Internet Fraud Casebook

Chapter 31. Online Pharmacy

JON COHEN

Jeffrey Stevens knew in an instant that he had died and gone to heaven. How else could he explain his good fortune? After struggling for years to earn an income that could feed his seemingly insatiable appetite for the finer things in life, Stevens had just stumbled upon what he could describe only as a goldmine of financial opportunity. The native Canadian had recently immigrated to the United States, but not to just anywhere. He moved to the land of a narcissist's dreams — Southern California — the home of the eternally optimistic, the place that invented sculptured bodies, where nearly everyone was on a perpetual diet. Where better to fulfill his fantasy of striking it rich in the world of weight-loss clinics and body-care elixirs?

Stevens was the oldest child in a home of four boys and three girls, just another mouth to feed for his middle-class parents. His father eked out a meager income selling linen supplies to hotels and restaurants, often stretching his workday into nights and weekends. His mother was left to raise the seven children as best as she knew how, constantly wondering where the next dollar was coming from. Jeff decided at an early age that he wanted a way out and scrounged around for opportunities to build a getaway nest egg. Although he struggled to graduate from high school, Jeff was blessed with a wealth of common sense, street smarts and a golden tongue. He used these attributes, along with his muscular physique, to convince ...