Enagic Corporation in the Spotlight: Fraud and Dirty Tricks to Silence the Internet – Part 1

What Happened?

Enagic Corporation, known for promoting Kangen Water through a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme, has faced significant backlash for its questionable business practices. Reports such as “Kangen Water: The Scam That Pays” have detailed how the company manipulates consumers with exaggerated health claims, while profiting from a network of distributors. All investigative articles from Medium and other various sources have brought to light Enagic’s aggressive tactics to silence critics, including attempts to suppress damaging news and censor negative coverage. Despite these efforts, the company’s shady past—ranging from deceptive marketing strategies to exploiting vulnerable consumers—continues to surface, fueling public skepticism and demands for transparency.

The company behind Kangen Water, has faced mounting criticism for its MLM structure and the extravagant health claims associated with its products. Reports have surfaced suggesting a pattern of deceptive marketing tactics, with many questioning the validity of Kangen Water’s purported health benefits. In recent years, whistleblowers and investigative reports have highlighted the company’s attempts to silence critics and suppress damaging news. These efforts include legal threats and aggressive PR campaigns aimed at controlling negative narratives.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

To accomplish this, we utilize the OSINT Tool provided by FakeDMCA.com and the Lumen API for Researchers, courtesy of the Lumen Database.

FakeDMCA.com is the work of an independent team of research students and cybersecurity professionals, developed under Project UnCensor. Their OSINT Tool, designed to uncover and analyze takedown notices, represents a significant step forward in combating these abusive practices. It has become a valuable resource, increasingly relied upon by journalists and law enforcement agencies across the United States.

Lumen, on the other hand, is an independent research initiative dedicated to studying takedown notices and other legal demands related to online content removal. The project, which operates under the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, plays a crucial role in tracking and understanding the broader implications of such requests.

By investigating the fake DMCA takedown attempts, we hope to shed light on the reputation management industry, revealing how Enagic Corporation and companies like it may use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking them to allegations of fraud, tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking…

List of Fake Copyright Notices for Enagic Corporation

Number of Fake DMCA Notice(s)	1
Lumen Database Notice(s)	https://lumendatabase.org/notices/35297368
Sender(s)	Global Reuters
Date(s)	August 03, 2023
Fake Link(s) Used by Scammers	https://global-reuters.com/kangen-water-the-scam-that-pays.html
Original Link(s) Targeted	https://medium.com/@jamesw1956/the-scam-that-pays-93e6ae9a0a35

Evidence and Screenshots

Only Enagic Corporation Benefit from this crime.

Since the fake copyright takedown notices were designed to remove negative content for Enagic Corporation from Google, we assume Enagic Corporation or someone associated with Enagic Corporation is behind this scam. It is often a fly-by-night Online Reputation agency working on behalf of Enagic Corporation. In this case, Enagic Corporation, at best, will be an “accomplice” or an “accessory” to the crime. The specific laws may vary depending on the jurisdiction. Still, the legal principle generally holds that if you actively participate in planning, encouraging, or facilitating a crime, you can be charged with it, even if you did not personally commit it.

So, who tf is Enagic Corporation?

Enagic Corporation is a Japanese company that manufactures water ionization systems, most notably the Kangen Water filtration machines. The company operates using a multi-level marketing (MLM) business model, where independent distributors sell these machines and recruit others into the sales network, earning commissions. While Enagic markets its products as a pathway to better health, promising benefits from alkalized water, critics have raised numerous concerns over the company’s methods and legitimacy.

Why Are They Trying to Censor the Internet?

Enagic has been accused of attempting to silence critics and suppress negative information circulating on the internet. Articles like “Kangen Water: The Scam That Pays” published on Global Reuters and Medium highlight how the company uses aggressive legal tactics and media suppression to control its public image. Enagic’s efforts to censor damaging news seem to stem from a desire to protect its business model, which has drawn increasing scrutiny for questionable claims and deceptive marketing practices. The rise of online criticism and whistleblower testimonies has sparked the company to seek control over its narrative, using censorship and lawsuits as tools to mute opposition.

