Tinnitus 911 and PhytAge Labs

Yet another All Natural Cure for Tinnitus. This one is called "Tinnitus 911".

Before I go any further, I absolutely must admit that another blogger has beaten me to the punch on this one by about three weeks. So, you're The Man, Obinna Ossai!

In the Beginning

Today, I found an email sitting in my spam folder titled 

"Ringing Ears? Eat THIS for Breakfast & Destroy Tinnitus Fast?"

Unable to resist temptation, I opened the message and began reading. Clicking on a link sent me to a  page with a video that started immediately. The video is embedded in the website and doesn't appear to be linked to a YouTube account. 

A man who was not shown speaking on camera, but a picture supposedly of him was displayed, identified himself as "Charlie Gaines" and he rehashed the same old "tinnitus ruined my life" speech that I've heard from so many others before. Blah, blah, blah.

The appearance of the supposed picture of Charlie and of all the other people on the sites look like stock photos, though I didn't feel inclined to hunt them all down to their sources. After all this time blogging about fake tinnitus cures and treatments, I know a stock photo when I see one.

In a nutshell, Tinnitus 911 makes the claim that tinnitus has nothing to do with your ears, but is an alarm going-off in your head warning you of very serious health problems that your brain is dealing with, a claim that Silencis Pro and Tinnitus Miracle had also previously made without evidence. Tinnitus 911 also makes the claim that Big Pharma is getting rich off of drugs used to treat tinnitus - even though there are no drugs prescribed to treat it - and so have no reason to provide an outright cure.

Yes, the pharmaceutical industry is a multi-billion dollar juggernaut that it often seems cares more about money than health. But, the "Big Supplement" industry is no less concerned about enriching themselves at your expense. They fight tooth and nail to prevent government oversight and they've often made claims that are not backed by hard medical research. If you seriously think that the Supplement Industry really cares about you, you're pitifully naive.

So, Tinnitus 911 is pretty much doing everything others have done before them. However, he did make an improvement on his own by mentioning a mysterious Dr Edmond Healy, who Charlie claims to have worked on a secret government project that not only cured tinnitus in astronauts, but also increased their intelligence! 

Of course, I couldn't find anything about a Dr Edmond Healy having anything to do with tinnitus, though I did find a person by that name (his name is Edmund, not Edmond) and that Dr Edmund "Ed" G Healy works in the wireless industry.

Charlie's description of his initial meeting with Dr Edmond Healy reads like something out of a cheap spy novel and not a very good one.

Still, I give them credit for originality. Not much credit, but it's there.

The Web Presence

The people behind this scheme have set-up several websites to sell their product in the same way that Tinnitus Terminator did. The sites I have identified, so far:

• tinnitus911.com WhoIs
• tinnitus-911.com WhoIs
• mywarwithtinnitus.com WhoIs
• fighttinnitusnow.com WhoIs
• tinnitus911review.com WhoIs

If you've checked on the WhoIs links above, you'll notice that all of their sites are registered anonymously.

I have found only one YouTube video posted about Tinnitus 911, titled "Tinnitus 911 Review - MUST WATCH THIS BEFORE BUYING!" it includes a link in the video description providing a "discount" for people purchasing the product. I checked the price of the product versus the regular listed price on the sites and they are exactly the same. So, it's a discount of $0. Thanks, literally, for nothing!

There have been several Twitter posts advertising Tinnitus 911 since late November 2017, but they all appear to simply be advertisements for it.

Who Is Selling This Crap?

PhytAge Labs is the company actually selling Tinnitus 911, not "Charlie Gaines". On their homepage, their main focus is on an anti-aging supplement. I need to mention that PhytAge Labs is not associated with the product "Phyt-Age", which is made by Phytogenics. They all seem to use that truly original play on words: PhytAge. Phyt-Age. Fight Age. 

Pretty crafty, huh? Okay, not really. 

Moving on.

PhytAge Labs not only sells Tinnitus 911 and their anti-aging supplement, but also supplements to fight fungus, help with your prostate, increase bowel movements and many other thing you didn't know you needed. So, from one end of your body to the other, they've got you covered.

At the time this post was first written, PhytAge Labs had an F rating from the Better Business Bureau, but that has since been upgraded to a B- rating. The name of the business manger is Mr John Paul and the given mailing address is 1732 1st Avenue #28568, New York, NY 10128 which a simple Google search reveals it to be a UPS Store mail drop. 

Their former return address, which was curiously in Colorado, is 7308 S. Alton Way. #2A, Centennial, CO 80112 and that address is associated with a company called Supplement Support, which has an F rating from the Better Business Bureau and is also not accredited by the BBB. Supplement Support has 
Terry Crolius listed as their Business Management on their BBB profile. A quick search reveals a Terry Crolius associated with a company called ShipOffers, out of Englewood, CO and they are in
the business of shipping products for supplement companies. As ShipOffers says on their Facebook page

BE FULFILLED : ShipOffers is the most trusted source for elite marketers of health and beauty products. We offer product sourcing, label design and printing, customized fulfillment, return processing, marketing, upsells and more. We are the #1 vital partner for direct response marketers.

PhytAge promises a money back guarantee, provided that you use the product faithfully for 90 days. But, I wouldn't be too quick to trust them with my money, considering the layers of secrecy they've put up between themselves and the public. Doing a bit more of a background check revealed that PhytAge Labs is actually registered as a corporation. But, it's not registered as such in either New York or in Colorado, but in Florida.

Yes, dear reader, it's registered in Florida and the registrant is a man named George Rivera. But, George doesn't provide a Florida address on his business registration because that would make too much sense. No, the address he provides is at 1108 Lavaca St, Austin, TX 78701, which looks like a UPS Store.

So, we've gone from New York, then to Colorado, on to Florida and finally to Texas. It seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through if your product is legitimate, doesn't it?

UPDATE: On their website, PhytAge Labs has a new return address and it's also apparently the address for ShipOffers:
PhytAge Laboratories
37 Inverness Drive East, Suite 100
Englewood, CO 80112

The former return address at 7308 S. Alton Way was in Centennial, CO and the 37 Inverness Drive East in Englewood are about 10 miles apart, which made me wonder why the change was necessary.

They Won't Let You Go

I've noticed two specific complaints about PhytAge Labs regarding their apparent unwillingness or inability to cancel an order. One complaint I found is found on the BBB listing for the company, posted by David M. R. on January 5, 2018:

"I have been taking this product since October. I didn't realize they had put me on auto ship and received another shipment. I continued taking the the so called Urgent Fungus Destroyer capsules as directed but called to cancel auto ship. In December, i got another shipment and called to cancel again. I have had no success with the product. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY! It is a SHAM! They say they're in CO, but the contact person is FOREIGN."

The second such complaint was found in the Comments section of this post, written by Bob Lang:

"I have an order from these people and when I tried to return it the Post Office returned it stating wrong address, yet is was one that you mentioned, When I looked it up on the internet and sent it to the second address as you mentioned ,it was sent back again. I have sent it to the third address but I doubt it will ever reach the real company. Today I received a box with a whole new order, that I did not order and with a different return address. Got any ideas on what I should do now?? I am  retired Marine and I would go to CO if I thought they would be there and explain MY WAY why I should get my money back but if they were there and said no I would probably go to jail. But thanks for your research and ANY info you can give me."

Since ShipOffers is the fulfillment company for companies like PhytAge, it is only natural for people to try to post complaints on their review page. However, ShipOffers rightly points-out that they aren't actually the company billing you for the product and only handle the shipping. They suggest contacting the product's company directly or contacting your bank or credit card company through which you are being charged. I think ShipOffers goes a bit overboard when they ask people to delete the negative review and in one case, threatened legal action against the reviewer.

Financial transactions for PhytAge Labs are handled through Trust Guard. If contacting PhytAge, your bank or credit card company doesn't work out, you can try to go through Trust Guard via their website's Live Chat, by calling them at 877-848-2731 or through their Facebook page.

But, does Tinnitus 911 work, Duane?

For the answer to that, you only need to read what PhytAge Labs says on their own website about Tinnitus 911

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Individual results may vary.

I don't think I need to say any more about it.

What You Should Do Next

If you haven't already, sign-up on the Tinnitus Talk forums. It's free and you can ask your questions about living with tinnitus, as well as keeping up with the latest research toward finding treatments and an eventual cure.



Duane Browning