Kimkins Wins Naked Mole Rat of Marketing Award; Plus Heidi & Tippy Have a Falling Out--AGAIN; & Other Kimkins Updates

I've been a bit on the lurky side, but there have been developments in the Kimkins Scam saga:

1. Kimkins is the maybe-not-so-thrilled recipient of the Naked Mole Rats of Marketing Award for the Week. She deserves it, too.

2. Speaking of moles: There's some cool spywork going on. Check out the particulars at Medusa's place, where the ads to hire moles were first placed:

Quite a few applicants were "hired" and are relaying important information to me from inside Heidi's fold.

However, one of the mole prospects who contacted me, pledging to do some serious digging, immediately set off alarm bells for me. And what that particular mole did not realize is that I knew from the outset that he/she was a double-agent, working for Heidi Diaz/Kimmer.

Read the rest of that blog entry, and enjoy some classic film posters, too. :)

3. Jimmy Moore bagged up his sugar-free marshmallows and left Camp Carbaway, unable to recommend the paying site to low-carbing dieters. He wrote:

Since my simple posting about some questions that came up recently regarding the ongoing relationship between Heidi Diaz and Jeannie Battinger was described as "accusations" by me, then I no longer feel welcomed by Camp Carbaway. I was given a free membership to this forum for the distinct purpose of seeing that it is different than LCF and even my own forum, LowCarbDiscussion.com. But this place doesn't offer anything different than what you can find elsewhere for free. Again, I appreciate the invite and request to blog about this new venture, but I'm gonna have to take a pass. There's nothing new under the sun here. BEST WISHES TO EVERYONE!
(Posted by Gibster #13 WTFWK thread, #81 post dated 1/4/07)

Tippy's reply was slightly snarky, with echoes of Her Heidiness peeping through:

We wish you well Jimmy. It is my hope that you will NOT blog about things that may not be true... That would be called gossip and I would hope you would not go there. One more thing, Jimmy. I never posted on your site for valid reason. I did not want to cause drama and have LCF follow me to your boards. I did not post out of respect for your forum. I gave you the interview you asked for. And I offered you a free spot in my forums. You may have had some concerns here. I really didn't mind you addressing any concerns but to be honest I did feel under attack with the implications of Kimkins. And it is my understanding that even you followed Kimkins with success. However, I did listen to your points of concerns and have decided to make some changes. If you feel you need to leave--well, best wishes.
(Thanks to the Gibster for that, too.)

Tippy seems to want to pre-empt any criticism by calling it, before the fact, "gossip." Of course, gossip (intimate chit chat, often of a negative nature, not always or necessarily untrue) can be negative AND true. Still, Jimmy's main point is one others have made: Why pay for the site when others offer the same (or better even, I'll add) for free.

4. Join the Lawsuit: http://kimkinslawsuit.wordpress.com/
Bring the Kimmer down, folks. If you've been a member of Kimkins, join the lawsuit. Maybe you'll get your money back, but you'll definitely be adding to the cause of good and right in getting that scamming liar who lies in the red (financially speaking).

Don't be intimidated. It's easy. Here are step by step instructions from the fab Avenue Girl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zxURudcNes

5. Heidi Diaz must not really be doing her own diet, cause the stats on her own website show that she isn't losing weight all that fast. Not Kimkins fast. Not faster than one would, say, on a reasonable diet (whether low or high carb or in between). You know, a big loss at first, and then anywhere from 2 or so pounds a week. Her right hand soprano has only lost 2 pounds her first week back on Kimkins (the week one would expect a huge water loss). Guess both the top dogs at Kimkins are just not really working that plan!

Where's the promise to lose nearly a pound a day? Where's the 100 lbs in five months?

Heidi "Kimmer" Diaz touted her diet as THE FASTEST EVER AND ANYWHERE. Well, yeah, I suppose, if she actually did it--which clearly she ain't--it might work fast for a spell, cause the real diet behind the diet had people eating zero to 700 calories a day. It's called starvation. You'll lose weight that way. People do it all over the globe, only not voluntarily. You'll also lose your hair, damage your thyroid, snap your metabolism, deplete your bones, stress your body, and maybe fall into ongoing disordered eating. But hey, what's health when you can look like Heidi Diaz!

Um, hang on a second there...let's not even think about THAT.

Go take a look at her sporadic FitDay entries. Clearly, Heidi's either psychotic when it comes to food, or she's putting us on. I'd bet on the latter. She's having a joke with her food journal--with one day only coffee and creamer, one day only veggies, one day only meat and chicken, one day only booze. Freaky. (And freakier if that's her real diet.)

6. Theories are bouncing around that Queen Heidi and her adoring Kimkinsland subject GentleFawn (who has perfected the art of sycophancy) seem to have set up Tippy Toes/Typo Toes/J Baitinger/headmistress of Camp Carbaway to look like a Kimkins collaborator even after her exodus (well, duh). It started with a blog post by Fawn (now gone from Blogger) and an internet comment more recently by Heidi. All speculation, I reiterate. However, with a track record like Heidi's, it's the sort of speculation one can readily believe. Fawn comes across as someone who, in her burbling passion for "Kimmer" and Tippy, would just want to fan the flames of love between Queen Diet Fraud and Princess P.R. Plan Switcher.

