. They can pretty much take all the money they can possibly get from that card.

This is a very clever scam and I too thought it looked very real. So to help others to not do this mistake, please share it to your friends on social networks to help create awareness of this. I'm not sure how many people have received this email, but there is a great chance that a lot of people might get tricked by this one.

Did you already give up your apple ID password and/or your creditcard details? Change your password  asap and block your card!

"AU Optronics" investment scam

Got a call the other day. As usual the person in the other end sounds really weird as if they are scrambling the voice. I didn't point this out to the person this time. She presented herself as "Sofia Scala" (possibly "Sophia" or "Skala"). She started by referring to a previous phone call to me where I had agreed to talk to an senior analyst. I couldn't remember accepting this, which seemed to surprise her  a little. She asked if I was an investor or if I had made any investments before. I said no. She also commented on that I didn't seem to excited on the phone. That made me feel bad, maybe bad enough to invest in something.

I kept responding to her questions and let her do the talking. I threw in a "aaaah" or a "woow" once in a while, while trying not to sound sarcastic. It sounded like she had intended to discuss a certain prospect for me, but now she was pulling it of the table. She said: "I'm not saying that the prospect I have right now is for you - I don't know you". It made me feel like she was taking away a big opportunity from me - against my will. What is it called, "Reversed psychology?"

She asked me to keep an open mind, and repeated multiple times that she "just wanted to make sure we were on the same page". She said there was a investment limit on her prospect, and that I would have to invest between 0 and 50,000 USD. She added: You don't have to invest anything, you can walk away from this (which is why she said "0"). So she wondered: Is this something you would be able to do? Make an investment between 0 and 50,000 USD? I answered: I can invest $1. She appreciated my sense of humor. It was a pretty dumb question, I thought.

She asked if I was into technology. I said I was "interested" and had to make it clear that I was not an expert in the field (nor a professional). She made it clear that she didn't know the technical bits of this, and that she was going to tell me about this company. It was "AU Optronics", supposedly they have a 25% market share of flat screens around the world. And now they needed my money.

While I believe "AU Optronics" might be a real company, I don't believe these investments are real. I think "AU Optronics" know nothing about this and would not approve. And why would they try to get investors this way? Sending money outside your country to someone you've never heard about is pretty stupid in my opinion. She even mentioned that they were on the NY stock exchange. Why don't I just buy stocks there myself?

I don't have much proof of why this is a scam, except all the signs that I've seen before. Obviously I can't find this Sofia Scala anywhere. I'm also wondering if they are using random names for each person they're calling. This way it will be harder for people to find any blog posts about them being scammers.

Frank Rayhan at Rayhan law firm - SCAM

Got a message on Facebook today. Wow, are people supposed to get so stunned by these amounts that their brains stop working? Could even 1 out of 1,000,000 be so stupid?

Here is the scam message:

Frank Rayhan
Dear Kjeldsen! Kindly be informed that this email that came to your mailbox is not an error but was specifically addressed to you for your consideration. I am an attorney at law and the principal partner of Rayhan law firm. I have a business proposal of $8,950,000.00 USD (Eight million, nine hundred and fifty thousand USD dollars only) in the codicil and last testament of a deceased who happens to be my client by name :(Dr. G. E.Kjeldsen) I am hereby, contacting you because you are qualified by your name identity since you bear the same surname with the deceased and could receive the funds upon claims. Upon your unbiased and speedy response to this call, I will inform you with all the required/necessary details with the modes of the execution of this covenant. Contact me via my private email address: (frankrayhan2013@gmail.com) Sincerely, Frank Rayhan

China Business Consulting

Got a call today from this number: +862151552000 - The voice was weird as if it was modified (as always with these scams). The person who called said that he called from "China Business Consulting" and he made it clear to me that this was NOT about selling and that I didn't have to make any commitment. They were curious about my company and it seems like they got my full name from the Norwegian Company Register.

I was not resisting at all and answered politely to all his questions. What he wanted to do was to get my permission to send me information about various companies. Business opportunities, I assume.

Unfortunately he had to hang up and said "Thank you, good bye" before I had a chance to say anything. Either he found me suspicious or he had spent enough time already. Time will tell, maybe they will contact me in a few days with some opportunities "I can not say no to".

This has SCAM written all over it. Here are some clues (Like I've pointed out so many times before):
- Silly company name that is so easy to understand, yet sound so big; "China Business Consulting"
- Scrambled voice on the phone (probably they don't want any of their staff to be able to be identified by their voice)
- They make it clear (multiple times) that "this is not selling". They all say this, these days. A lot of the same "companies" are started by the same people. They know how to get people to not hang up.

They claimed that they were expanding in my country, but if this was a company with serious intensions, I think they would have an office here. I also think they would have Norwegians call me instead.