Major Concerns, Complaints, and Accusations Against Enagic Corporation

1. Exaggerated Health Claims: One of the major criticisms is that Enagic promotes Kangen Water with extravagant and scientifically unsubstantiated health claims. The company suggests that drinking alkalized water from their machines can cure or prevent serious diseases like cancer, despite no credible scientific backing for these claims.
2. Deceptive Marketing Tactics: Enagic’s MLM model has been criticized for encouraging misleading sales pitches from its distributors. These distributors often misinform potential customers, overselling the health benefits and the financial opportunities of becoming part of the network.
3. MLM Pyramid Structure: Many see Enagic’s MLM structure as being exploitative. Critics argue that the company’s business model closely resembles a pyramid scheme, where the focus is more on recruiting new salespeople rather than selling actual products. Many distributors reportedly lose money due to the high costs of purchasing the machines themselves to meet sales quotas.
4. Censorship and Legal Threats: In attempts to protect its brand, Enagic has been accused of silencing negative reviews and investigations by using legal threats or PR campaigns to downplay criticism. These censorship tactics are aimed at minimizing the spread of damaging news, especially as more consumers and former distributors speak out.
5. High Product Prices and Misleading Earnings Promises: Kangen Water machines are often sold at a steep price, upwards of several thousand dollars. Many complaints highlight that these prices are unjustifiable, especially when comparable water filtration systems are available for much less. Additionally, distributors are often lured with promises of significant earnings, but many fail to profit due to the high cost of entry and the pressure to continually recruit new members.

In light of these concerns, Enagic’s efforts to control its narrative reflect the growing public skepticism surrounding MLM schemes and unproven health products, pushing the company to take drastic steps to protect its reputation.

Potential Consequences for Enagic Corporation

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)). 

Is Enagic Corporation Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Enagic Corporation used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Enagic Corporation could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Enagic Corporation have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Enagic Corporation is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

What was Enagic Corporation trying to hide?

Enagic Corporation, the company behind the Kangen Water machines, has faced a significant amount of negative attention, ranging from complaints and bad reviews to allegations of unethical business practices. The adverse news and accusations the company appears to be trying to suppress include the following:

1. Allegations of a Pyramid Scheme

Enagic’s multi-level marketing (MLM) structure has been frequently criticized for closely resembling a pyramid scheme. In MLMs like Enagic’s, distributors often earn more from recruiting new members than from direct sales of the products. Many critics and online sources, including the articles referenced, argue that the real profit lies in building a sales team rather than selling Kangen Water machines. This model disproportionately benefits those at the top while leaving most distributors struggling to recoup their investments.

2. Complaints About Exaggerated Health Claims

One of the most damaging allegations is that Enagic makes exaggerated and unsubstantiated health claims about the benefits of its Kangen Water products. Distributors often suggest that drinking the ionized, alkalized water can prevent or cure diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or arthritis. These health claims lack strong scientific evidence, and regulatory bodies, including the FDA, have not endorsed them. Articles like “Kangen Water: The Scam That Pays” highlight this issue, emphasizing the misleading nature of these health promises.

3. Consumer and Distributor Complaints

Many consumer complaints focus on the high price of Enagic’s water filtration machines, which can cost thousands of dollars. In addition to product pricing, former distributors have shared stories of financial loss after joining the company, revealing how they were misled into believing they could make substantial profits. The Medium article by James W. dives into the challenges distributors face, particularly the high entry costs and the pressure to recruit more members, which often leads to significant financial stress.

4. Legal Threats and Censorship

According to the referenced articles, Enagic has taken aggressive steps to control the online narrative surrounding its business. The company has allegedly used legal threats to silence critics, removing negative reviews and complaints from online forums, including social media, and even pursuing lawsuits against whistleblowers. This effort to censor critical news is viewed as an attempt to prevent further exposure of their questionable business model.

5. False Promises of Income

Enagic has been accused of luring potential distributors with promises of significant financial rewards. However, reports indicate that the majority of distributors fail to make a profit, with some even losing money due to the need to purchase expensive products to stay active in the MLM. This issue is emphasized in various online complaints and critical articles, showcasing that the earnings potential is overstated, and the success stories promoted by Enagic are not representative of the typical experience.

6. Product Quality vs. Competitors

Another issue being highlighted in adverse reviews is that Kangen Water machines are not necessarily superior to other water filtration products available at much lower prices. Despite the high cost of Kangen machines, many users report that the machines offer no additional benefits compared to cheaper alternatives. This has led to accusations that Enagic inflates the price to support its MLM payout structure rather than delivering superior product quality.

7. Lack of Transparency

There are allegations that Enagic Corporation lacks transparency, both in terms of product efficacy and business practices. Critics accuse the company of failing to provide clear, evidence-based information about how their water ionization technology works or its true benefits. In addition, the business structure and earnings potential are often obscured or misrepresented to new recruits.

In summary, Enagic Corporation is working to hide a wide range of complaints, bad reviews, and damaging news related to its MLM structure, false health claims, misleading income promises, and aggressive censorship. The company’s efforts to stifle criticism and prevent negative exposure reflect the growing scrutiny of its business model and practices.

