Kimkins Controversy - Kimkins Scam

Anti-Kimkins Blogs of Note: Slamboard

Slamboard definitely deserves a mention in this series of posts on anti-Kimkins. The photographs of an obese Heidi Diaz were published there first. These photos were taken by PI Robert Charlton of Alliance Investigative Services.

The focus of Slamboard has shifted away from the Kimkins Controversy lately, but the older posts are a great resource for everyone with an interest in the story. There are now lots of vocal detractors with inside information because most of the former insiders fled when they realized or suspected the truth… or they got kicked out for asking questions. Slamboard posts all comments that are not spam. There are several comments from Kimmer’s defenders and they make for an interesting read.

Get a Deal on Office Supplies

If you are looking for big discounts on small business computers, office supplies and business equipment, you should take a look at OfficeDeals.info. Does your home office eat a steady diet from Staples? You can save on your purchases by consulting the regularly updated coupons page for this store at OfficeDeals.info.

Consider the idea of getting business cards. Having business cards streamlines the process of making meaningful connections with people. VistaPrint has been making business cards more accessible to small businesses recently and OfficeDeals.info has a VistaPrint coupon for 75% off VistaPrint business cards.

The merchants that are featured on OfficeDeals.info are like an A-list of all the best companies that supply every kind of office equipment from furniture to ink.

Something a bit unexpected on OfficeDeals.info are the seven pages of information on one kind of chair. If you weren’t paying attention to the dot com bubble, you may be unaware of the cliche on wheels that is the Aeron Office Chair. They cost a lot of money and they are very comfortable. I think they became ubiquitous in the Silicon Valley because one company felt threatened when another one started using them as a perk to improve employee satisfaction and retention, and the whole thing became viral. Actually the bubble officially burst when a CFO said NO to the request for these chairs. He may have prefaced his response with “I hate to burst your bubble…”

I think an Aeron Office Chair would not be the first thing you would get when you were starting a home business. OfficeDeals.info has an article about starting a home business and I found it to be practical and informative.

Support For Those With Eating Disorders

A Kimkins staff member has stated on national television that they try to prevent people from developing eating disorders by providing support. Just prior to this statement she admits that the incidence of eating disorders in a group of people with food issues is inevitable.

I am curious about what happens when this support does not prevent an eating disorder. What happens when someone who is active on the forum makes statements that are clear indications that they have an eating disorder? What happens when someone on the Kimkins forum is vocally concerned that something is wrong with their personal way of eating?

Remote Data Backup

Secure and reliable remote data backup is the bread and butter of FastTeks.com but that is not the only thing that they do. The meat and potatoes of their business model are onsite computer technicians. The technicians at your local FastTeks franchise are highly trained and also they have had extensive background checks. This is important especially for people who run a business out of their home.

Another ABC News Infomercial

I am surprised at these items on network news that are basically infomercials. If I was a hard nosed reporter covering this, I think I would talk to someone about whether a blue laser reflectance value for our hand has any relationship at all to the levels of antioxidants in our blood. I am not a hard nosed reporter, but I can still do a quick search…

These people are good. The BioPhotonic Scanner technology is owned by a nutriceutical company and seems to have been the cornerstone for a turn of the century MLM scheme. I have no idea how they were able to get such favorable coverage on ABC news. Maybe they pay for it. Maybe the News teams are happy to be spoon fed a story by a self-interested source. They do fire off one or two quick sentences that let them off the hook in the event that it is out and out fraud.

When TV News Makes Nice

Isagenix is a cleansing product that is marketed by a company based in Chandler, Arizona.

You would get whiplash if you were to watch this video of ABC and its coverage of the product right after watching KTLA’s coverage of the Kimkins fraud. I am not disparaging Isagenix. I am sure they have all their ducks in a row as far as the FDA and the FTC are concerned. I do get the impression that the consumer report is really a sales pitch. If the three people on the video like to think of themselves as journalists, they must stop off somewhere after work for a few ounces of soul cleanser. The tone of the anchor man is the same tone that Ryan Seacrest uses when he says something heterosexual.

The television footage was uploaded by what appears to be an affiliate for the product.

Will DNA Testing Keep Us Honest ?

DNA testing isn’t just for things like paternity tests. Every living creature has DNA. Over a decade ago, I heard about a scientist who was doing contract work for the police and the department of wildlife confirming their suspicions about restaurants selling illegally obtained deer meat from poachers. This same biologist decided to test ground meats at grocery stores. He found out that many local stores were adding lots of meat from chickens and pigs into the ground beef. His findings were met with promises of stricter adherence to standards. I can imagine that people with allergies or religious dietary restrictions were put off by this report.

More recently, animal welfare groups took hair samples from faux fur trim on some of the coats in the boutiques. That seems silly doesn’t it? Faux fur doesn’t have any DNA. Well, they actually found quite a few samples of faux fur that DID have DNA. You may remember that Diddy got some embarrassing press when they found out that his parkas had fur from ‘raccoon dogs.’

Raccoon dogs are not domestic dogs, they are a wild animal that are raised in large number in captivity in Asia and they live and die under very inhumane conditions.

DNA testing has the potential to expose and hopefully prevent a lot of unethical business practices. I suspect that there are still all kinds of people out there who say ‘Who’s Gonna know?’ on a daily basis.

Small Business Loans

Generally speaking, most people want to get their Small Business Loans yesterday. I don’t think there are any lenders offering that kind of processing today. EZUnsecured offers Fast Funding for loans right up to a million dollars. You can even get as much as $350,000 with the requirement of full documentation, the process is quick and easy. They typically approve within 3 days and sometime people get the cash in hand within a week. When a business opportunity knocks, it helps to know where you can get capital fast.

Adapting to the Changing World

Executive Language Training’s courses in accent reduction and Business English can give people a leg up as they climb the corporate ladder. Regardless of your occupation, accent reduction means that you will be better understood when communicating with native English speakers. Just today, I was at a delicatessen and I heard a conversation were a very smart looking young German woman had to explain three times that she wanted mortadella. The woman at the counter thought that she was asking for mozzarella. I know, this isn’t a very good example, since those are both Italian foods. My point is that while this shopping excursion had some minor inconvenience, can you imagine if this young woman was working as an inventory manager for a grocery chain instead of on vacation ordering a picnic lunch? The stores would be flooded with mozzarella and the scarcity of mortadella would lead to riots in the streets… well, maybe not.

If you are a businessman, you might want to consider Cantonese language training as an investment in your future. Sixty-six percent of Chinese bond investment is in America. I’m just saying…

Revisiting the ‘New Ownership’ Ruse

I don’t have any inside information on the whole ‘Kimkins under new ownership’ statement that was floated around before the legal case got traction. It just popped into my head and I wondered to myself what the ramifications would have been if Heidi Diaz had sold the Kimkins business to another real live person.

I heard a sad story once about a European investor that bought a mine site unseen from a company that had closed it up many months or years before that. The buyer understood that it was all hooked up with lighting and ventilation and other equipment. Neither party were aware that a local petty criminal had used his truck and some delinquent helpers to pull all the electrical wiring out of the mine so he could sell it as scrap copper. It wasn’t a copper mine. It wasn’t a diet site either, so I don’t know why I’m talking about it. There must be a good ’shaft’ reference in here somewhere.