Background: Powerbalance and the stupid morons it brings to my website

You may have read my earlier two posts on Power balance: the first on Fake powerband scam? Power balance is Snake oil in bracelet form and the second on How to spot a fake power balance bracelet.

Powerbalance "performance"

I have a lot of hits of people utterly convinced the things work, reckon I’m stupid for doubting it.. But for some reason they have arrived via google searches worried they might have a fake one that doesn’t work (yeah, I know: they aren’t very bright..). Queries like:

• how do you tell if a powerband bracelet is fake or not?
• real vs fake power balance
• fake power balance
• power balance bracelet scam

etc

The curse of stupidity: power balance

I was even resorting to offering firstly a $1,000 and then $5,000 bet that Power balance would not do anything beyond a placebo in a proper scientific double blind test. The details were that if I won I would donate the money to charity (so I could in no way personally profit from the venture). Unsurprisingly when it comes time to put their money where their mouth is: they suddenly disappear.

The ACCC spanking

Here’s what the ACCC released:

Power Balance Australia Pty Ltd (Power Balance) claimed that their wristbands and pendants improve balance, strength and flexibility and worked positively with the body’s natural engergy field. It also marketed its products with the slogan “Performance Technology”. These claims made by Power Balance were not supported by any credible scientific evidence and therefore Power Balance has admitted that it has engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in breach of s 52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

So I presume that this information will be known to Power balance head office in the USA (and thus on to other countries). So I think that means that they are actively misleading the rest of the world. Can someone please get a class action lawsuit in the USA on these chumps ASAP.

Wait for the best bits which are the conditions placed upon Power balance:

To address the ACCC’s concerns, Power Balance has undertaken that it will:

• not make any claims about its products that are not supported by a written report from an independent testing body that meets certain standards;
• offer a refund to consumers who feel they have been misled;
• publish corrective advertising to prevent consumers from being misled in the future;
• amend the Australian website to remove any misleading representations;
• remove the words ‘performance technology’ from the brand itself; and
• implement a compliance program.

Time to update the Power balance website
So here’s how their website should have looked:

How I would do the powerbalance page if it had to be truthful.

Instead of this page they always had a “coming soon” type page on the Australian one. If nothing else it’ll cost them to remove their “performance technology” from their product. Good.
I think they should also have to fix all international pages because what do people do if the page is not there: they search on the USA/overseas sites.
Hey, maybe there’s hope for them in RMIT’s double blind scientific tests of holographic power bands.

My report to the ACCC’s SCAMWatch website
Here’s the report I lodged some months ago, I hope it was instrumental in bringing power balance to the ACCC’s attention. I’m glad they paid attention to my comment about the “technology” bit of their slogan.

Confirmation

Top of Form
The ACCC appreciates the time you have taken to report this scam. The ACCC receives many reports of scams. This information greatly assists us to monitor scam trends and take action where appropriate. A record of your report will be kept and if any further information is required, you may be contacted by ACCC staff. If you want advice about how to deal with a scam, please review the information on this website. You may also wish to contact the SCAMwatch Information Line on 1300 795 995.

You submitted the following:
Scamwatch complaint lodged by Mr Nathan Lee

Complainant details
Name:Mr Nathan Lee
*snip snip*chopped out some stuff*snip snip*
How did the scammer contact you?Internet
Details of the scammer (business, company, group or individual)
Name:Powerbalance LLC
Street address:Unit 2, 173 Salmon St.
Suburb / Town:Port Melbourne
State:Vic
Country:Australia
Postcode:3207
Phone number:+61 3 96467249
Email:
URL: http://www.powerbalance.com
ABN:
ACN:
Other names:
What type of scam was it?
Health & medical (including weight-loss, miracle cures)
What problems did you experience?

* Misleading or deceptive information about the product/service/business
* Overpriced or sub-standard goods
* Too good to be true

Money
Did you pay / transfer / lose money to the scammer? false

Briefly describe the scam (including any information not covered by the questions above):

Claims which have been tested on national TV and found to be false. Product is a placebo, sold for an exorbitant price. Calling a rubber band and sticker “technology” is crazy. Makes claims like “optimizing the body’s natural energy flow”,improve “core strength” and have no basis for these claims.
Bottom of Form

One holoscam down.. An awful lot still to go.

