Fat Thighs Blamed on E-mail Spam Merchant

Breast Enlargement and Thigh Reduction Creams Switched

A quartet of Federal agencies is investigating the illnesses of an estimated 450 people nationwide who were mistakenly sent the wrong products sold by an Internet e-mail spam merchant based in Chicago.

The merchant, who has not been identified, sent a cream that purportedly reduces fat thighs to women who had actually ordered a cream that would enlarge their breasts and to men who sought to enlarge their genitalia. At the same time, the merchant also sent a breast enlarging cream to female customers who sought help reducing their oversize thighs.

"It's a mess, a tragic mess," said a spokeswoman with the Federal Trade Commission's anti-spam task force, the lead government agency in the probe. "Not only did they get the wrong product, but some of these people are really hurting as a result."

Besides the FTC, the Food and Drug Administration, the Postal Service's Inspector General and the U.S. District Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois are all involved in the investigation.

Whether the products were sent mistakenly or deliberately switched on customers is unknown. Federal officials declined to speculate, but said they are examining all possibilities.

Sources familiar with the case said a Federal grand jury in Chicago had begun hearing evidence in the case and was expected to return one or more indictments within the next week.

The case first came to authorities' attention when a consumer reporter at Chicago's WBM-TV was contacted by Dorothy Kowalis, an Oak Park, Illinois woman, who said her thighs had rapidly increased in size after she applied a lotion that was supposed to reduce them.

Ms. Kowalis, who said her thighs were originally 36 inches in circumference, received an unsolicited e-mail offering her the thigh-reducing cream.

"I used it for a week and then applied my tape measure," she said. "Whoee! They were 41 inches."

Ms. Kowalis began applying extra amounts of the lotion. The thighs soon ballooned to 44 inches.

"I might have eaten a little more fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy in that period, but not that much," she said.

Shortly after Ms. Kowalis' plight was reported nationally by the Associated Press news agency, the FTC began receiving similar complaints from other parts of the country. An unidentified man in Georgia showed up at a hospital emergency room in Calhoun complaining of unusual symptoms after using a genitalia-enlarging oil he had bought in repsonse to an e-mail solicitation. Although hospital officials would not specifically comment, the oil apparently worked in a manner opposite to what the man expected.

Next, a group of young women who meet twice a week in Mountain Park, New Mexico to exercise together and exchange beauty and seduction tips, reported untoward consequences after they pooled their funds and paid $150 for a salve that an e-mail merchant proclaimed would enlarge their breasts.

"There's no doubt in my mind that what we got was actually meant to reduce, not augment," said one of the women, who asked not to be identified. "This experience has really set some us back in our quest for personal fulfillment. Some of us may have to buy smaller bras. It's freaking us out."

Ultimately, a Federal task force was formed. The group, which soon began to suspect that products had been either mistakenly or deliberately switched, used cyber terrorism experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to narrow the search for the perpertrator to Chicago and then to the individual who is now expected to be indicted.

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