So has anyone checked this out lately?
There is a recruiting message, with a link to sign-up for a “pre-membership” card. I was going to do it, but they want $30US!
That seems a little steep for a fan club.
Has anyone done this yet?
MtM
For $30 will they tell me what the numbers mean? 
That costs $42.
Especially for a non-official “fan club” that’s not affiliated with ABC or the show’s creators, and takes care to get “as close to” the look of Lost’s Dharma Initiative without committing any definite trademark violations.
It seems like a pretty blatant scheme to take advantage of inattentive people with a tenuous grasp of reality, to me.
I don’t think this web site is officially run by the producers of Lost. Don’t the real ones all have a terms of use link that sends you to a Disney web page or something? Anyway, don’t throw away your 30 bucks. This seems like it might be illegal…
Looks like Larry beat me to the punch.
More importantly, the real one is hosted at a domain registered by ABC. This one belongs to a Swede named Stefan Engblom.
He’s named it “Dharma Industries” instead of “The Dharma Initiative,” and includes a disclaimer which effectively says it’s your own damned fault if you’re stupid enough to paypal him funds and points out that the main graphic element in his logo is a public-domain item.
The actual scheme is probably legal – after all, there’s no reason that you can’t take out an ad that says “Send me money and I’ll mail you an unspecified task for you to do.” Someone coughs up some dough and you send them a puzzle through the mail, the solution of which is an instruction to go pick up litter in the nearest public park for an hour. You’ve held up your end of the bargain.
The sticky bit is that the only motivation that people could possibly have for going along with such an arrangement would be that they’re confused about who they’re dealing with – and the deliberate intent to encourage that confusion is obvious.
I foresee a visit to this guy from lawyers with frickin’ laser beams on their heads in the near future.
Yup, it’s a scam.
No way you’re getting off that cheap - it’s $108.