Fawn posted (in her now defunct blog) about how tight Tips and Kimmer still were, praising those superlative role models of compassion and diet brilliance. This as Tippy was setting up her own for-profit haven for Kimkinites and cooperating with the lawsuit (in exchange for immunity, natch). Hmmm. (What? You think Heidi was gonna take that whole cooperating thing gracefully and benevolently?)

Then, just a couple days ago, Heidi writes to Diets in Review about how Camp Carbaway is just Kimkins CTF in Campwear and how Tippy is still doing Kimkins' plan and always will be her staunch supporter and right hand henchwoman. Er, I'm paraphrasing. Tippy took offense and posted about how she was stunned and made aghast by Heidi's comment, and how now she has asked for a cease and desist on her success story and picture over at Kimkins. (The link takes you to the entry with the comments section that has two posts from Tippy.)

Hmmm...so all those sick Kimkins Survivors didn't move Tippy's heart away from Kimkins and her fraud, all the pleas from folks uncovering Heidi's lies didn't budge Tippy from pushing a dangerous diet she didn't even follow cause she was switching diets every other week; but Heidi trying to suck Tippy back into the lawsuit vortex--that did it. Yeah, CMA is a strong motivator, ain't it Headmistress B. Moreso than human empathy for Kimkins victims.

7. Wanna read 140+ pages of legalese regarding Kimkins? Well, you can. The semi-snarky correspondence between Heidi's and the Force For Good's lawyers is entertaining. The timeline also makes clear that Heidi was doing an awful lot of money spending right before she got deposed. Smells like a strategy to keep the cash out of the hands of the plaintiffs to me, but I'll leave that to judge/jury to decide. Let's hope they do a better job than O.J.'s judge/jury.

(If you click the link, just type GUEST where it says "operator code" and ignore the password box. Just "GUEST" gets you in. When you do a name search for Heidi Diaz, you'll get a choice. Pick "Fenderson vs. Diaz." That's the Kimkins lawsuit. The ones with little camera icons on the right hand side of the grid have viewable documents. The one with the snarky letters is the motion to set aside right to attach etc dated 12/21. Enjoy.)

8. Heidi may have been an Avon Lady, and, interestingly, a fervent allegation of scamming going on even with Avon were made by a commenter at Slamboard calling him or herself "NotAHeidiFan". This is part of the comment:

She has conned the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the foster care people, her own brother and anyone who will give her money. She has ripped off her ex-husband, impersonated his wife at their bank and many other scams. She made up an internet story years ago about how someone stole her Avon products and money from orders. She made this up along with a sad tale of being a single disabled mother, blah, blah and got people to give her money all while her district manager was sitting in the hospital with her young son who died of cancer. There was no theft.

Avon should look into that allegation, methinks. It warrants investigation given the evidence (including Diaz's own admission under oath) that Kimkins website was a hotbed of marketing fraud (re success stories and photos and Kimkins own weight loss claims).

Avon, why don't you go calling on Ms. Diaz.
~~
Folks, if you want to stay up on the Kimkins developments, you can always do a blogsearch with Google with "Kimkins" to get updates (click on "last day" or "last week"). Please, try to stay away from the actual diet site or the junk sites of online marketing promoting Kimkins. It just raises their profiles. And you can find good updates at places like:


http://kimorexia.blogspot.com/
http://yustyucky.wordpress.com/
http://notmakingnicetokimkins.blogspot.com/
http://2medusa.blogspot.com/
http://mariasol-mariasol.blogspot.com/
http://kimkinsdiettruth.wordpress.com/
http://kimkinssurvivors.wordpress.com/
http://www.kimkinscontroversy.com/

Scroll way down on my sidebar (left) to see a collection of links to places with information on the Kimkins scandal and scam, some summaries, some investigative, some round-ups, some ongoing blogs.

But the wisest thing of all: Don't do Kimkins. Don't pay to join Kimkins. And don't let your friends do Kimkins. Warn people about VLC diets and scammers who lie about their weight loss and make up stories with fake dieters who are actually Russian models and bride-wannabes. Don't put more dollars in Diaz' s pockets.

It's hard enough to lose weight healthfully. We don't need exploiters to muddy the waters for those desperate about their weight.

Onward and Downward!

PRAYER REQUEST: Christin, former Kimkins poster girl and staffer, who is now a staunch and vocal anti-Kimkins crusader, one who has appeared on television shows countering the falsehoods of Heidi, was in a terrible car accident. (Her car was totaled, and I saw the pic, scary. I had Princess Di Paris accident flashbacks!) She's been in the hospital with brain swelling and bad pain and nausea. She's stable as of the last update, but still needs your prayers. Please pray she heals up totally and can go home to her children and hubby (who all, thankfully, survived.)

EDITED TO ADD: Christin has updated her blog. The entry includes her own warning against Kimkins and a horrific photo of what her car looked like AFTER the crash. She's recovering, thank God, but I'm sure she covets your continued prayers.