Update: Oh, but if you want a hologram bracelet infused with truthishness rather than scamishness: try the placebo bands from the skeptic bros. Unlike all these other garbage products: this one is actually honest and goes to charity if there are any profits left over from the $2 sale price!

Update: Here’s the Ad from powerbalance:

Power balance admits they are a scam.

One of the google queries that found my site was “How to spot a fake power balance“. I mean it’s an important issue right? These things are bloody expensive at $59.95 a pop and who knows what sort of impact a misaligned energy holographic sticker thingy might have on those pesky meridian lines or “natural energy”!

So when do I know I’m being scammed by a power balance bracelet?
Let’s for the sake of this define “getting scammed” or “ripped off” as “paying good money for something that doesn’t have any special ability and is just a piece of plastic with a sticker on it”.

So for the people considering buying one and worried about getting scammed: relax. I have a very easy guide as to when you’ve been ripped off.

1. If you buy it direct from power balance: you’re getting ripped off.

2. If you buy one from an authorised dealer or distributor: you’re getting scammed.

3. If you buy a fake one you will also be getting scammed, albeit slightly less. The difference is entirely down to a single metric to determine how much you’re getting scammed. If you pay $59.95 then you’ve been scammed 59.95 units on the power balance scam-o-meter (also known as Australian dollars or AUD). If you have some shifty looking guy (well.. a shifty looking guy who isn’t officially affiliated with the power balance company) sell you one for $29.95 you’ve been scammed out of twenty-nine bucks and ninety-five cents BUT that means when you stand next to the person who bought a “real” one: you’re actually $30 less scammed than that guy. So in essence you’ve got the same placebo for half the price.

Half price placebo is better than full price placebo.

So out of the possible options presented so far: your least scammy way of purchasing one is from the seedy non-genuine powerband guy offering you cheaper ones. The authentic power balance bracelet at full price is the biggest scam.

Avoiding power band scam!

Power balance bands: You can spot a fake one easily. They're all fake.

The only way you don’t get scammed is if you got it free (perhaps discarded by someone reading my earlier blog or other people exposing the hoax of power balance bracelets). I suppose you could steal one, but really: it’s illegal and there’s one thing stupider than buying one in the first place and that’s going to jail for one. But it would actually cost the original scammers (or their minion local scammers) some money, perhaps less than a dollar a unit. Go into a bargain/discount store full of kiddy’s toys and plastic crap and find the cheapest plastic wrist band and that’s probably what you’ve cost them. So not worth going to jail for. Perhaps the “fake” product will drive them out of business and they’ll have to get real jobs.

So, instead of the placebo peddlers of powerbalance products: trust honest Nathan’s snake oil detection services to steer you clear of scams: if you buy a power balance band, real or fake: you’re getting SCAMMED sweetheart.. Instead (or if by some miracle I’ve stopped you wasting $60), might I suggest a donation to one of these fine, secular, charity organisations:

• The Fred Hollows foundation (donate here) – restoring sight to the poor throughout the world
• Oxfam Australia (donate here) – a number of great charitable works around the world
• Australian Red Cross (donate here) – neutral humanitarian aid with an extensive history of helping.

Sorry if that last bit was a bit preachy, but fuck me: $60 for a bullshit plastic bracelet? I mean take a look at what that means to the above charities and what they can do with it versus your typical evil scumbag placebo scam artist rolling around in piles of $100 bills having cocaine snorting contests with $10,000 a night hookers.

At $60 a pop, I'd say they could just about afford it.

Update: this also applies to iRenew bracelets. Check out how similar the claims are (and the dodgy tests). Thanks to Frank Montez for pointing them out.

