Ultra HCG

## Description

Appearing in 2011, **Ultra HCG** and **HCG Ultra** and **HCG Slim** and **HCG Elite** web sites offer to sell human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).

These appear to be similar operations in terms of the product offered. However it is quite possible that these are separate operations that share the same product but come from different operators.

We deal with all operations here, and will draw distinctions where that is relevant.

## False Pretenses

### Fake claim to be secure

The web site makes the claim to be "safe and secure"

However, when you proceed to checkout, the site asks for your name, address and credit card number using an http conection. A safe and secure transaction would have an SSL encryption certificate, using an https transaction. Lack of security while claiming it is secure is a hallmark of fraud, typical of criminal abuse.

### Fake Seals

**Ultra HCG**,**HCG Ultra**, **HCG Slimm** and **HCG Pure** all display a list of seals or certifications at the bottom of their pages. A genuine seal or certificate is an image which links to the certifying site. But with these fraud sites, the images do not link anywhere.

For example, they display an FDA Registered seal as a pharmaceutical manufacturer. The image does not act as a link, and none of these operations specifies who is the manufacturer, obscuring the source of the supply. The customer can not verify where the manufacturer resides.

### Fake News Channel

This method also cloaks the central site, and allows multiple disposable domains to be registered and used in e-mails. As these are detected and suspended by registrars, they hope that the central target of the redirections may escape attention. Some examples of spammed disposable domains all registered with CENTER OF UKRAINIAN INTERNET NAMES
* bringmeat.com
* fatsoooo.com
* hcg-rocks.com
* hcgcheaps.com
* hcgsaler.com
* hcgultraofficial.com
* hurrysmall.com
* lightslaunch.com
* makebelly.com
* minisfat.com
* mygreatdiet.com
* sellerhcg.com
* slowfats.com
* sportlow.com
* weightedhcg.com
* wowsdogs.com

This method also cloaks the central site, and allows multiple disposable domains to be registered and used in e-mails. As these are detected and suspended by registrars, they hope that the central target of the redirections may escape attention. Some examples of spammed disposable domains all registered with NAUNET-REG-RIPN
* hcg-lossweightgames.ru
* hcg-lossweightpro.ru
* hcg-lossweightsoft.ru
* hcgcheapbest.ru
* hcgcheapbuy.ru
* hcgcheapstudio.ru
* hcgdietscom.ru
* hcgdietsdeal.ru

## Efficacy claims

Does hCG help you lose weight? To evaluate the claims, you first have to define what standards you are using to evaluate them.

### Mainstream medical science’s viewpoint

HCG is the hormone produced by the fetus during pregnancy. It has effects similar to the hormones from the mother’s pituitary gland. By overriding the monthly cycles of pituitary hormones, it stimulates the ovaries to make hormones continuously. That prevents menstruation from shedding the uterine lining supporting the developing placenta and fetus. HCG levels rise rapidly during the first weeks of pregnancy and stay high the entire nine months, preventing a menstrual period from causing a miscarriage.

HCG is not approved by the FDA as a weight loss method. The pharmaceutical manufacturers that produce HCG state clearly in their prescribing information that there is no evidence their product has any effect on weight loss. In addition, women who have been pregnant will point out that having a baby is not a particularly effective way to lose weight. And it’s certainly no way to create an hourglass figure or a sixpack abdomen.

As a pharmaceutical product, hCG is part of a sequence of hormones used to treat infertility. It is given as injections, not pills or liquid drops. Be assured that no one would be giving themselves shots at home if they could accomplish the same thing with pills. HCG is a “peptide” hormone, made of a sequence of amino acids, like the larger molecules called proteins. When a peptide hits the digestive enzymes of the stomach and intestines, it rapidly is broken down to amino acids before being absorbed into the bloodstream. Oral hCG would have no hormonal effect. It would enter the bloodstream as an assortment of short strings of amino acids with no resemblance to the original hormone. Oral hCG would be merely a very expensive amino acid supplement. It has to be injected to have a hormone effect.

