More Acai Berry Settlements…

Posted By elissa on Jan 26, 2012 | 1 comment

The FTC headline says it all: “FTC Permanently Stops Six Operators from Using Fake News Sites that Allegedly Deceived Consumers about Acai Berry Weight Loss Products.”

Alleged Fraudulent Affiliate Marketers will Surrender Assets under Settlements

Six online marketers agreed to settlements with the Federal Trade Commission that will permanently halt their allegedly deceptive practice of using fake news websites to market acai berry supplements and other weight-loss products.

… the FTC alleged that their websites were designed to falsely appear as if they were part of legitimate news organizations, but were actually nothing more than advertisements deceptively enticing consumers to buy the featured acai berry weight-loss products from online merchants. With titles such as “News 6 News Alerts,” “Health News Health Alerts,” or “Health 5 Beat Health News,” the sites often falsely represented that the reports they carried had been seen on major media outlets such as ABC, Fox News, CBS, CNN, USA Today, and Consumer Reports. Investigative-sounding headlines presented stories that purported to document a reporter’s first-hand experience with acai berry supplements – typically claiming to have lost 25 pounds in four weeks, according to the FTC complaints.

The proposed settlements impose monetary judgments in the full amount of the commissions the defendants received for deceptive marketing through their fake news sites.

Sigh…

It’s not difficult to throw together a credible-looking “news” report. So it pays to be wary… especially when a report contains links to internet-only supplement products being sold for hefty prices (seriously: NO over-the-counter weight loss supp is worth $70 – $100). Unfortunately, it takes a looooong time for consumer complaints to be investigated, and legal action taken to bring scammers to heel… so skepticism is your best defense against being ripped off.