There are outrageous unethical websites and annoying unethical websites, but some unethical websites are dangerous. NaturalCures is one of those, because it takes aim at the desperate hopes of those who are sick, or who are caring for those who are sick. Its intended audience is the suspicious, the badly informed, the disillusioned, and the paranoid, as it presents as fact the conspiracy theory that "the American Medical Association, Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the pharmaceutical cartels are suppressing information about natural remedies and natural cures for virtually every disease."  

Then it promotes a book, "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About," that both expounds on that theory and describes, according to the site, amazingly effective cures for "virtually every known disease." To date, over 3 million purchasers have taken the bait, presented by author Kevin Trudeau, also known as "TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau," "convicted felon Kevin Trudeau," "credit card fraud Kevin Trudeau," "false advertiser Kevin Trudeau," and "former clown and magician Kevin Trudeau." Actually, that's not fair…he's still something of a magician.

He can make your money and your health disappear.

Trudeau has nothing if not brass. He expects readers to believe him rather than the federal agencies charged with overseeing the safety of America's products and the honesty of its advertising, despite the fact that he served a two-year stint in federal prison in the early '90s after pleading guilty to two counts of credit card fraud, using "unauthorized access devices" (translation: fake names and social security card numbers) to acquire phony credit cards and defraud American Express out of $122,735.68. He also swindled an additional $5,000 from several banks. In 1996 the Illinois attorney general accused him of running a pyramid scheme while working for a health-products company called Nutrition for Life. Trudeau settled that case out of court by paying $185,000 to Illinois and seven other states.

The Federal Trade Commission came after him in 1998, during which he was accused of making "false or unsubstantiated" claims in advertisements on radio and television infomercials with ads for products like the "Mega Memory System," which was built on the theory that everyone has an innate photographic memory that could be activated with his help. The infomercial claimed that Trudeau's amazing memory techniques were discovered while working with "blind and mentally handicapped students," an activity that is strangely absent from Trudeau's work history. And yet their recall ability increased from 15% to 90% in just 5 days! Hard to believe, but what's the risk? After all, the system was "guaranteed to work."

Similar infomercials (all rather deceptively staged as spontaneous talk show interviews, but this is standard practice in the slimy world of infomercials) advertised such miracle products as "Doctor Callahan's Addiction Breaking System," "Action Reading," "Eden's Secret Nature's Purifying Product" and "Howard Berg's Mega Reading." Somehow he must not have been able to get the rights to "Doctor Whizbang's Super Health Elixir for Youth, Vitality, and Regularity."

But he's only 43; there's still time.

Last year, Trudeau signed a settlement with the FTC in which he agreed not to appear in, produce, or disseminate future infomercials advertising any type of product, service, or program to the public. Under the deal, Trudeau cannot make disease or health benefit claims for any type of product, service, or program in any advertising, including print, radio, internet, television, and direct mail solicitations, regardless of the format and duration. Trudeau also agreed to pay the FTC $2,000,000 to settle charges that he falsely promoted a bogus food supplement product called "Coral Calcium Supreme," purportedly made from Japanese marine coral, which his ads said provided the same amount of calcium as two gallons of milk. But, according to the infomercials, "the Coral Calcium Supreme" was absorbed into the body faster than ordinary calcium and thus could cure cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, lupus, and other illnesses. Another set of false claims was for a product called "Biotape," which according to Trudeau could cure or relieve severe back pain.

"This ban is meant to shut down an infomercial empire that has misled American consumers for years," said Lydia Parnes, Acting Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection at the time. "Other habitual false advertisers should take a lesson; mend your ways or face serious consequences."

Trudeau had another lesson in mind. Use the infomercials and the web to promote a book rather than a product. That First Amendment…what a loop-hole! Can't ban that!

And so we have the website NaturalCures, welling the book by the same name. Given Trudeau's rather unambiguous record as a master of fraud, misrepresentation, dishonesty and deceit, one would be tempted to say that anyone who fell for his medicine show patter deserved what they got. But one of the purposes of ethical conduct is to make the world safer for the gullible, naïve and foolish. Trudeau and his website have caught three million of them so far, and all we can do is hope that they don't lose their health as well as their money.