The Lutragen and Essence of Argan scam – an open source investigation

It’s the beauty cream Australian personality Jessica Rowe warned others against using after she found her name had been fraudulently caught up endorsing the product through a series of online sponsored ads.

This was quickly followed by other personalities such as Deborah Knight encouraging the public to heed their warning about this latest beauty scam.

Curious as to who was behind the Lutragen beauty product, Online Investigations Pty Ltd decided to take a look beyond the skin deep surface layers and figure out who was schilling this misleading brand.

THE MARKETERS:

The origins of the post falsely linking Jessica Rowe to the brand appear to have begun on Facebook, where the Facebook page “Tasty Life” created the following sponsored ads:

The Facebook page Tasty Life was created on or about the 17 November 2017 and is limited in the information it provides about its background.  However, all the posts encourage visitors to view blogs located at the the website http://www.bodyscope.net.  The site appears to be a lifestyle blog, but all ownership details and listed contacts are hidden.  **Note: This site has since been taken down.

Google adverts which run on this site are linked to the same account connected to no less than 111 other domains.  These have all been identified as lifestyle type blogs and all hide their true registrant details.  An example of the sites which all share the same Google Advert account are: beautyplay.net, buzzbeat.net, buzzbrewer.com, coconutty.net, dizzydolphin.net, inspiredstyle.net, luxscoop, moonowl.net, roazted.com and tenderpixels.com.

Going back to the sponsored post about Jessica Rowe, the post leads to a different website with the full URL identified as: http://viraliga.com/2018/05/03/jess-rowe-speaks-out-for-the-first-time-following-her-shock-departure/?utm_source=au-f3&utm_medium=dt-nr&utm_campaign=au-jess1&utm_term=a0101&utm_content=jessilv1

Looking at the full URL of the advertisement, it is clear the success of the advert is being tracked using the campaign reference “au-jess1”.  At the time the sponsored post was active (May 2018), the website led to a blog post heavily promoting Lutragen.

An excerpt of the website when the campaign was active looked like this:

This campaign has since ended and the website now shows a generic post related to Jessica Rowe leaving her role on Studio 10.

The current website makes no mention of Lutragen.

Domain registrant searches of Viraliga.com identified the true owner was hidden using a third party anonymising service, however this was briefly lifted back in May 2017 with the true registrant revealed to be:

Registrant Name: Butterfly Media
Registrant Street: Hayarkon
Registrant Street: 2nd Floor
Registrant City: Tel Aviv
Registrant State/Province: IL
Registrant Postal Code: 69710
Registrant Country: IL
Registrant Phone: +972.583338614
Registrant Email: bmedia@gmx.com

The company is described as:

“ButterFly Media runs a global engagement network over Facebook with tens of millions of engaged users in reach and millions of active story-tellers (Talking About It) at all times.”

Although the company lists their headquarters in Israel, the Chairman of the company, Arnon Katz resides in the United Kingdom.

Butterfly Media improves the online social reach of their clients by creating content and promoting it using their network of content orientated Facebook pages around the world.

An explanation of how their service works is described in their promotional video as:

“Instead of having standard ads we offer smart, ethical, no spam, audience targeted attention by a strict pay per performance base that will make Facebook users enjoy your stories, reach your page and eventually your business.  We want to spread your stories on those news feeds”.  

The website for Butterfly Media is located at http://www.bmntw.com, which currently shows a holding page only with the words “Butterfly Media”. The last known date it was recorded as active was January 2018 and encouraged new clients to contact them via their email address info@bmntw.com which is also no longer active.

THE MAILING ADDRESS:

While there are many affiliate pages for the sale of Lutragen, the top level domain can be found at http://www.lutragen.com.

The website states when a customer places an order through this site they will be “shipped a 30 day supply of Lutragen Anti Aging and billed only $6.90, shipping and handling.”  The site further states “If you feel Lutragen Anti Aging is not for you, cancel within 14 days from today to avoid enrollment in the Exclusive Lutragen Anti Aging auto-shipment program which sends you a 1 month supply every 30 days starting 14 days from shipment of the first bottle for $131.00 plus shipping and handling of $6.90.”

Once an individual completes the form with their contact details, even if they do not complete the transaction they will begin to receive emails encouraging them to complete the order.

At the bottom of this email, additional information as to the sender is provided as:

A Google Street view of this address reviewed identified this was in fact the address for “Overseas House” which provided an additional contact phone number.

