Stirling D Allan: “This is Fraud” Internet fraudsters are raking in thousands of dollars a day with an elaborate scam selling magnetic perpetual motion machines that are claimed to produce infinite free energy.
Since spring this year an operation called Magniwork has been selling a $50 DIY guide to building a perpetual motion device at home. On their web-site the fraudsters claim the materials are available in any local hardware store for less than $100. One estimate puts sales of the guide as high as 5,000 copies a month, making the scam worth up to $3m a year.
The claims for Magniwork are advanced via an extensive Google advertising campaign, and a network of blogs, web-sites and reviews endorsing the product. They are given further credibility by a clip of film from Sky News Australia about plans for a similar product made by a legitimate if optimistic research company called Lutec. Lutec patented its technology in 19 countries in 1999, but the product has still not seen the light of day. Off-Grid has discovered that the clip is over 8 years old.
Perpetual motion machine
Magniwork which describes its product as ‘a magnetic power generator’ claims to have invented a revolutionary off-grid power source that uses magnets to “power itself and create energy by itself, without requiring solar energy, heat, water, coal or any kind of resource.” The web-site promises the device will generate perpetual energy which will “fully power your home for free.”
However even the idea of such a device is dismissed by trained physicists. “The little explanation they give on their website makes no sense to me,” said Gunnar Pruessner, a lecturer in physics at Imperial College London. “For starters it breaks with all we know about quantum physics since Dirac, which says that we cannot tap into zero point fluctuations or virtual particles.”
Priceless IP
He observed that if the claims were true, they would mark the biggest advance in science ever. “It would bring a world-wide socio-economic revolution with incalculable political consequences. So you have to ask why are they scuzzing around selling their priceless IP (intellectual property) for a few dollars?”
Made in Macedonia
The site gives no way of contacting Magniwork -other than to order the guide. But its legal disclaimer reveals that despite the .com web address which suggests a US-based company, Magniwork is in fact located in Macedonia, a tiny republic on the northern border of Greece in Europe. “This Agreement shall all be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of Macedonia applicable to agreements made and to be performed in Macedonia,” it reads. It has similarly proved difficult to identify the individuals behind the scheme. But one researcher claims to have written to the site’s web-master who referred in his reply to a man simply called “Igor”, the manual’s publisher.
Kernel of truth
Angry customers admit that the guide does contain kernels of truth. “Some of the suggestions in the e-book can reduce your home power consumption. For example, checking for air leaks, have better home insulation, servicing your air-conditioning unit or heate etc,”wrote one. But is it essentially amateurish and misleading, they say. “The whole “document” is 57 pages long and looks like something a kid in high school put together. The final “generator” is basically a magnet that is 2″ high sitting on a turntable that is 4″ high! They claim that its output is 24.5 Watts! That is 1/100th of what my house uses when the AC is on. It wouldn’t put out enough power to light up a standard light bulb,“ wrote another angry blogger. Fraudulent
Alternative energy expert Sterling D. Allan founder of The New Energy Congress has examined Magniwork’s claims. “Most of the 50+ page manual contains energy conservation tips that are based on well-established principles,” he said. But he points out that plans for the device are freely available elsewhere, they are based on other people’s work and he claims to have tried to contact people offering testimonials, without success. “The wording on their site still gives the reader the idea that the plans will result in a working free energy device but that is not the case. Such representation is fraud,” he concluded.
Although highly implausible, the idea of somehow harvesting magnetic power has intrigued scientists for over a century. It was first suggested by pioneering physicist Nicola Tesla in the nineteenth century. Australian company Lutec is still trying to perfect such a device. And U.S based based Magnetic Power Inc, headed by Mark Goldes, has claimed to be on the verge of launching a ‘Magnetic Power Module’ for at least six years. There is no suggestion that either Lutec or MPI are part of the scam.
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for posting information about this Magniwork scam and making clear that Magnetic Power Inc. (MPI) is not involved. In the past they did mention our work and when legal action was threatened they removed any mention of MPI.
MPI Magnetic Power Modules are now being developed by Chava Energy. When they are in production they will be marketed as MagGen(tm).
Those who do not believe magnetic systems can tap new sources of energy might enjoy the article titled: Perpetual Commotion, on the Chava website: http://chavaenergy.com
Potential automotive applications of MagGen, and another revolutionary energy development, are briefly described in the article: 5 Steps to Revive the Auto Industry and the Economy It can be found on the Aesop Institute website: http://www.aesopinstitute.org
They didn’t come up with the IP, they merely poked around the internet and grabbed something that looked nominally convincing. It’s piracy.
