FastMind: A far from impartial review

Tungsten Tetrafluoride. Quoted from an e-mail I just received:

[Name] has invited you to preview the free FastMind program. ... If you haven't already heard about FastMind, it's a revolutionary program that boosts your brain power.

I suspected phishing. Interested to see just what sort of website it was, I loaded up the linked page (fastmind.net/benefits.html) in links2. The code was suprisingly neat and well-formatted; it may have been done in Dreamweaver or Nvu or something.

On to the actual content. Nowhere does it even mention a program. Instead, it shows a form asking for my full name and for the passwords for Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, and AOL e-mail accounts. Apparently they believe it's worth it to exploit the few who haven't enough experience not to fall for this crap.

I went ahead and loaded up the fastmind.net home page. It became obvious that their layout and logo were an imitation of Google. They even put a login box on the right side that looks much like the box I see every day when I'm logging in to Gmail.

On this home page, they finally describe the software and give a crappy picture of a box containing the supposed FastMind software. The "Download FastMind" button leads to some dumb dating site. The description of the "software" is laughable:

FastMind is a revolutionary program that boosts your brain power to the maximum possible with minimal effort.

• Learn new skills at lightning speeds
• Expand your capacity for thought
• Develop a "super glue" memory
• Ramp your creativity up to the highest notch
• Dissolve stress, melt away tension
• Destroy bad habits in a flash!
• Banish negative behavior patterns, for good!
• Control your emotions with ease
• Control your fears!
• Alter your personality
• Improve the speed and clarity of thought
• Empower your physical self
• Master new skills and talents
• Attract the opposite sex!
• Gain a new zest for life!
• Enjoy an incredible edge in business
• And more..

I hope this is nothing more than a silly prank. I pity the poor fellow on our mailing list who relinquished his gmail password to the site, and I pity the others on our mailing list, where this e-mail has already aroused a bit of consternation.