Picked this one up via Ben Goldacre's Bad Science miniblog, in turn linking to the Daily Mirror's site, where an article by some investigative journalists questions the efficacy of Ecoflow magnets.
It's a pretty straightforward debunking of the claims that these magnets when strapped onto fuel pipes improve fuel efficiency, cutting costs by 5-20%. Similar devices, marketed as Bioflow are claimed to be benficial for arthritis sufferers. Amusingly the company leaves any such claims to its network of distributors following a ruling from the Advertising Standards Authority:
The advertising watchdog asked Ecoflow to prove the claims and ruled that the company's response "did not constitute rigorous scientific evidence".
Since then Ecoflow has kept busy flogging magnets but it calls itself a network marketing company.
So there's these guys flogging devices that don't work (there is no scientific evidence), by having a network of distributors to make the dubious (and quite possibly deceitful) claims on their behalf. So far, so good. But just check out the heaving masses of deluded Ecoflow distributors they've wheeled out to pack the comments page!
Initially only poor Jared was there with the force of real science (e.g.his link to this fuel saving site) against the anecdotal "evidence" that's being presented with all the evangelical gusto of the truly converted. Good on him. And now some rational human beings have stepped into the fray against the deluded dolts.
This is up there with Q-link pendants and directional hifi speaker cables!
Incidentally the ASA ruling is here.