The phone number was connected to the website https://www.openaeuropeancompany.com/about-us/ which states:

“The website for OpenAeuropeancompany.com has been set up to provide a fully comprehensive specialist service to those individuals and companies who are looking to set up in Europe and need a package of services that are tailored to their own specific requirements. We can provide a full range of services including: company formation, bank account assistance, offices and accountancy as well as post incorporation consulting services.”

Further review of this address identified it is connected to a significant number of companies and acts as a ‘virtual office’ rather than a physical address for the representatives of a specific company.

THE COMPANY:

Company record information for Down Range Limited revealed it was first registered on the 21st April 2011 however had recently dissolved as of 17th July 2018.

The Company Directors were identified as:

Robert Brett Bell (September 1975) – Utah, United States Of America; and

William Marc Bell (December 1977)  – Utah, United States of America

A former Director was identified as

Tobias Charles Sachev (June 1986) – Herts, United Kingdom

Enquiries into Robert Brett Bell and William Marc Bell identified they had a history of involvement in an alleged work from home scam which falsely traded on Google’s name.  Further to this, they were also linked to the company Yknot Holdings LLC which has an extensive listings of complaints online related to non delivery of goods.

There are also a number of online complaints linking Yknot Holdings LLC to the failed delivery of supplements and fraudulent billing.

THE CONTACT PHONE NUMBER:

Information on the lutragren.com website states “To cancel at anytime call +61-290520868 or for more information please visit http://www.lutragen.com/support/”

A reverse search of  (02) 9052 0868 reveals an extensive list of supplements (and subsequent complaints of non-delivery) which all list this number as their contact number.

The domain lesunecs.com has recently been connected to the sale of Lutragen

LESUNECS.COM:

From 30th September 2018, complaints began appearing here from Australians stating they had incurred repeated fraudulent transactions and received the Lutragen product in the mail despite never ordering it.  The charges on their bank statement were showing as “Lesunecs.com 35376680371 IE”.

Domain searches identified the current registrant to be:

Valerie McHugh

Acoustic Ales LImited

4 Chuirt An Fhile, Roslevan

Ennis, Co. Clare V95 YE2D

Ireland

Tel: +353 766 803 714

Email: support@lesunecs.com

Reverse searches of domains owned by “Valerie McHugh” revealed 145 other sites owned in this name.  These included domains including but not limited to:

ESSENCE OF ARGAN:

A new scam warning has also recently popped up for “Essence of Argan” oil, this time being shilled using the fake testimony of Australian personality Samantha Armytage.

As outlined in the Lutragen scam above, the marketing tactics of this oil involve sponsored Facebook ads, fake news articles and the enticement of a ‘free’ trial.  Once a customer has provided their details they are usually overcharged on their credit card and the product doesn’t arrive.

The website located at https://essenceofargan.com/ has been registered since 2010, with the true registrant hidden by a third party anonymiser since June 2011.  At the time of its registration in 2010, the registrant was provided as:

OShea, Kelly  
kelly@1streamline.com
16001 Collins Ave #3307
Sunny Isles, Florida 33160
United States
3053363993

Open source searches on Kelly O’Shea revealed him to be the current Director of CO Holdings, Ltd , which is described as providing solutions “for continued/expedited growth”.  Further to this, Mr O’Shea’s LinkedIN profile describes him as “an active Entrepreneur and Patent Author focusing on E-Commerce, currently acting as CEO or Director for several Global Corporations. Passionately improving the Ad-Tech, Fin-Tech and Health & Beauty sectors.“

The website states they are owned by “Life Style Ventures, LTD” which provide a Malta location for their head office.

A search of the Maltese company records confirm the following company details:

A search on Google maps of this location provides the following image for the company head office.  (Would seeing this make you rethink where you were purchasing your beauty products from?)

Life Style Ventures Ltd office location – Carolina Court, 69 Giuseppe Cali St., Fl.2, Ta’Xbiex, XBX 1425, Malta.

Both CoHoldings, Ltd and Life Style Ventures Ltd list their physical address at the above address, however Kelly O’Shea currently lists himself as residing in the Greater New York area.

So a warning for those who are enticed by sponsored ads and the lure of their favourite personalities promoting supplements online – do you really know what you’re getting?

Have you had experiences with purchasing Lutragen or a similar related product or company association? Let us know in the comments below: