Fraudulent security claims on ‘Hercules Hook’ website could affect consumer confidence online October 15, 2006
Posted by Admin in infomercial, online security.trackback
We turned on the TV this afternoon and were sold on a cool product: The Hercules Hook. Ignoring for a moment the product is being pimped by Billy Mays (of Oxiclean fame), It’s a neat product that lets you hang pictures, shelves and whatever else, without any tools. Ever since my silly 3am purchase of a Ron Popeil Ronco food dehydrator (I had big plans to make loads of beef jerky), I decided to never again buy anything I see on an infomercial.
But last week I hung four pretty heavy paintings on the wall at my office and I could have really used these things then. As part of the ’special offer’, they were also going to include a free laser level too! I was almost ‘hooked’… no pun intended.
But then something struck me as odd.
When you visit the website mentioned on the add, www.bamzu.com makes no mentioned of the Hercules Hook. A search for the product on the Bamzu website (owned by Turner Broadcasting) only returns ‘Hooked on Phonics’. It’s not unreasonable the Bamzu just hasn’t been updated to reflect the new product, I suppose.
That’s not the only thing I found odd. Although Hercules Hook can’t be found on bamzu.com, it can be found at www.herculeshook.com. The site is a one page add, with an online form so visiting patrons can enter their ship to and credit card information. Nothing is out of the ordinary except when you notice their claim of a 100% secure site is actually false.
That’s right. The large button claiming a “100% secure site” is actually false. Not only is there no encryption to protect their customers’ credit card information, but when you click the button, you’re directed to Thawte (an e-commerce verification site), the resulting page reports ‘INVALID CERTIFICATE’. Do the owners of the website bet on the fact that consumers won’t click that button?
Even though Hercules Hook isn’t the only site out there laying false claims about security on-line, it certainly doesn’t excuse them. Lying about the security offering by your website only hurts legitimate sellers out there, not too mention, opens the thousands of customers out there that place their trust in on-line retailers.
Shame on you Hercules Hook. I’ll gladly buy you at Walmart, but you’ll never see an order from me online.
[...] I’m constantly amazed at the number of online websites, advertising false claims of security. See ‘Fraudulent claims on Hercules Hook website affects consumer confidence online‘ for more info. Essentially, Hercules Hook website tells visitors the website is 100% secure, although this is not the case. The site even attempts to collect your credit card information, with no encryption. Sigh… I can see this type of negligent online behavior happening with merchants back in 1995… but in 2006, I thought we were beyond that. The Hercules Hook website can be found at http://www.herculeshook.com. Thawte and the domain owner have been informed… hopefully they address the issue promptly and it’s a simple oversight on the developer’s part. [...]
You figure people charging ten buck for a bent piece of coat hanger would have some gratitude towards there clientele. Some solid consumer protection going on here; nice work Ben
“I was almost ‘hooked’… no pun intended.”
I have reason to belive that that pun was indeed intended.
*shakes head sadly* Oh Ben, just when I was beginning to trust you.
Part II of the Hercules Hook saga: http://thecourtjester.wordpress.com/2006/10/16/hercules-hook-fraudulent-website-security-claims-part-ii/
[...] Why am I telling you all this? Because Ben and I were watching a plug for the “Hercules Hook” and actually got excited about it… don’t you just hate it when you realize that you want the product, and you want it bad!! So we went online to try to find out more about this new product and Ben came across a flagrant violation of confidentiality and security! [...]
[...] Original post: Fraudulent security claims on ‘Hercules Hook’ website could affect consumer confidence. [...]
Not sure if Billy noticed your complaint, but I checked the authentification of the herculeshook.com website and I get:
http://www.herculeshook.com/ has been validated and is authentic. http://www.herculeshook.com/ also uses SSL for secure transactions.
This is verified by Comodo Group, not Thawte.
Anyway, I’ll probably do the same and buy it at Walmart.
Personally, I don’t think Billy has much to do with the product, other than being the paid spokesperson. I also checked out the site and it does appear they switched from Thawte to Comodo.
However, the online purchase is still NOT SSL encrypted. You can easily tell by the lack of the PADLOCK icon in your web browser. It’s easy to tell… just go to Hotmail and click “Enhanced Security” at the sign on page. Your web browser will switch to a secure sign-on and encrypt the login information. The padlock is missing from the Hercules Hook website.
No HTTPS, means no security. It’s kind of dangerous that Comodo informs users that herculeshook.com is SSL encrypted, when it clearly is not.
It’s so dissappointing to see the lack of response from the Hercules Hook / Livemercial team. They obviously do not care about their customers, because encrypting online transactions is a trivial task for any server admin.
If somebody from Livemercial or Hercules Hook would just call me back, I would probably offer to secure their website for them, free of charge. My guess is they most likely would like to secure the site, they just lack the IT skills to do it.
In the meantime, 95% of this blog’s traffic is related to people searching “hercules hooks”; I wonder how many sales are being lost due to the bad publicity.
I believe THIS website speaks volumes on the subject!:
http://www.infomercialscams.com/scams/hercules_hook_complaints
EVERY infomercial I see late nights I do a Google search on the name of the product, followed by the word “complaint” (example: Video Professor complaint; Lil Reminder complaint). I thought perhaps it WAS possible Mr. Loudmouth Freaky Chuck Norris Beard Long Ponytail Man would be exempt… nuh-uh. This site, InfomercialScams.com and others are proof there (((ARE))) no “honourable” infomercial products! Tsk.
I went to the website to check it out, but NEVER ordered the things. Low and behold, and hour later, I got an email contratuating me on my purchase and telling me it would ship the next business day! I immediately emailed NOT to send it, that it was not a valid purchase (hey, at almost $11.00 S&H, I don’t think so). Well, they shipped the damn thing and once more I shot off an email telling them I wasn’t going to pay for it. Needless to say, I never received and answer, but…today, over a month later, I got the stupid things. Now I’m trying to find the correct address to return them! Any body out there have it? Thanks!
Don’t order Hercules Hooks. They will keep coming and coming.
I called, wrote emails. I send the incoming bags back, but they kept charging my credit card. .
They will hang up on you if you say you are recording the conversation.
Oh, and they don’t work as advertised.
Don’t order Hercules Hooks unless you want to pay every other month forever. Try to cancel the order and see the run around.
And they don’t work as advertised.
Hmmm. We ordered some, DID NOT sign up for the “lifetime offer” and have not had any problems with additional shipments or additional credit card charges. I think they are the best thing since sliced bread. We have hung some very heavy things with them with no problems. Kinda wish I’d ordered more b/c I found this site looking for a place to buy them NOW.
The site appears to be more secured than most, but it would be nice if 80 produced a redirect. The site is running BSD/Apache. If you look carefully, you will find that all of the major sites that are broken into run MS window. Some of the minor sites that have been broken into that run *nix, have in every case, had a windows client that was compromised. With ANY OS, once you are on the box, it will only be a matter of time before you have admin/root.
Thanks!,
Greetings to all
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I can’t vouch for the on-line security system, but I can honestly say the product itself really works. I’ve replaced nearly all the photos in my house with Hercules Hooks and they’re quick, easy and strong as the ads say. My only criticism is that they offer a “lifetime” supply, which means you get new ones every few weeks and are billed for the “shipping and handling” until you cancel!