Issue Date:  -  Thursday, 27 May 2004

Mystery Shopping & Lemonade Diet Rorts

Beware of 190 Fax-Back Services

Fax machines around Western Australia are being assailed with 190 fax-back offers of ‘get paid to shop as a mystery shopper’ and ‘the master cleanser lemonade diet’.

The ‘Get Paid to Shop’ offer tells people they can become a ‘mystery shopper’ and:

Get free cosmetics

Get paid to drink wine and beer

Try new hi-fis and TVs

Get paid to eat in restaurants

Get cash to buy petrol

Get paid to go to the cinema

Get paid to take short breaks at exclusive resorts & hotels

The ‘Lemonade Diet’ offer says it is taking America by storm, has changed lives and can be used to:

Lose weight

Recover from sickness

Clean out your system

Build body tissue

Dissolve body toxins

Keep skin young

Relieve pressure on nerves

and more…

All you have to do to take up either offer is call a 190 ‘fax back’ service for a guide to be faxed to you.

Fax-back is where you make a call on your fax machine and the 190 fax machine sends you the information with your fax account being charged for the call.

"The fax call costs you $5.50 per minute and the sender’s machine could be set at a slow speed to drag the call out", Consumer Protection Commissioner Patrick Walker said.

"Previous fax-back complaints have indicated some calls have cost consumers up to $100 per call due to the number of pages, usually of worthless information and the slow speed of the sending fax.

"190 fax retrieval systems that charge per minute are not illegal provided they comply with relevant Communications Regulations and show their service name and the cost per minute in their material’, he said.

If you receive a "Get Paid To Shop" or ‘Lemonade Diet’ fax-back offer, send it to WA ScamNet:

* Reply Paid 64772, Locked Bag 14, Cloisters Square, WA, 6850

2 9282 0862 (Fax)