Today, October 29, 2010, Judge Rick Brown of the Riverside County Superior Court entered a verdict for the plaintiffs in a certified national class action lawsuit. The court entered a verdict against Heidi Diaz the owner of the diet website Kimkins.com for fraud and false advertising. The court awarded the class members restitution in the amount of $1,824,210.39. The court also awarded an additional $500,000 in punitive damages as well as attorney fees. The court then issued a temporary restraining order to freeze all of the assets of Ms. Diaz.

Most notably, the court also imposed an injunction requiring Heidi Diaz to post on all of her websites that: (1) she lied about her weight loss; (2) she lied about her after diet pictures; (3) she lied about testimonials on her website; and (4) she lied about the photographs used with the testimonials to promote the Kimkins website.

An injunction was also issued to prevent Heidi Diaz from contracting, harassing or cyberbulling the plaintiffs and the witnesses. A formal judgment will be entered before November 19, 2010.

The original complaint was filed over three years ago on October 15, 2007. I want to thank everyone who supported the class action lawsuit. The Ducks were wonderful. I met a lot of great people and made a lot of new friends fighting for a good cause. Heidi Diaz lied on her website and made the fatal mistake of lying in the courtroom. You cannot trust Heidi Diaz. I anticipate more legal (illegal) maneuvering by Heidi Diaz to evade the judgment. We will be prepared and I will be relentless. Again, I thank all you.

John E. Tiedt
TIEDT & HURD

Let the champagne popping begin!

Thank you all my readers for your support.

        

Look for Court Room 2.

Court precedings began earlier this week. Class representatives flew in from all over the country to participate and testify their experiences.

The Kimkins diet advocated a low carb and low calorie diet, and was run by Heidi Diaz of Corona California. Heidi Diaz is not a certified health care professional, and used false photography to represent herself and “supposed” members of the site. Some inspiration stories were later found out to be not the experiences of real people.

In a shocking undercover video, Ms. Diaz was revealed to not be the svelte woman in the red dress as advertised on her site back in 2007. In fact, that photo was “borrowed” from a Russian bride website as well as many others.

More news to follow.

Please feel free to share this breaking news with local California news sources, as well as national press.

        

I LOVE Led Zepplin. What a perfect song as we rapidly approach the summary judgement this month.

Word on the street is that there are people looking for me and will be talking with me soon. That is news to me. They will need to get in line and make an appointment as I am extremely busy these days.

This 2 year anniversary is very symbolic for me. I have been through a lot in the past 2 years, but have made the most dramatic changes in just this past month. I have been spending some time weeding out the things that are not important to me, and should we get the results we hope to see from the Kimkins case I will be excited to unload that from the list of things to tidy up and finish off.

I’ve been working on a new internet marketing plan and overall life plan. I am not sure whether this has come as a result of a seven year itch or some midlife thing, but the unloading feels good.

My new goals will be completed by August of 2011. 2 years sounds like a long time for a plan, but I am looking for some long term results – not just a quick fix. We all learned from KK that the quick fix can actually make things worse in the long run.

While I had gained back nearly all the weight I lost, it has been dropping off this past month without even trying. I have found if I just keep busy and stay away from car rides it is a no brainer. I think the addition of dropping some unnecessary stress and things that just were not working has been an important factor.

I’ve been asking myself, “what would really make me happy?”  I think people fall into slumps of thinking they are happy or spending too much time trying to make others happy. The next couple of years will be all on making myself as happy as possible.

I would suggest to people who are overweight to ask themselves the same question before even starting a diet. Not the ones with medical issues, but those who have just let things slide. The right answer should have nothing to do with weight – meaning your answer should not be “If I lost 100lbs I would be really happy.” Losing weight is not as hard a battle when other negative issues have been removed. I have personally evaluated for myself that my weight is a reflection of the other issues surrounding me. Right now, food is not important other than for nourishment. As a total “foodie” I am suprised I have finally come to this.

I have dropped a pant size in a week. I have not obsessed with counting calories, or deprived myself when I felt hungry. I’ll be monitoring myself weekly and keeping track of my happiness level. Should things keep going in the right direction, I’ll be relieved to have finally found what really “works.”

