TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Don’t get zapped
by power scamThe words "Free Electricity for Life," got the spider senses tingling and sent the research engine to motion. An e-mail forwarded by a reader trumpeted the claim on an Internet site.
The Web site at localservices.at/efree claimed that with a special piece of equipment in your home, Innovative Technical Solutions would give the host 26,000 kilowatt hours of free electricity each year and, through gaining access to the power grid, would re-sell electricity produced by its "high-tech generators."
According to the Web site, "The Sundance generator is powered by the Hummingbird Motor, which is powered by batteries and permanent magnets. The motor/generator produces far more power than is input from the batteries." The unit is also said to keep the batteries charged.
The person identified on the Web site also offered to pay individual registration fees for those providing a name, address, phone number, e-mail address and disclosing whether they were a renter or an owner.
The Web site making the claim had an unusual address and the party that registered it could not be found through usual means. The site is "redirected" with an Australian upper-level domain provided by United Kingdom-based Rename Ltd.
Attempts to e-mail the person making the offer were bounced back, marked "undeliverable."
A search through the Better Business Bureau's online "check out a company" link at www.bbb.org found a lengthy listing on UCSA, another company mentioned on the "free electricity" Web site.
United Community Services of America is based in New Jersey and markets products developed by Better World Technologies and the International Telsa Electric Co. including the "Home Electricity Machine."
The BBB report details the company's claims and states that in October of 1999 the Washington state Department of Financial Institutions Securities Division filed a cease and desist order against the companies, founder and President Dennis Lee, their agents, employees and representatives.
After reviewing the Web site and consulting with technical experts at Hawaiian Electric Co., spokesman Fred Kobas-hikawa said there is no existing technology that could achieve the 4,000 percent efficiency rate the Web site claims.
There are laws resulting from deregulation that allow entities to sell excess electricity back to the utility, he said. "We don't have that kind of deregulation arrangement here," Kobas-hikawa said.
There are, for instance, windmill operators on the Big Island, which sell electricity to the Hawaii Electric Light Co., Kobashikawa said, but they do so under a contract. The "renewable energy" link at www.heco.com offers information on private power suppliers.
"Always be careful of offers that seem to be offering something for nothing," he said. "I would be careful about giving out personal information."
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com