1. Endorsements: When a product offers endorsements, take a close look at the dates, addresses and contact information. We’ve seen many that are no more than computer-generated simulations without proof to back them up. Ask for proof of their claims and endorsements. There is always a paper trail if they are honest. If they have nothing to hide, they will offer it freely.

2. Customers: Also take a closer look when a company claims an extensive customer base for its products. All too often there is no evidence to support it. We’ve seen companies post lists of “users” that have never purchased the product, never heard of the product, no longer use the product, or are even dead! Sometimes people who have only received a free sample are listed as “users!” Sometimes a company is posted as a “user,” but that company’s website has their competitor linked instead. Firearm manufacturers and military units are most commonly used in this bogus form of promotion.

You, as an informed consumer, need to look into any user list to be sure those companies and people are real and in fact currently buy the products. A real customer is one that buys products on a recurring basis. There should always be a piece of independent paper as proof to back up their claims. Ask for PO numbers, or proof of shipment. If you receive a reply like, “It was our product, but someone else made the sale,” it should make you wonder what they’re hiding.

3. Imitation: A sure sign of a competitor who is struggling to catch up is when they blatantly copy the honest claims of a competitor so their company’s product will be perceived as being “just as good.” One example is the “dry lubricated” claim that some have recently adopted.

4. Internet Forums: Pay close attention to the way a company uses Internet forums. Are the owners up all hours of the night promoting their own product? Do they always promote their own product when a competitive product is mentioned? Do their forum buddies warn them to jump online when another product is praised? Do they criticize anyone who doesn’t agree with them? Do they use selected forum postings as evidence for their product? Are their postings lengthy compared to everyone else’s, designed to over-kill their opposition?

Other Internet ‘Snake Oil” Scams include using Internet “buddies” on public forums to attack competitors and promote their friend’s product. Some companies actually encourage employees, families, friends and their sponsored associates to use aliases and vague titles to trash competing products. The company then uses those contrived forum postings as evidence to make other products look bad.

5. Titles: If you see titles listed after a person’s name, check them out. They could be absolutely genuine. On the other hand, they could be completely bogus, and are just there in an attempt to make the person seem important. Some of the titles we’ve seen used lately are worthless because they are not recognized by the lubrication industry, or because they can be bought simply by the price of membership in an organization with no other qualification whatsoever. Be careful when people hide behind an extensive array of titles, or change their titles to suit the situation.

6. Testing Competitors’ Products: Be extremely wary when a company runs backyard tests on its competitors’ products. They usually have a hidden agenda and construct the tests in such a way that the competing products will always look bad. The problem is that there were no unbiased, third-party observers allowed in their backyard during their non-standardized testing.

It’s easy to make any product look bad if you know a few tricks. For example, is the product full strength or diluted? Is it even the authentic product at all? Is the product fresh, from a sealed container, or was it allowed to sit for an extended period with the cap removed to allow moisture to collect? Were the application instructions followed accurately? Is the product being tested in an application it is not intended for? Internet picture can be deceptive.

Folks who test their competitors’ products will suggest it’s to educate the consumer. In other words, they want you to trust them so that you will also trust their own product by association. However, if you do, your trust may be misplaced. It’s obvious they are trying to sell their own product by capitalizing on another product’s good name. Is this the type of person you want to trust? When a competitor attacks another product, it’s because they can’t compete fairly and are insecure that their marketing campaigns are not working.

7. Distorting Chemical Composition: Also, be especially leery of any company that distorts the chemical composition of competing products. This practice has been used continuously against good products by competitors who want you to believe that those products contain something they don’t.

8. Proprietary Testing: In the same vein, look closely at the testing data a company uses to validate its own products. Be especially suspicious when the tests they present are based merely on their own in-house computer-generated data, not on reliable third-party verification and extensive credible user data from field use. If they sell an oil additive, ask them for their compatibility testing by a recognized laboratory with other oils.

Those are some of the major “Snake Oil” Marketing Scams.

Listed below are additional questionable sales practices you should watch out for.

1. When they are confronted by a test in which their product does not fair well, they counter the failed test by using their own proprietary “in house” testing using different parameters.

2. When their associates have spent time in jail, but they still use that associate’s words as proof to support their claims and trash other products. One way to judge a company and their products is by the company they keep.

3. When they target another company’s dealers because the end user won’t use or buy their products. Some of their favorite claims are, “We are just as good, but half the price.” Or, “They will be out of business soon.” And, “They have no technical experience.”

4. When another product is mentioned in a magazine, news story, or any other credible publication, and they complain to the editor because theirs wasn’t.

5. When they base current claims and propaganda on one of their previous, older formulas that has undergone a major formulation change and is no longer in use.

6. When they claim the chemistry for firearms oil is more advanced than motor oil chemistry.

7. Beware! Some companies mislead the public about important safety hazards on vital documents like the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). We know of at least one company that didn’t disclose hazardous decomposition by-products on their MSDS until OSHA compelled them to comply with the law. Even then, their language remained vague. A common excuse is, “Our supplier didn’t disclose it to us, so why should we disclose it to our customers?” Some companies even remove those documents from their websites to keep the public in the dark. What does this say about their honesty and concern for public safety? The MSDS of a company’s product should always be right up front, easily accessible and available to the public.

8. When you confront an owner of a company, accusing them of making false claims, and they respond by warning you not to email or call them. Any honest professional wants to hear any potentially bad news about their company’s products, marketing procedures, or unethical behavior by their associates. When they refuse to listen to the truth, it tells you volumes about that person’s character.