Gas Saving Device-Consumer Alert

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I had never heard of this device have you? Scam Alert: Fueling Fraud Tired of sky-high fuel prices? Phony gas-saving devices will cost you even more. Last winter Florida retirees Liz and Rocky Rothwell were looking for a way to supplement their pensions—preferably in a way that would benefit others, too. Sky-high gasoline prices presented a perfect opportunity. "With gas prices as they are, anything that we could do to help people spend less money and protect the environment would be a good thing," says Liz, 63, of Maitland, a suburb of Orlando. "Or so we thought." They signed on as distributors for a Texas company that sold little green pills that, when dropped in a gas tank, supposedly boost a car's gas mileage by at least 30 percent and cut dangerous emissions in half. Within weeks of paying a $495 "distributor's fee" last March for a supply of BioPerformance Inc. tablets, Liz smelled troubled...literally. "I was overwhelmed by the fumes coming from the sealed bottle" of pills, she recalls. "It made me sick." And with good reason: It turns out that the "top secret gas pills" were made of nothing more than naphthalene, the toxic ingredient in mothballs. "When I tried it in my own car, my mileage actually decreased," Liz says. She adds that her car mechanic said that "if we kept using the pills, they would have damaged our car." After their questions to BioPerformance about the product went unanswered, the couple—Liz is a former writer for the federal government, and her husband's a former fire department captain—asked for a refund. "We never got it," Liz says. "I wound up repaying everyone who bought the pills from us out of my own pocket." The Rothwells lost a total of $1,200. They are among some 50,000 investors who officials say were scammed by BioPerformance. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott shut the company down in May after its pills were chemically evaluated at two universities. He says company officials—including President Lowell Mims, who allegedly used investors' funds to pay off his mortgage and to buy cars and luxury goods—reportedly made millions running an illegal scheme that wooed distributors and customers with false promises. Mims and other BioPerformance executives, who could not be reached for comment, await trial on fraud charges and are being investigated in Florida and other states. When gas prices began escalating after Hurricane Katrina, sales of bogus gas-saving devices, costing from $10 to $400, proliferated. Experts say nearly all the products are useless; some are downright dangerous. "I've tested a dozen different devices promising to improve fuel mileage," says automotive expert Mike Allen, senior editor at Popular Mechanics magazine. "None of them resulted in any improvements at all. Several of them actually decreased fuel economy, and several others also reduced engine power." Allen tested the devices in 2005 and in August 2006 at the Universal Technical Institute in Houston. Although the new findings haven't been published yet, Popular Mechanics reported the earlier results in September 2005: Magnets attached to a fuel line allegedly make gas burn more efficiently by breaking up clumps of molecules. "But gasoline molecules don't clump," Allen says. "And they don't respond to magnetic force anyway." Vortex generators installed on mass airflow sensors are intended to combine fuel and air more thoroughly to boost horsepower. In tests, none improved fuel economy. The electronic engine ionizer fuel saver is supposed to increase combustion efficiency. But in tests, the "increased combustion" not only decreased power, it also resulted in an engine fire. Vapor injectors installed in the engine compartment convert raw fuel into vaporized fuel, supposedly to improve a vehicle's performance. In reality, engine computers prevent any such benefit. Water injectors use the same technology that provided emergency power in fighter planes in World War II. But tests showed that the technology doesn't work in cars. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has evaluated dozens of similar gas-saving products, finding a small improvement in fuel efficiency in only a handful. In August the Federal Trade Commission ordered the manufacturer of the FuelMAX magnetic "fuel-saving" and emissions-reducing device to pay $4.2 million for making false advertising claims. "The bottom line," Allen concludes, "is that none of these products work." The FTC and the U.S. Department of Energy offer gas-saving tips. If you bought a phony gas-saving device, contact your state attorney general or the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 to learn how to get a refund http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/consumer/scam_alert_fueling_fraud.html