Sniffex: Yep, it’s a scam
July 19th, 2008
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Three words come to mind upon hearing that the Sniffex has officially been alleged to be a bump-and-dump stock scam: NO SH*T, SHERLOCK.
We first mentioned the Sniffex all the way back in November on this blog. For those who don’t know, the Sniffex was reported to be a bomb detection device. Evaluation devices had been sold to the US government and the military with the claim that the device is able to detect any kind of explosive and point the way to it in a “dowsing” manner, even though the company claims it’s a scientific device and certainly not a dowsing rod. Yet, it has failed to ever pass any documented tests.
According to the company “Homeland Safety International,” the device has a better than 90% success rate detecting numerous explosives. The company advertises other products but it seems the Sniffex is what they have been pushing. They suggest that it be used in schools, parking lots, government buildings and so on. And apparently they are indeed “international,” because they’ve been pitching this scam outside the US as well.
Despite the fact that they claim it’s a sophisticated piece of equipment that uses the electrical fields around the human body (because it doesn’t even have a place for batteries or a readout or anything), the damn thing appears to be nothing more than just a chunk of metal with a telescopic antenna attached to it. That, however, did not stop the US military from buying eight of these at six grand a piece!
There have been plenty of good folks with a brain in their head taking this on. Here’s a pretty good site that demonstrates what a huge scam has been put over on Uncle Sam and others. Our very good friend James Randi was one of the first to call foul on this. The company responded in characteristic manner, claiming that Randi didn’t know the first thing about explosive detection. While that may be true, he does know the first thing (and almost everything else) about scams and I don’t think you need to be a munitions disposal expert to know that a telescopic antenna won’t do much for finding hidden bombs.
So after all this, finally the SEC has realized what so many of us in the anti-anti-science movement have known all along: The damn thing is a scam and an attempt to “bump and dump” an otherwise worthless stock and run away with the fraudulent profits. Charges are being perused – finally!
From this article:
Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Sniffex of being little more than the front for a $32 million stock fraud scheme that enriched insiders at the expense of unsuspecting investors.
According to the SEC complaint (PDF) filed Tuesday, Sniffex — which later became Homeland Safety International — installed a figurehead CEO, named Paul B. Johnson, to hide the involvement of two Bulgarian residents who actually controlled the company.
The company then issued a series of what the SEC alleges were false press releases, including one that touted “impressive” results from tests conducted by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. In reality, the tests were conducted by Johnson himself and the results were inconclusive, the SEC says.
The SEC’s complaint also alleges that in 2005 one of the Bulgarians coordinated a spam campaign to hype the stock, taking advantage of the London subway bombings to make his pitch.
The stock rocketed from 80 cents a share to $6 a share in less than three months. While the stock price increased, the insiders sold. The stock plummeted and now trades at one tenth of a penny.
Well, much as I hope to see this guy go to prison, both for defrauding taxpayers and the absolutely reprehensible act of using the fear of terrorism as a means of pushing a bogus product, I have to wonder who was stupid enough to buy up this stock. All I can think is that perhaps it was bought by investors who didn’t know the details other than the company was reported to have a bomb detector of some sort. It goes to show that you really should research your investments. And the military ought to get some common sense before blowing seventy two grand worth of taxpayer money.
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 2:14 am and is filed under Bad Science, Not Even Wrong, Obfuscation, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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July 19th, 2008 at 3:05 am
They had to buy eight to show that it didn’t work? That’s the government for you. Damn. It’s amazing they got as far as they did. They could have at least made it more realistic then that thing
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July 19th, 2008 at 3:28 am
They should have been on this from the beginning. It’s a very obvious scam and if it is a publicly traded company then they should have gotten involved right away. A number of outsiders called this one right away and yet it took the regulators this long to figure it out is pretty bad. They should have drawn up charges within a couple of weeks tops just to do the paperwork.
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July 19th, 2008 at 9:10 am
AS we know better than most, there are a lot of stupid people out there. For some the temptation to take these idiots for all they are worth must be very strong. I can see someone justifying such an action as giving the dummies exactly what they deserve.
The pull of the dark side can be rather strong sometimes.
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July 19th, 2008 at 10:29 am
DV82XL said:
Hmm. Amory Lovins in a Darth Vadar costume.
That could be dispensing too much credit.
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July 19th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Finrod said:
In his case, and others like him, I agree. I was thinking more of the techno-flimflam like the device in question and its ilk. The people that make them know damned well they are worthless, but the have enough background in the sciences to make their product seem plausible to their victims.
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July 19th, 2008 at 10:42 am
DV82XL said:
Yeah, sorry. I went a little off-topic.
Still, I think Amory could be catagorised with that crowd. Unless he really believes what he says.
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July 19th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
The people who buy into this may be stupid or they may not research their stocks, but still it should be prosecuted 100% because for one thing they defrauded the government and for another thing stock scams, even if they only hit dumb investors directly can destabilize the market and also when these people loose money that can be more strain on the social service system. Fraud is never excusable.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 am
Wow. I would never have thought a scheme like that would work with something so obviously fake. If I were to do it I don’t think I’d do it with something like that because I’d think there would be no chance of fooling anyone long enough to even sell a single one.
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February 15th, 2011 at 7:18 am
Latest on this scam from BBC Newsnight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxArxIgB9oA&feature=player_embedded
Techowiz and I started the campaign against this vile business back in late 2008 here in the UK after we saw the randi.org challenge
Looks like we are finally going to see action..let’s hope so. Any help to bring pressure to bear on authorities or media in the following countries would be much appreciated:
Romania – Mira Telecom/ADE 651 link
Mexico- GT200 and poss Alpha 6 invasions,
India – see the Horizon Group
Germany – The HEDD1 (formerly Sniffex) from David Vollmar at Unival
Lebanon – ProSec and General Pierre Hadji Georgiou
etc etc
Keep eyes peeled for more developments soon!!
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