Comment and Opinion

Allocca Technology and Healthcare Research

I received the following email on July 26, 2003:

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 15:02:26 -0400
From: "Dr. John A. Allocca"
Subject: why?

I would like to know why you have listed my website under medical fraud? All of my products has undergone extensive studies. I have lectured to various medical societies around the country. Some of my products are FDA approved. I would like a reason.

John Allocca
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John A. Allocca, Sc.D., Ph.D., C.C.N.
Medical Research Scientist
Allocca Technology and Healthcare Research

I had a brief look at the Allocca site, but there was too much implied quackery and deception there for me to respond immediately.. As the email arrived on the day when I was preparing the normal weekly update to this site, I decided to leave my reply until I had had time to properly consider what I had to say. This was not good enough for Dr Allocca, and this arrived the next day:

Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 08:53:59 -0400
From: "Dr. John A. Allocca"
Subject: medical fraud

Hi,

I did nothing to deserve being put on your website for medical fraud. My devices are FDA approved and formulas patented and proven.

If you do not remove me from your website, I will contract your local authorities because what you are doing is fraud by putting a company on a list without any explanation.

I have the following information below on you.

John
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John A. Allocca, Sc.D., Ph.D., C.C.N.
Medical Research Scientist
Allocca Technology and Healthcare Research

The registration details for the ratbags.com domain followed. I will not reproduce them here as they are freely available from many places on the Internet. I have had them quoted to me before as if this implies some form of threat ("We know who you are!"), but these details are not secret.

I was a little surprised that Dr Allocca (who does not appear to be a medical doctor, although this impression might be given to people are not too observant) was so impatient. His anxiety to be removed from The Millenium Project listing has piqued my interest, so I will have to do a more detailed examination of his claims which, on face value, would put him in a very good position to win one or more Nobel Prizes. I will publish my findings on this site, so he will no longer be able to claim that I am "putting a company on a list without any explanation". In the meantime, I would just like to point out that a patent does not mean anything except that the device is not a blatant perpetual motion machine, and that complaints about the content of Australian web sites should be addressed to the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Details can be found under the heading "Online services content regulation".

If Dr Allocca feels that he has a legal case to have the listing of his site removed from The Millenium Project then he should consult a lawyer. In the meantime, I will treat his threat as if it were made on legal grounds.