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American Hair Growth Centers (aka Natural Hair Growth Institute) Steals Copyrighted Information - Are They Trying to Deceive Consumers?
What do you do when you are being sued by the state after numerous complaints have been filed against you and your company? Well if you are Steve Bennis’ Natural Hair Growth Institute, you change your domain name, steal other people’s copyrighted information and hope for a new start in the cyber world.
On Nov 17th 2009 the State of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit against two Chicago based hair growth institutes, The Natural Hair Growth Institute, Omega Hair Group and their owner, Steve Bennis. [ Read About The State of Illinois Vs. Natural Hair Growth Institute, LTD ]
On Dec 4, 2009 the domain American Hair Growth Centers was registered, and the domain for The Natural Hair Growth Institute now forwards over to this new domain and website.
On December 23, 2009 William Gaunitz from Evolution Hair Centers, wrote a blog post titled “Warning Issued to American Hair Growth Centers (aka Natural Hair Growth Institute).” In this post he explains how Steve Bennis and his new American Hair Growth Centers, stole copyrighted photos directly off his website claiming to be the before and after photos of American Hair Growth Centers.
On December 29, 2009 William Gaunitz updated his blog with a new post titled “American Hair Growth Centers Took Down Stolen Photographs.” Apparently Steve Bennis is claiming he is merely acting on behalf of American Hair Growth Centers, in this far fetched explanation he states he sold the company to a firm out of Florida. Is it just me or does anyone else find that funny? There was a firm interested in buying a company that was being sued by the State of Illinois? In this post Mr. Gaunitz further reveals that there is no DBA registry for the company called “American Hair Growth Centers” in the state of Illinois.
The whole thing gets even more hairy. The new Natural Hair Growth Institute website, calling themselves American Hair Growth Centers has stolen most of their educational “Hair Loss Info,” seen on their home page, directly (word for word) off the non-profit organization website, The American Hair Loss Association (see photo below). I mean how low can a person really be? Stealing copyrighted before and after photos from another company, and stealing copyrighted information off a non-profit website is in my opinion, deplorable behavior.
The American Hair Growth Centers website is also listing an organization in their “resources” section under “organizations,” called “The American Hair Loss Society” What is that? Do you think someone is trying to confuse consumers, and make them think that is actually the legitimate non-profit organization, The American Hair Loss Association? The majority of the information on that website (if not all) is stolen directly (again word for word) off the AHLA site.
So lets recap, The Natural Hair Growth Institute (owner Steve Bennis) is currently being sued by the State of Illinois. The Natural Hair Growth Institute website now forwards to The American Hair Growth Centers’ website, which has previously stolen pictures and content from Evolution Hair Centers. In addition they stole the majority of educational content for men, women and children directly off the American Hair Loss Association. In addition to that (as if it could get worse) they, in my opinion, attempted to create a organization to confuse consumers and chose a name nearly identical to the American Hair Loss Association, and in doing so, also stole the majority of content directly off the non-profit site also.
Now why would a company/service provider steal information, before and after photos and list an organization in their resource section with stolen information, that in my opinion they clearly created? Why if the product/service was authentic, real, and actually delivered results, would a company have to go to such lengths? Why go to such lengths of, in my opinion, CLEAR DECEPTION?
I’ll let you answer that for yourselves.
Consumers do not be fooled! The Natural Hair Growth Institute is now passing themselves off as American Hair Growth Centers.
The fact that they have shown such disgusting and reprehensive behavior in stealing information and before/after photos, is reason enough in my book, to STAY FAR FAR AWAY.
I am in the process of snapping more images to display the blatantly stolen information, however, you can see it for yourself live and in color by visiting The American Hair Loss Association and then going to the American Hair Growth Centers website to see the stolen copyrighted information. Ghastly.
Update 1/3/09
It appears that the owner of the American Hair Growth Centers website has decided to do the right thing and remove “some” of the stolen content and bogus listing on their “Association” page of a fake copycat organization (which in my opinion they clearly owned, created and knowingly stole content from another site) of the legitimate non-profit, The American Hair Loss Association.
While the content on the “Men, Women and Children” pages have had their text moved around, a couple words changed or added, I can still clearly see it was lifted from The American Hair Loss Association. Should “they” ever try and challenge what I have written, I have have proof, in living color, because I was able to snap images of their entire website and the other fake organization website, before they made the changes. You’d think they could create their own original copy for their website, and not have steal the content from others, why be so darn lazy?
Things that make you go “hummmmmm”
I will keep everyone updated with any new information.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Jennifer 01.02.10 at 2:18 pm
Even more unfortunate is the deceptive nature that ALL of these so called “Nature Hair Center” go after women and men with hairloss. I unfortunately am a victim…one of many I might add…of false promises…and when I say promises..yes, I mean actual promises coming directly out of the mouths of Will Gaunitz and the other salesmen whom work for him. I was warned by many in AZ, but decided to go along with my own hopes and disilutions, as well as the promises made to me that over 60% of my hair lost will grow back with nine months of their program, detoxes and special shampoos etc…all in all it costs me $4,000 and I ended up running into many other women who also had no results. They finesse their way out of trouble by saying that you are the only one who had no results from the laser and other treatments, or that gheez…it must be a weird situation as it helps everyone else…well, the only women who Will and Co…have ever put on TV is a model whom he is close personal friends with and whom is wearing extensions and admits to it…and the other is a woman who’s hair is so obviously teased and backcombed that you cannot really tell what she did or did not regrow…I am warning you ladies on here not to fall for these centers…they are wonderful at “wooing” us in…especially women and just remember if they truly worked, these women would be screaming from the rooftops etc…Lasers are a HUGE money maker for companies…HUGE, because once they are paid off…it makes them thousands of dollars a month. There is soo much more to this story and company…too much to post. If you have any questions…please write to me and I will be happy to answer.
Amy 01.03.10 at 10:50 pm
Yep. I actually went to Steve Bennis early in 2009 out of sheer desperation. I met with him for about 20 minutes, when I had the sickest feeling in my stomach during our entire conversation. I later posted a review of my experience in a PERSONAL blog. He and his “lawyer” read it, and then he called my cell number and swore at me, threatening that he would be “coming after me.” Fearing that this psycho might have my home address (as it was on the information form I’d filled out at the Chicago office… Hell, he’d already used my phone number…) I had to call the police and file a harassment complaint. His “lawyer” called a short time after the officer had to come to my house, and demanded I take down the blog account, lest I be sued for libel. I informed her that I would do no such thing, and that her “client” had harassed me not even an hour beforehand. She stopped dead in her tracks. I never heard from either of these skeevy liars again. I hope they get nailed for every single cent and every last shred of hope they’ve stolen.
Mercedes 01.05.10 at 9:17 am
After having read this, I am beyond thrilled that I didn’t proceed with Mr. Bennis. I met with him various times and was so close to trying to save the thousands of dollars necessary to proceed with treatment.
In the end, there are no miracles. Anybody claiming that to be the case, particularly a non-doctor in a lab coat, is as dilusional as we can be when we think all our hair will come back. Only difference is that they keep our money.
Excited about PRP though…