On our site, http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Magniwork, we list 30 different virtual domains that have been used in Google AdWords campaigns promoting the product. In my AdSense account, I block all 30 of these so they don’t show up in my ad space.
Though I’ve reported this scam to Google, I’m guessing that those who have reviewed it don’t feel qualified to make a determination of fraud. They see what appears to be happy customers, they see a money back guarantee.
What they don’t see is that the large bulk of people buy the plans then don’t do anything with them because they’re too complicated.
I seriously doubt that there is anyone actually powering anything, let alone a home, using the Magniwork generator plans. They’re making that stuff up. It is fraud, plain and simple. I’ve not see one photo or video of a completed device. I’ve not seen any data from output. All I’ve seen is people claiming they are powering stuff, and I question their integrity if they don’t provide evidence to back their claim.
I purchased a $49 version of this program, because I saw it on a trusted site, then I found negatives on several accounts (pewsiki for one) I then wrote to the company requesting a refund, which happened several weeks later. The last note I received from this company follows:
Dear Sir,
I must’ve missed your previous e-mail, sorry about that, I assure you
that this is an honest company.
I have issued a refund on your order, it takes up to 2 working days for
the refund to be processed, so please be patient.
Kind Regards,
Vojdan Vrcakovski
I must confess the plans looked very appealing.
Lewis
This Magni-work seems to have changed their content
several times to avoid stepping on other peoples
legitimate legal claims, the only problem is, what
they now have probably no longer has any technical
merit. It’s difficult to level critisizem at something
that keeps changing. It definitely seems like a scam.
:S:MarkSCoffman
Ah too bad, I found way too many negative reviews on this stuff to buy this now.
Would love to see though an actual video made by those that failed. Who knows? After all magnetic energy is still hardly understood by us (other than the opposite poles attract and it can generate electricity if you move it in a coil etc etc) as far as I know.
It’s fraudsters like this that give a bad name to real companies selling viable alternative energy products like hydrogen generators. There are plenty crappy books in this genre as well, which makes our job much harder. Nevertheless, we actually respond to peoples questions and give warranties and tech support, showing we are a viable company, based in California. Our new line of HHO generators is twice as efficient as most out there and are due to be released in just a few short days…
Magniwork should be shut down if they cannot produce testimonies and real product proof. I think the FTC is getting ready to do this…
Bob
I noticed an ad for this product a few weeks ago on Sterling’s site, and subsequently purchased the 57 page brief. Yes, I paid the $49 credit card, and yes, I was excited to download the materials and build a model in my machine shop. When I reviewed the brief it was, as Mr. Allen has suggested, written so poorly that I doubt anyone can make enough sense of it to actually construct one. I am a PhD mechanical engineer, have an advanced machine shop and cad/cam software but cannot dicypher the plans well enough.
In my heart I believe that a combination of electromagnetic enegy and permanent magnet forces can, (and will someday), be combined to create some kind of over-unity, but this ain’t it. So, off to the Chava and Lutec sites I go…..
magnets 4 less seems scam too can you locate them so i can have attornry general look into it?
I think the e-book Magnet4Energy sells is the same as that of Magniwork.
I did order but requested for refund (which they refund right away) as soon as I see that the guide is not really a step by step guide and you have to create some molds and fiberglass and that’s too complicated for me to make, I thought as per their ads is I can use readily available parts from hardware store.
QUESTION: Where are law enforcement agencies? The Internet has become a free-for-all for fraudsters and thieves, vast sums are being purloined daily in various ways, and worldwide, innocent people’s lives disrupted and damaged. But no country has a coherent policy for dealing with this plague, and there are no broadly based international cooperative effort. What is to be done to change this situation? Because something has to be done. Things cannot be allowed to continue like this. I myself filed complaints with numerous American Federal and also state law enforcement agencies against a company operation as the “Video Professor” and have received no response and seen no action from any of them. A little bit of research revealed that there are thousands of complaints against the “Video Professor,” yet no action is being taken by police or prosecutors!! So I am in the process of hiring a law firm to launch a class action lawsuit against this company for steeling $600.oo from my credit card account. I was once a government official with responsibility for Consumer Protection, yet even with this background I was “taken” by these scam artists!! So what chance has the average lay person? Broadly speaking, folks have to go beyond blogging about the problems of Internet fraud and thievery. I suggest bringing organized pressure on law enforcement officials.