### Alternative medicine’s view

The Ultra HCG and HCG Ultra websites claim they are selling a homeopathic product. The theory of homeopathy is that substances can be diluted to vanishingly small proportions and take on effects that are opposite to those of the undiluted product. So a product that makes you fat would be slimming if you diluted it enough. According to this theory, the more dilute a homeopathic product is, the stronger it becomes. And while hCG is not active when swallowed, homeopathy is not about achieving a therapeutic blood level of the product.

### Which kind of product are *they* selling?

However, Ultra HCG can’t seem to decide whether it is homeopathic or not. While it lists dilution strengths and describes itself as homeopathic, it also claims that hCG itself has slimming properties:

```
**What is the HCG diet?**
HCG is a naturally occurring human hormone. Dr. Simmeons, a British endocrinologist,
discovered that HCG combined with his diet triggers the body to utilize its own fat
stores more readily. Many people have so called "thrifty genes", meaning the less
they eat, the more their body will tend to hoard fat. In this case, the body is
simply compensating for what it recognizes as a lack of food, which could mean the
person is starving, so survival kicks in. HCG helps to bypasses this mechanism for
the duration of the diet--the result is the body consumes its own fat stores,
especially the stubborn fat that can be so difficult to lose on other types of diets.

**How does the HCG diet work?**
HCG occurs naturally in pregnant women. According to Dr. Simeon's research, one of
its functions is to help the body more easily make use of fat in the body to ensure
the developing baby has a steady supply of food. He found many of patients were
unsuccessful at shedding weight, and theorized that for some reason, their bodies
were not making effective use of fat stores.

No matter how much these people dieted, they couldn't get rid of the fat in certain
parts of their bodies. These patients would suffer through diets where they felt
weak and constantly hungry, they would lose weight in the wrong places, so instead
of becoming slim, they became haggard. They would often gain back the weight as soon
as the diet was over.

Dr. Simeons realized that HCG's beneficial affects in pregnant women could be
applied to the case of weight loss, and help people more easily and effectively shed
fat.

```

We’ll ignore the fact that they can’t decide how Dr. Simeon/Simmeons/Simeons spells his name. Since they claim hCG itself causes people to lose weight in the right places, how is a homeopathic, highly diluted version of that going to help you lose weight? And if hCG makes you gain weight in the wrong places – a much more believable concept given most women’s experience of pregnancy and the process of trying to lose weight afterward – then the author of the text on the Ultra HCG website is completely misinformed about homeopathy.

The HCG Ultra website is less detailed, but also claims that homeopathically diluted HCG Ultra drops have the same biologic effect as high blood levels of hCG during pregnancy:

```
 HCG is a biologically natural hormone that is produced in all human beings. It
elevates during pregnancy in women and regulates the use of stored fat within the
body while preserving muscle tone. This allows a more vibrant state for the body
with increased metabolic and hormonal needs. HCG Ultra does not put the body into a
state like pregnancy, rather it allows the body to mimic the mechanism. It is
completely safe in both men and women.

```

Ultra HCG drops cost US $60 per 30 ml. For those of you in the US, that’s about 2 tablespoons, the volume of one coffee measure. It’s a lot smaller than the bottle appears when it’s blown up to be taller than the line of scantily clad models in their photo. HCG Ultra is $60 for 60 ml, but that's still only a 15 day supply. Either way, it's a pretty steep price to pay for such a small quantity, even if the manufacturer were a highly skilled homeopathic practitioner rather than a misinformed fraud.

## How to Report this Spam

The Complainterator is configured to report this spam to the registrars.
It performs a "whois" lookup on the domain names used by the name servers that resolve access to the web site. It discovers the registrars that are sponsoring the access to the web site. It prepares a complaint to the sponsoring registrars.

Removal instructions

**web site domains**

- the registrar needs to set the status of the domain to

* clientHold
* clientUpdateProhibited
* clientDeleteProhibited
* clientTransferProhibited

**name server domains**

- the registrar needs to set the status of each of the name server domains to

* clientHold
* clientUpdateProhibited
* clientDeleteProhibited
* clientTransferProhibited

In addition, to remove them as name servers, the subdomain address records (eg for ns1 and ns2) need to be changed to a non-routable address, such as 0.0.0.0 or a blackhole address within their own address space.