        

I recently had a member who had received an email, his name has been removed to protect his identity. Here is how it read:

Attn:(insert name here)

I am the personal/sole executor to the late Mr.Robert Schroeter  hereinafter referred to as my client who worked as an independent oil magnate in my country.He died in a car crash with his immediate family in East London on November 5, 2002..

Mr Robert had Left behind a deposit of 6.8 Million British Pounds Sterling only with a trust company After his death,the Trust company contacted me being his attorney to provide who is right heir to his fortune and this according to them is their policy in sure circumstances.Directors of the company just adopted a resolution and I was mandated to provide his right heir for the release of the fund within a very limited time or forfeit the fund as an abandoned funds.your last name is similar making it easier.

It is unprofitable for his funds to be submitted to the government of this country or some financial institution.Like I said, I require solemn confidentiality on this. Please get in touch with me by my alternative email (hammwrkrichard@hotmail.com) 44-701 113 9692  for better confidentiality and send to me your telephone and fax numbers to enable us discuss further on this transaction. Thanks for your understanding.

Richard Hamm.
solicitor at law.
44-701 113 9692
hammwrkrichard@hotmail.com

What? A “solicitor at law” is using a hotmail account? This was my first tip off that this was an unprofessional email.

I mean, come on. Who would use a free email account for such “private” information? Surely an attorney would know better. Or would he?

Here’s another email I received just today that had me even more puzzled. This is what appears to be an official type email directed to me, and again the user is using AOL. I know there is a paid version of AOL as well, heck I used to pay the 20 or 25 bucks a month for AOL when they first started – but I know better now. When you get your own website, you can easily create your own private email addresses which give you a more professional look IMO (IMO means “In my opinion” which by the way my opinions are covered I believe by the first amendment .

Without further adeau here is that letter:

THE PEABODY LAW FIRM
620 Newport Centre Drive, Ste 1100
Newport Beach, California 92660
E-Mail: peabodylaw@aol.com
Telephone:(949) 200-4610
Facsimile:(949)200-4611

May 29, 2009

Ms. Jill Carpenter
Groton, Massachusetts

Re:     Blog:  First Request for Address to Effect Service of Process: Demand to Cease and Desist:

Dear Ms. Carpenter:

This office represents the interests of Heidi Diaz and Kimkins.  In light of the contents of your recent blogs and web pages, it is apparent that you are familiar with my client(s) as well.  My office is preparing litigation which involves your recent willful conduct and activities aimed at harming or interfering with my client and my client’s ongoing business interests.

As such, demand is hereby made that you immediately cease and desist from making any further derogatory or untoward comments on your blog(s) regarding my client and her business interests.  In the event you fail to comply with this demand immediately, my client has instructed my office to vigorously pursue all avenues of relief for her damages via a court of appropriate jurisdiction.  I further request that you provide your address or an address of your legal counsel authorized to accept service of legal process on your behalf.

In the event you fail to do so, I will promptly issue a subpoena to obtain your personal information from your internet provider.

Please feel free to contact me at your convenience to discuss this matter or in the event you have  any questions or comments.
Sincerely,

THE LAW OFFICE OF TIMOTHY P. PEABODY, ESQ.

By:
Timothy P. Peabody, Esq.

Attorney for:  HEIDI DIAZ dba KIMKINS

kks/TPP
cc: Client File

What is up with an aol email? And even more puzzling and unprofessional, what if I told you this email was not sent to my personal direct email address from the initial sender? It was sent to another party who forwarded it to me! How messed up is that?

Mr. Peabody may as well have just posted it in the comments area here on my blog. Since it had already been shared with another party, there is obviously no reason for me to hide it. Apparently Mr. Peabody didn’t think it was anything to really keep private, so why should I?

Let’s address the rest of this letter while I’m at it. Hold on while I pour myself a drink.

Yum. Ok.

Dear Ms. Carpenter:

Yes, that would be me.

This office represents the interests of Heidi Diaz and Kimkins.

Why? Er I mean, you poor thing. I guess someone has to though. Honestly, I’m happy my good tax dollars are not going to pay for that defense. So thank you Mr. Peabody for offering to take her money and defend her – which by the way if you didn’t know, some of that money she is paying you was probably generated by myself during the time of the Womans World promotion. So in effect my past efforts have been paying you in a round about way. Just think, there wouldn’t be funds to pay you if it weren’t for the marketing efforts of myself and some other affiliates.

In light of the contents of your recent blogs and web pages, it is apparent that you are familiar with my client(s) as well.

You could say I’m a tad bit familiar with the case. Yes, I may have invested a year or so doing my best to help uncover FRAUD. That is what a good citizen does. Not just uncovering the fraud, but making sure others are well aware of it. IMO.

My office is preparing litigation which involves your recent willful conduct and activities aimed at harming or interfering with my client and my client’s ongoing business interests.

Oh! Exciting! An Investigation of some sort? You will need to investigate to prepare for your litigation I’m guessing? Will Kojak and Jessica Lansbury be there? How about that other guy with the trench coat – you know, oh gosh, I forgot his name. Perhaps my commenters will remind me. It’s on the tip of my tongue with some vodka right now so please forgive me.

“willful conduct and activities aimed at harming or interfering with my client and my client’s ongoing business interests.”

Now just hold on a minute there Mr. Peabody – you got it all wrong. My goal here at this blog is to expose online scams. If your client has done nothing wrong then honestly she has nothing to fear. What can little old me do here in Groton Mass? ROFLMBO Ok, I just had to look it up and it does appear that such a place exists. I can tell you with all honesty on both of my grandmothers graves I have not lived there and that is not where I am. But thank you for letting me discover a new place on google maps.

“my client’s ongoing business interests.“

Sorry, but I just had to break that up a bit more. Now Mr. Peabody, how the heck would I know what your clients ongoing business interests are? I don’t live in her house. I don’t even live in the same state. Geeze, if I had that information I would be one powerful person. I guess I’m flattered at the credit you give me.

As such, demand is hereby made that you immediately cease and desist from making any further derogatory or untoward comments on your blog(s) regarding my client and her business interests.

Hmm. So if I say Heidi Diaz did not lose 198 lbs in 11 months and was not the woman in the lawn chair, nor the woman in the red dress, I should be ok, right? But I don’t get why what you’re alluding to is that I can not say something like “she is also the founder of simplechoicesdiet.com” because that might be a business interest? That information is public knowledge. Why am I not allowed to say something like that? Is she wanting to keep that information private for some reason? Because honestly she didn’t do a very good job of it. That information practically landed in my lap – like she was flaunting it. Yes, I can’t tell you how right now for obvious reasons – but that information is avalable all over the web. Heidi Diaz owns simple choices diet, Heidi Diaz owns simple choices diet, Heidi Diaz owns simple choices diet. There. I said it. Big Whoop.

In the event you fail to comply with this demand immediately, my client has instructed my office to vigorously pursue all avenues of relief for her damages via a court of appropriate jurisdiction.

Damages? What? What about my hair falling out? What about my business going down the toilet for promoting a diet where she gave me materials to promote with that she had no right to be sharing – IE Russian bride pictures on banners? What about her false story that she told me I could use – along with anything on the Kimkins site to promote her diet? You want to talk damages? What about the mental anguish I faced when realizing I was promoting a diet that was based on fraud? That I believed that woman had lost weight and kept it off, only to find out it was all a lie? Do you have any clue about my damages? I have been VERY kind to not even address them in full at this time, but if you think I am going to sit here and take your threatening letter, you’d better think again.

I further request that you provide your address or an address of your legal counsel authorized to accept service of legal process on your behalf.

Request all you want Mr. Peabody. Perhaps I will request to get your computer and email correspondence as for all I know you sent this email to a thousand people. An email that should have been sent directly to me as a private and confidential matter. That you sir had knowledge of my websites, and could have simply sent me an email though the proper channels, but chose to send it to a random person who now knows about this.

In the event you fail to do so, I will promptly issue a subpoena to obtain your personal information from your internet provider.

I’ll tell you what. You give me your information, and I’ll give you mine. Maybe.

Please feel free to contact me at your convenience to discuss this matter or in the event you have  any questions or comments.

Here’s a tip to you Mr. Peabody – if that is your real name. Get yourself a real email address to reply to other than that AOL thing you put on your letter. That just doesn’t cut it for me – as you can see from the first scam mail at the top of this post.

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What now?

There are still some more details that need to be hashed out at the Riverside court house, but if nothing else we have proven we have a real case and a certified class.

Members on the list of 40,000 will all need to be contacted, meaning someone will be requested to offer up some information we have been unable to access.

