Fraudsters have been selling a 128MB USB drive online for over £300 using the false claim that it protects users from dangerous 5G radiation.
Conspiracies concerning the dangers of 5G were given a boost during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, with a plethora of theories claiming the latest mobile phone technology was responsible for the spread of the disease.
And it was perhaps only a matter of time before crooks would try and cash in on those fears. And now that’s exactly what has happened with the introduction of the 5GBioShield, which bills itself as “full spectrum protection” against 5G that uses “proprietary holographic nano-layer catalyst technology” to ward of dangerous radiation caused by the devices and 5G masts in a user’s proximity.
Each stick sells on the 5GBioShield website for around £300 (GBP) and there is a slight discount if you purchase three. It claims to be based on technology developed by Professor Llija Lakicevic, who was born in Montenegro (then Yugoslavia) in the 1950s.
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We already know these devices are actively being sold to the public. It was endorsed by a member of the Glastonbury Town Council’s 5G Advisory Committee in the UK, who purchased such a device.
Since the “5G protecting device” is publicly available, it wasn’t long before it was purchased by experts in the field with the intention of reverse engineering the device to find out exactly how it was supposed to work. That job fell on the staff at Pen Test Partners who purchased three of the devices.
Ken Munro and Phil Eveleigh of Pen Test Partners set to work dismantling the device to see how it differed from a standard USB key, and where exactly the “quantum, nano-layer” technology was located.
But all they found was a bog standard USB key with a rather pithy (by today’s standards) 128MB of storage, that had installed on it a standard LED light and a circular holographic sticker (available for a few pennies elsewhere.)
In a restrained summary, Pen Test Partners concluded –
We do not believe this product should be promoted by publicly-funded bodies until a full, independent, peer-reviewed scientific study has been undertaken on its effectiveness. We think trading standards bodies should investigate this product.
BBC News subsequently contacted one of the people listed as a company director, Anna Grochowalska, who claimed her company was only responsible for the device’s distribution, and didn’t own or manufacture it. When pressed on how the company could justify selling a £5 USB key for £300, this was her response –
In regard to the costs analysis your research has produced, I believe that the lack of in-depth information will not drive you to the exact computation of our expenses and production costs, including the cost of IP [intellectual property rights], and so on
…
It is therefore hard to take your evaluation seriously, since you have evidently not researched the background facts in any meaningful way.
If that sounds like a pile of total hogwash, it’s because that is exactly what it is. It is exactly what someone might say when they can’t provide any reasonable way of justifying why they charge over £300 for a very cheap USB stick that can be found elsewhere for around £5.
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While the company may ultimately claim that the cheap, holographic sticker is the key to protecting users against 5G and the justification for the price of the device, it is clear that this a [perhaps more audacious] tried and tested fraudulent model of selling a regular product marketed as a “miracle cure” for a perceived (and normally non-existent) ailment, not dissimilar to selling water marketed as “holy water” for ten time its value.
London Trading Standards has since told the BBC it has launched a probe.