A Florida man will pay the Federal Trade Commission $485,000 to settle charges that he used unsolicited e-mail to promote herbal supplements.
Creaghan A. Harry, doing business as Hitech Marketing, Scientific Life Nutrition, and Rejuvenation Health Corp., will pay the FTC to settle charges that he used millions of illegal spam messages to tout the bogus anti-aging properties of HGH herbal supplements.
The settlement bars the Boca Raton -based defendant from making claims about any products sold over the Internet, including health and weight-loss claims, without scientific evidence.
Filed in July 2004, the FTC’s complaint charged that Harry violated the FTC Act by making false claims and violated the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM Act) by sending e-mail that disguised its source, did not provide a way for recipients to opt-out of receiving future messages and gave no valid postal address.
According to the FTC, 40,000 spam messages claimed Harry’s products would stop or reverse the aging process, cause weight loss, increase muscle, or re-grow hair and remove wrinkles.
The settlement bars Harry from violating the CAN-SPAM Act. Based on financial statements provided by the defendant, the settlement contains a suspended judgment of $5.9 million, the total amount of estimated consumer injury. If the FTC finds that the financial statements were inaccurate, the entire $5.9 million will immediately become due.