The current state of assets of Kimkins.con are unclear at this time. While a summary judgement request is expected we can only wonder if the amount can really be covered. Of course, there are other tactics that will probably be considered by the defendant – but these will only further exhaust what ever funds may be left. If someone is smart, they will cut their losses now and get while the gettin is good.

There is a saying from anyone who has worked for the government. “Hurry up and wait.”

The next court case hearing appointment that is currently scheduled is for June 8th. While I’m anxious to see things moving again, at least we can now be certain they are moving in the right direction.

        

Just when it looked like we were making progress, and we got permission to go forward with the lawsuit, Heidi Diaz aka Kimmer filed for bankruptcy. This particular act put a hold on our case, and pretty much put things at a dead stop. A thread that was buzzing daily with updates and activity all but fell off the web. The ghosts in the morgue were louder than the Fascination at LCF.

This was not the first time Ms. Diaz has filed for bankruptcy, and I have a feeling it won’t be the last. The only difference this time was her inability to stake her claim. It will be another 6 months before she can try the claim again.

The reason behind the choice to dismiss this particular filing is unclear at this time, but one could speculate that Kimmer was not ready to really reveal the truth behind all her assets. It could also be speculated that this is not be the first time Kimmer tried hiding her assets. Of course, I come to this idea from the past attempts for Heidi Diaz to hide her true identity.

I will be anxious to see the schedule of up and coming events. I would like to ask the Riverside Court house in California to please install the Red Bat Phone, and call John Tiedt with any cancellations or openings so we can just get back to business.

A special thank you to John Tiedt and Scott Clarkson for their persistence and dedication to justice.

        

An appointment on Wednesday January 14th 2009 was attended and Class Certification was granted, despite the recent filing of bankruptcy by Heidi Diaz, owner of the Kimkins.com diet membership site.

Who said it couldn’t be done? I believe that would have been Kimmer herself. Prudentia has the latest and hottest information regarding this and the details of bankruptcy as well.

Can the sound of quacking ducks make your ears bleed? We may find out soon.

        

I’m not sure what the rules are as far as attourney client priviledges, but I’m guessing he will be unable to reveal any insight or secrets he has. Unfortunately for Mr. Cottle, he is still responsible for any court actions he accrued while in the employ of Kimmer. Anything he filed that may be considered a waste of the courts time is not beyond scrutiny just because he is no longer involved. His past may come back to haunt him.

So, the big question now is what will Heidi do? Will she seek out new representation? Will anyone take the case? Will she try to defend herself? Can a simple housewife from Corona California handle John Tiedt and save her defunct diet site that was built on fraud?

It is my current understanding that because of the type of case this is, no one is required to represent Ms. Diaz. I’m anxious to see where all of this goes, and perhaps we will get some answers in January during the next appointment.

        

Mariasol has written an outstanding post on the subject.

One of the things that strikes me most was the use of some very black hat tactics including the use of tags for things that have nothing to do with a diet site.

For example, Heidi Diaz took a popular Internet topic such as the “Geico Caveman” which generated a lot of Internet activity at the time. Heidi Diaz placed the labels: “Caveman, Geico, Kimkins” together so that when “Geico” and “Caveman” would be searched, the Kimkins advertisement would appear. Heidi Diaz admitted that she prepared the graphic and text without the permission of the Geico Insurance Company. Heidi Diaz admitted that labels were also used as tags and that if a search were conducted with respect to the terms “Geico” or “Caveman,” the subject advertisement would show up in a ranking!’

Like Black Bart, Kimkins seems to have a similar MO. Black Bart was living in San Francisco under the name Charles E. Bolton when he was finally caught. Upon being booked he gave the name T. Z. Spalding – although his real name was Charles E. Boles. See any resemblances to Heidi Diaz?

The beginning legend of Black Bart tells a story of a stage coach driver who was approached by a man with a sack over his head holding a double barrel shotgun. Hiding behind the man appeared to be a back up possie revealing only their guns as they hid behind boulders. Bart told the posse “If he dares shoot give him a solid volley, boys.” Fearful for his life and the life of his 5 passengers, the driver delivered the goods on board and followed the direction of the hooded man, taking off when directed to do so. He rode off a ways, and then stopped the stage and looked back. He walked back to the scene of the incident and upon arrival realized the posse to be motionless. Upon further investigation it was revealed those guns were just some sticks pointed at him from behind the boulders.

