One of the human health scams has found the ferret world! Arrrgghhhhh!
It was bound to happen due to the money spend on vet care, but,
"Arrrgghhhhhh!", anyway.

We got one of those testimonials last night from someone who had just
joined (and had the piece prewritten since it was sent immediately). I
was the moderator who read it.

It followed the same rules as testimonials found for selling to other
species, and this item is mentioned in human health scam caution lists
like Canada's Health Watcher.

To prep the person learned some key phrases (in this case Marshall
Farms and tats), and then a little (but NOT enough) about ferrets and
some of their common medical problems. I'm sure you will run into the
testimonial elsewhere and you'll have great fun picking out the errors
that show it's a fake. To show how "real" this was the person referred
in the long letter to another list where he or she had already sent a
letter. Well, that letter was empty; apparently, it that list isn't
moderated beforehand but was erased afterward.

Anyway, like most testimonials it begins with a little story to get
the crowd on the writer's side and build up sympathy so that people
don't read closely.

Then it has the device tackling a symptom of a common illness. Then it
builds from there.

After that it talks about all sorts of human illnesses treated and
healed (again dotted with errors that can be spotted by some familiar
with certain of the illnesses). It pretty much not only promises the
moon but also promises that it will be made of whatever your own
favorite cheese is.

(Oh, and if you read the testimonial it says that it saves money
because it works on a huge range of illnesses in many species. Well,
in my checking on it last night I found that people are spending
thousands to buy the devices. Tesla will be rolling in his grave.)

Then it ends with a shocker. My goodness, after long use on the ferret
a birth deformity is also miraculously healing.

It was CLASSIC SALES TESTIMONIAL.

How long do you think it will be before "another" person sends
similarly structured letters targeted for other species to lists
for types of dogs, cats, horses, etc.?

Sukie (not a vet)
Current FHL address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5547]