We’ve all seen these types of web sites, promising weight loss, easy money and other things. But this one is not what it seems.

Click any navigation on the page, and it takes you here:

This online campaign by the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation alerts consumers about common scam web sites by creating some of their own.

In addition to Flabkiller (above) the campaign site, topmassachusettsdeals.com, hosts:

ModExperts (fake loan modification services)
DebtMenders (fake debt relief)
Envelope Elf (a work-at-home scam)
Deals R Us (a “win a prize” scam)
At-Home Biller (fake medical billing offer)

All of the faux sites are apparently promoted by appropriately cheesy banner ads. The reveal page states, “The advertisement you responded to is a FAKE advertisement posted by the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation to warn and educate consumers about the work-at-home scams that exist in today’s marketplace. If you had responded to an offer like this, you could’ve been the victim of a scam like many other consumers today.”

Barbara Anthony, Massachusetts Undersecretary of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, told The Consumerist, “The Internet allows cyber criminals to get into your living room without even being in the country. Every year consumers lose millions and millions of dollars to cyber-crooks in addition to something more important than money - their personal identity.”

If any Mass. readers have access to screenshots of the ads, please let us know.

Related Osocio post: The world’s worst web site hawks “Sweet Norwegian Deals”

I like this campaign. It’s funny, and it plays with the emotions of parental protectiveness to get a very serious message across.

It’s a very different approach than the pathos of Sarah McLachlan’s famous SPCA PSA. (TM Advertising’s CCO, Bill Oakley, told AdFreak, “When I see those Sarah McLachlan commercials, I turn them off. I can’t even watch them.") And personally, I agree. These are positive and memorable.

See a campaign infographic video after the break.

Nice spoof campaign from the Dutch Friends of the Earth Netherlands/Milieudefensie. They created this campaign to hold Shell accountable for their reckless pollution in the Niger Delta.

Shell’s Live With It! application explores the role technology can play in addressing the tragedies inherent in the oil and gas industry. Innovative uses of QR codes and geo location software have resulted in an easy to use app available for download now.

The campaign video shows a nifty smartphone app meant as a participation and marketing tool. But not the tool Shell wants to promote in Nigeria.
Nigeria is the subject here. And the oil spill Shell is responsible for since 1958. That’s 54 years since then. And that is a complete different situation compared to the BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It only took a few days before the whole world was outraged, huddled around their TVs watching live video of the BP leak.

That is what happening very often. Africa is out of sight of our media.

Friends of the Earth: “This campaign will try to convince the world of the severity of the situation in the Niger Delta, and will demand immediate action from Shell to take responsibility for the pollution they’ve caused.”

The campaign website contains the Canon of Shell’s history in Nigeria and the demands of Friends of the Earth.