According to the Daily Mail (August 29), 'A wealthy fashion tycoon is attempting to sue cigarette firms for millions of pounds on behalf of smokers whose health has been damaged.'

I can't find any other mention of the campaign and I knew nothing about it until this morning when I saw a reference to it on Twitter where the Tobacco Victims Support Campaign has an account.

Since August 3, when @tobaccovictims went live, the campaign has tweeted 33 times and attracted 9,532 followers compared to Forest's rather modest 1,498 followers.

But wait, who are these people following Tobacco Victims?

As of this morning the most recent followers appear to be purveyors of gay porn. "Naked guys available today", "Webcams of hot men here", "Find the Best Gay Chat online", and so on.

A random search then found numerous followers who only have one follower and whose tweets can be counted in single figures (sometimes only one or two).

What's going on? If these 'people' were following Forest I'd assume we'd been hacked and we'd delete or block them immediately.

Meanwhile, who are Tobacco Victims following? Again, it appears to be a totally random list of people and 'things'.

For example, Q-Step Edinburgh, a "£19.5 million programme designed to promote a step-change in quantitative social science training."

Or Spite & Malice, "A film directed by Duncan Ward to be released in 2013."

Or The Kompass, "Your pass to all things Russian in the UK."

I've never seen anything like it. If this is a serious campaign I'm a doughnut.

As for Michael Potel, the Mail describes him as a multi-millionaire clothing magnate "who made millions with his firm British & Foreign Trading".

Google his name however and very little comes up. According to Company Check:

Michael Potel holds 0 appointments at 0 active companies, has resigned from 7 companies and held 6 appointments at 6 dissolved companies. Michael is not registered as holding any current appointments.

One of the dissolved companies appears to be the Britain & Foreign Trading Company which Potel resigned from as a director in 2004.

Another site, DueDil, reports:

Michael has held 13 directorships, 0 of which are currently active, and 13 are no longer active.

There's no mention of Potel or any individual on the TVSC. There's an email address but no postal address or telephone number.

The Facebook page is no more informative.

Despite this members of the public are invited to "Donate a sum of your own choice to help fight for the cause together!"

You're also invited to complete a survey that asks you for your name, date of birth and address, and the "address of the doctor who has diagnosed you with or is treating you for a smoking related illness"!!!

I'll be fascinated to see what this self-styled 'campaign' does next. But I won't be holding my breath.

Update: The BMJ also has the story here – Smokers in England and Wales launch campaign for class action against tobacco companies (September7).

I wonder if they've seen Tobacco Victims' Twitter followers?