Reputation Agency’s Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

How did Enagic Corporation purport this DMCA Fraud?

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Enagic Corporation creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Enagic Corporation either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Enagic Corporation, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Not In Good Company

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Enagic Corporation is in great company ….

Ironically, the manipulation tactics used to remove public-interest information from the Internet are backfiring on Enagic Corporation, which is now associated with the worst of this world.

Here are some of the specimens that share the internet space with Enagic Corporation –

Miguel Octavio Vargas Maldonado

Miguel Octavio Vargas Maldonado appears to be the former foreign affairs minister of the Dominican Republic. His name is listed next to more than 500 links to news articles, blogs, social media posts, and YouTube videos targeted for removal or de-indexing. Many of the articles refer to questions over his political fundraising practices. They include accusations that Vargas had received donations from an individual who would later be convicted of drug trafficking. Some targeted links remain active, while others return 404 errors or “file not found.”

José Antonio Gordo Valero

José Gordo joined OneCoin in 2015 and has been named in an indictment for the OneCoin scam in Argentina. The articles listed next to Gordo’s name in the documents reviewed by Rest of World include references to his role at the company. 

Diego Adolfo Marynberg

He appears to be the same Marynberg connected to funding right-wing causes, including settlement efforts in Israel. Reports also alleged that his company received preferential treatment in acquiring Argentinian bonds worth millions of dollars. More than 70 URLs appear next to Marynberg’s name in the documents, including pages from the Israeli newspapers The Times of Israel, Haaretz, and Clarin, one of Argentina’s most prominent news sites.

Majed Khalil Majzoub

Majed is an influential businessman with close ties to several governments, including the administration of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Majzoub’s name appears next to more than 180 URLs, mostly from independent outlets. Of the two URLs that pointed to articles from Germany’s Der Spiegel, one now returns an error message; the other, which appears to refer to relations between Venezuela and Colombia, directs to an unrelated story about Brexit. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is our next move?

Critical Intel will, in its capacity, do all it can to hold someone responsible for this incident. Here is what we are preparing for –

Since Enagic Corporation made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and our original review of Enagic Corporation, including but not limited to user contributions, remain a permanent record for anyone interested in Enagic Corporation.

A case perfect for the Streisand effect…

What else is Enagic Corporation hiding?

Click here to visit the Google Search page for ‘Enagic Corporation’. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with us. If you have any information on Enagic Corporation that you want to share with us, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.

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References and Citations Used

Over thirty thousand DMCA notices reveal an organized attempt to abuse copyright law.

Reputation Management, or Internet Conspiracy

Exposed documents reveal how the powerful cleaned up their digital past using a reputation laundering firm.

Companies Use Fake Websites and Backdated Articles to Censor Google’s Search Results.

Bad Reviews: How Companies Are Using Fake Websites to Censor Content

How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists

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Many thanks to FakeDMCA.com and Lumen for providing access to their database.

Photos and Illustrations provided by DALL-E 3 – “a representation of Enagic Corporation censoring the internet and committing cyber crimes.”

• Our investigative report on Enagic Corporation’s efforts to suppress online speech is significant, as it raises serious concerns about its integrity. The findings suggest that Enagic Corporation has engaged in questionable practices, including potential perjury, impersonation, and fraud, in a misguided attempt to manage or salvage its reputation.
• We intend to file a counternotice to reinstate the removed article(s). While this particular instance is relatively straightforward, it is important to note that, in other cases, the overwhelming volume of automated DMCA takedown notices can significantly hinder the ability of affected parties to respond—especially for those not large media organizations.
• You need an account with fakeDMCA.com and Lumen to access the research data. However, accounts are not widely available since these non-profit organisations manage large databases that could be susceptible to misuse. Nevertheless, they do offer access to non-profits and researchers.
• It’s unclear why U.S. authorities have yet to act against these rogue reputation agencies, whose business model seems rooted in fraudulent practices.
• We’ve reached out to Enagic Corporation for a comment or rebuttal regarding this investigation. It will strongly suggest they were behind the takedown attempt if they remain silent.

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About the Author

The author is affiliated with Harvard University and serves as a researcher at both Lumen and FakeDMCA.com. In his personal capacity, he and his team have been actively investigating and reporting on organized crime related to fraudulent copyright takedown schemes. Additionally, his team provides advisory services to major law firms and is frequently consulted on matters pertaining to intellectual property law. He can be reached at [email protected] directly.