From their website:

The iRenew Bracelet does this by helping to balance your body’s subtle BioField.

and a bunch of claims about strength etc. Also even more placebo-ey than powerbalance:

Keep in mind the positive biological effects a balanced biofeld has for your plants and animals as well! The most efficient way to benefit your plants and animals with the technology is to use an iRenew Energy Balance System product to charge their water prior to dissemination. You can also place an Energy Balance System hologram on your pet’s water and food bowls or on the pots in which your plants reside.

Wow! Really? I guess next time I disseminate my plants, I’d better dose up the water on good quality plastic placebo.
Although I can say that the iRenew is slightly less of a scam than the power balance. Going back to my metric on the “fake” bracelets being cheaper and thus less of a scam. These are apparently USD$19.95, so a lot better *cough*value*cough* than power balance.
I’d still like to see them outperform a rubber band or bit of string though for placebo value goodness.

UPDATE: See newer post about Power balance admitting they were deceptive. No longer able to make any of the claims in Australia. So before you start going on at me: power balance themselves say these things do nothing.

Power balance bands: Not endorsed by Harry Potter as yet, but bound to be eventually.

This “article” (I use the term loosely because it uses zero journalistic investigation skills): “Fake power band scam” bleats about the loss of a $59.95 scam by the power band people and a cheaper sale by someone else.

Performance technology company Power Balance Australia has issued a warning to potential customers that a man has been selling counterfeit versions of their performance power bands at the Moruya markets.
..
Power Balance Australia NSW manager Ryan Brustolin says the fake bands are made in China and are of no more than ornamental value, despite being virtually identical to the real thing. They are usually bought on Ebay.

“They are very, very similar but they have no technology in them so they are worth nothing,” he said.

Is he talking about his own products or the fake ones? I’m confused.

The idea that you can magically change your metabolism via strapping on what is essentially a “live strong” band with a hologram sticker is insane. I go exercise to try and increase my endurance, strength etc and even then it takes actual effort. This snake oil company is selling a placebo bracelet.

Power Balance: finest placebo wares for the bargain price of $59.95

The signs of a snake oil product

So let’s look at their claims (from their website):

What is Power Balance?

Power Balance is Performance Technology designed to work with your body’s natural energy field. Founded by athletes, Power Balance is a favorite among elite athletes for whom balance, strength and flexibility are important.

How Does the Hologram Work?

Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body

Wow, I think I shall have to refer to any sticker now as “technology”. It’s not sticky tape: it’s a reel of technology! Those aren’t post-it notes, they’re yellow paper note technology! The makers of this shouldn’t be told to stick their product up their arses, they should instead technologify an orifice with the product.

How exactly does a bit of plastic “resonate and respond” in this most premium of snake oil bracelets? Do they mean “if you look at the holographic sticker from different angles it appears to be 3D”? Seriously? Does it have a drop of snake oil encased in the plastic somewhere?

The power band product has a number of characteristics of your standard snake oil product line:

• Vague claims like “natural energy field” and “optimising the body’s natural energy flow”.
• Expensive for what it appears to be: a rubber strap with a sticker
• Links to “eastern philosophies” to explain how the magic sticker (also found on genuine DVDs from China)
• Endorsements from laypeople, sportsmen/women but no actual scientific studies or verified results

So let me translate what “natural energy” means in a product such as this: it means “all in your head”. They’ve leapt up a level in quackery by claiming this piece of plastic with a sticker (erm.. sorry “technology”) is the reincarnation of a philosophy or some such garbage.
But hey, there are a lot of stupid people out there making these snake oil peddlers very rich. If you see anyone wearing one of these: I suggest you offer to sell them a nice block of land in the middle of Sydney Harbour.

Let’s try some science with some blind tests

Did some digging and found that Richard Saunders did a follow up on Today Tonight to show what a load of shit these things are:

Says everything really. Well, except that shining example of fine journalism Today Tonight didn’t run with the headline “Shocking power balance scam EXPOSED!”.

And a ratbags.com link on the matter of Power Balance Bracelets.

UPDATE: See the follow up post on how to spot a fake power balance bracelet.

UPDATE: See newer post about Power balance admitting they were deceptive. No longer able to make any of the claims in Australia. So before you start going on at me: power balance themselves say these things do nothing.