Sniffix: the $6,000 per-unit bomb detection device that turns out to work on "the same principles as a Ouija board." You have to admit, even the name sounds suspicious.

Michael Grabell reports for ProPublic.com. 

According to the company, Sniffex could detect explosives up to a football field away by reading the "interference between the magnetic field of the earth, the explosive, the device itself and the human body."
 
Critics called it a sham. Yet one unit in the U.S. military bought the device — eight for about $6,000 each — even though the military’s own tests (PDF) said the Sniffex performed no better than random chance. (The testers concluded that the Sniffex operates according to the same principles as a Ouija board.)

Grabell reports that on Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Sniffex with being "little more than the front for a $32 million stock fraud scheme that enriched insiders at the expense of unsuspecting investors."

(photo credit: Homeland Safety International) 

Share This Article