If there ever is a free energy system that really works, it would be hard to find through the din of hoards of con men and lunatics pitching the same kinds of claims.
I see widespread free energy scams having been ripping people off for about 100 years now. The biggest crooks are people like Dennis Lee (his latest prosecution now by the FTC) who scams people out of 100’s of thousands in dealerships or other kinds of investment in false technology. All the way on the low end are scams like magniwork and fuelless power which operate a safe smaller cost per victim scam of selling kits that don’t work. It is hard to prosecute the smaller scam – their worst effect is wasting people’s time trying to get a damned from the start kit working – of course if you complain it doesn’t work, they have the audacity to call you too stupid to make it work when you were only stupid enough to trust them for plans for the impossible.
Eric Krieg
Never in the history of the internet has anyone mounted a more thorough propaganda campaign. The criminals (in my opinion) behind this really know how to manipulate search engines so it’s almost impossible to find anything negative about it. In addition, chat rooms are found and bogus success stories are posted, negative comments removed. What a clever and massive effort they have demonstrated. If they devoted all that effort for the good of mankind, we would all know their names. As it is, they must hide their identity. How do we know they are bogus? In all the history of mankind no one has ever produced a free energy machine that can be operated by an independent party. Never. Not one time. Only the so called inventors can ever demonstrate it in controlled conditions. Be real, what are the chances of you the reader finding one on the internet? One that you can easily build in your spare time and can be explained with elementary school level pseudo science? No really important discovery can be kept a secret for long. The technology for the atomic bomb was even published and available to the public (it’s been recalled since).
Don’t be so open minded that your brain falls out (not to mention your wallet as well).
yes i have sent my money to them , cant get in touch with them
yes i have down loaded my scam of a 57 page SCAM is there any address being in the uk,
what a fool i was,
howie,
Sorry you lost you money. It took a lot of courage and honesty to post your experience. Perhaps it will warn others away.
Harvey
THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT MAGNIWORK IS A SCAM SAVE YOUR MONEY AND CHECK IT OUT ON THE FREE POSTINGS OF THE BOGUS PLANS
BUT IF YOU REALLY INTERESTED LOOK UP TROY REED THIS GUY REALLY RATES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNbJ1aew-BQ&feature=related
Insidiously, this article itself — as of 6 Dec 2009 — has a prominent Google sidebar with what looks like two advertising items:
“Ads by Google
“Make a Magnetic Generator – To Create Free Electricity to Power Your Home, A Must Read, Get it Now – Electricity-Generator.net”
and:
“Magnetic Generator Plans – Use magnetic power to generate free electricity to power a home & more – URL REMOVED BY OFF-GRID EDITOR”
Each has a footer: “Affiliate of Magniwork”
In fact, they are identical links directing you to the:
“Magniworks Main Website. Just Link Below”
“URL REMOVED BY OFF-GRID EDITOR”
Is there no one who has actually made electricity from any device?
Jim,
Not one “over unity” device has ever made more energy then it took to run it – ever.
The good news:
Solar works.
Wind Energy Works.
Nuclear power Works.
Hydro Electric works
Tidal power works.
New (and proven) nuclear reactors can recycle and re-use over 90% of its own waste. This could be used long enough until we find something better. There’s enough nuclear fuel to last for centuries.
Note that all the workable solutions were developed by teams of physicists, scientists, and others working together for a common goal. Compare this to spending $50 on an internet scam so you can be the one to “save the world”. Kind of puts it into perspective doesn’t it?
Hi can someone send the plans of that “scam” to me. I am curious to look at them? thanks
Boyan
I complained to the Advertising Standards Authority when an advert for this ‘product’ appeared in the UK ‘Daily Mail’ on line.
The ‘company’ blamed ‘affiliate advertisers’ and have said the claim for ‘free electricity’ won’t be repeated. The ASA has upheld my complaint.
However, on receipt of the letter today I check on the Internet to find that the same absurd claim is being made everywhere by them. As it’s not a UK website the ASA can take no action I guess.
Google is in a position to do this. Why don’t they?
hi, there is a spelling error in the plan but i’m making it &i ‘ll let u guys know when i finish.