## Sponsor Organization

### Ultra HCG

* coughgold.com
* offflight.com

Registrar: **CENTER OF UKRAINIAN INTERNET NAMES**

Name servers that resolve access: NETWEBBIT.RU

Sponsoring registrar: **NAUNET-REG-RIPN** (Russia)

Their IP addresses reveal that the name servers are located in China

ns1.netwebbit.ru has address 211.95.79.63

ns2.netwebbit.ru has address 112.101.64.56

Web site hosting location = 175.116.168.37 owned by Hanaro Telecom, Shindongah Bldg, 43, Taepyeongno2ga, Junggu, Seoul

### HCG Ultra

* hcgsells.com
* sellerhcg.com

Registrar: **CENTER OF UKRAINIAN INTERNET NAMES**

Name servers that resolve access: NS1.FIVETOFIVE.RU NS2.FIVETOFIVE.RU NS3.HOLDING-SELLINGS.RO

Sponsoring registrars: **NAUNET-REG-RIPN** (Russian) and **Claus Web SRL** (Romania)

Their IP addresses reveal that the name servers are located in Romania

ns1.fivetofive.ru 188.229.35.12 (Romania)

ns2.fivetofive.ru 188.229.35.13 (Romania)

ns3.holding-sellings.ro 109.99.7.58 (Romania)

Web site hosting location = 188.229.35.24 (Romania)

```
Registrant:
Aleksandr Poddubnyy sasha.poddubnii@yandex.ru
ul. 70 let oktyabrya, d.13 kv.20
Omsk, 644000
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
+7.4956548754

```

### HCG Slim

* dietsweights.com

Registrar: **CENTER OF UKRAINIAN INTERNET NAMES**

Name servers that resolve access: NS1.FIVETOFIVE.RU NS2.FIVETOFIVE.RU NS3.HOLDING-SELLINGS.RO

Sponsoring registrars: **NAUNET-REG-RIPN** (Russian) and **Claus Web SRL** (Romania)

Their IP addresses reveal that the name servers are located in Romania

ns1.fivetofive.ru 188.229.35.12 (Romania)

ns2.fivetofive.ru 188.229.35.13 (Romania)

ns3.holding-sellings.ro 109.99.7.58 (Romania)

Web site hosting location = 188.229.95.31 (Romania)

```
Registrant:
Aleksandr Poddubnyy sasha.poddubnii@yandex.ru
ul. 70 let oktyabrya, d.13 kv.20
Omsk, 644000
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
+7.4956548754

```

### HCG Pure

* branchgo.com

Registrar: **CENTER OF UKRAINIAN INTERNET NAMES**

```
Registrant:
Svetlana Poltavceva poltavtzeva.svetlana@yandex.ru
ul. Leninskaya 17 43
Yubileynyy, 141090
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
+7.4956548754

```

branchgo.com has address 90.182.175.229 at ISP Telefonica o2 Czech Republic, a.s.

```
 Name Server: NS1.SITEHOSTINGDIRECT.COM on IP  211.95.79.63 in China
 Name Server: NS2.NETWEBBIT.RU on IP 112.101.64.56 in Chna

```

### HCG Elite

* eliteshcg.com
* myeliteshcg.com

Registrar: **CENTER OF UKRAINIAN INTERNET NAMES**

```
Registrant:
Svetlana Poltavceva poltavtzeva.svetlana@yandex.ru
ul. Leninskaya 17 43
Yubileynyy, 141090
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
+7.4956548754

```

eliteshcg.com has address 31.11.43.5 at ISP SC-EQUILIBRIUM-LIFE-SRL in Romania

myeliteshcg.com has address 92.80.99.56 at ARtelecom LIR, Bucuresti, Romania

```
Name Server: NS1.EIGHT88.RU on IP 85.120.94.17 in Romania
Name Server: NS2.EIGHT88.RU on IP 85.120.94.17 in Romania
Name Server: NS3.MONDAY-THUESDAY.RO on IP 109.99.7.58 in Germany

```

## Related spam operations

**Ultra HCG** uses the same name servers as Ultimate Replicas

**HCG Ultra** uses the same name servers as ViaGrow and Couture Replicas

**HCG Slim** uses the same name servers as ViaGrow and Couture Replicas

**HCG Pure** uses the same name servers as Ultimate Replicas

## Further Reading

* New Zealand Science Media Centre warning