While it appeared that Bart had supporters, they weren’t real. The same can be said for many of the exposed fake members of the Kimkins diet.

Bart never fired a real shot in his robberies. Although he never killed anyone, he did go to prison for his actions.

I hope our story about Kimkins taking place in the virtual wild west has a similar outcome.

        

I bring this up today after trying to put out some fires last night. I’m going to go off topic for a bit, but you will find it is all relevant information.

I’m going to dive back into Kimkins for this post. For those who may be seeing this blog for the first time, please to check out my “about” page. Basically, I was taken in by an internet fraud. We have been actively involved in a class action lawsuit, counter suits have been filed, and it is all about a woman Heidi Diaz aka Kimmer who used pictures stolen from a Russian brides website to portray herself and her false claims of losing 198 lbs in 11 months and then charging members to join her made up diet site only to ban them when the gig was up. Not a low carb mouthful;) She even made over a million dollars in a month last year when the diet graced the cover of Womans World magazine. WW was given pictures of a Russian bride as well and never sent anyone out personally to verify the story.

In my journeys last night I was directed to a blog were a marketer was promoting the Kimkins diet. It was quite apparent to me that this marketer was grossly uninformed. She was under the impression that Kimmer had lost weight. As we all know know thanks most recently to AmyB this is not the case. We knew it when we got the PI footage of our so called diet guru last year. We now know from court papers that Heidi Diaz has told many lies.

I am concerned for this marketer. I am actually seriously concerned. When I went to promote the Kimkins diet there was virtually no information on “Kimmer” other than the information that came from other affiliate websites which at the time was all pro Kimkins. Now, if you just google Kimkins there is the Kimkins site at the top followed by an endless stream of sites exposing the fraud in an effort to save potential buyers from falling into the trap. Did the marketer I visit not check this out? It is of the utmost importance one take the time to investigate a product and it’s creator before promoting. And after a product has been out for a couple of years this can take litterally minutes. Checking sites like the better business bureau, doing some general search engine searches, looking over at scam.com for instance. Why would anyone want to promote a woman who is a fraud is completely beyond me.

I am hopeful right now that this marketer just didn’t do a proper investigation. Otherwise it sends me the message that this marketer is willing to promote a fraud just to get 20 bucks a head.

So now I come full circle and back to my post today. Who is Don Fleece? And just what is this Traffic Mysteries? There is an increasing buzz on the internet over the past few days.

Apparently Don Fleece is a man who has been behind the scenes in internet marketing. He appears to be grossly unheard of yet there is a forum with members and everything for a pre-launch of Traffic Mysteries. Could all those people be for real?

Here is a prime example of a product one should be extremely hesitant to jump on as a marketer. So what would I do?

Here’s a simple run down list of some investigative tips to find out what you can before promoting a person and their product.

1. Google Search. Take a moment to google Don Fleece and Traffic Mysteries. Look for sites discussing the product and the man and read as much as you can.
2. Do a domain name check. See if the owner of the site is willing to put their name on the WHOIS. I have actually been able to call product owners in the past and get some more information. If the site is listed all as private you should be skeptical. Although I have to add even if there is convincing information provided, don’t completely fall for it. Look further into addresses and other information provided.
3. Backlink check. Throw the site into a backlink checker to see if their are any articles or sites pointing to the promotional site. Look to see how old the blogs and sites are that are promoting the product. If it is a one or two page blog that is only a few weeks old, it is not necessarily a reputable source.
4. Don’t just “believe” celebrity or guru endorsements. If you see a name you recognize endorsing the product you should email or contact that person and verify with them that that is them.
5. Check reputable forums and just keep digging.

There are more steps you can take, but that list is a good start.

I know all too well from the case of Kimkins how easy it is to start a forum and create sockpuppets. Unscrupulous methods were used in the creation of the Kimkins diet site – including posters answering q&a on Yahoo for instance claiming celebrities had done the diet. These were all false rumors spread to further the promotion.

I have left comments for the blog of the marketer currently promoting Kimkins, but I’m waiting for them to be moderated. It just goes to show me my work here is far from finished. It is obvious to me that this marketer did not do their homework.

Before you go jumping into the frenzy, be sure to do your due diligence in finding out all you can about Don Fleece and Traffic Mysteries.