Consumers should carefully evaluate advertising claims for weight-loss products.
A group of marketers in Nevada and California used “free” trial offers and health claims to pitch green coffee bean extract and another dietary supplements, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Health Formulas and its related entities and principals selling the Simple Pure brand used telemarketing, the Internet, print, radio, and TV advertisements to pitch dietary supplements and other weight-loss, virility, muscle-building, and skin cream products, the FTC said in a lawsuit.
Examples of Simple Pure’s advertising claims include: “Burn fat without diet or exercise”; “Shed pounds fast!”; and “Extreme weight loss!”
The FTC said the defendants have no basis for the weight-loss claims they make about their products.
A U.S. district court has temporarily stopped the marketers from using deceptive and illegal claims to sell their products, the FTC announced Monday.
The action against Health Formulas is the first under Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, which prohibits marketers from charging consumers in an Internet transaction, unless the marketer has disclosed all the transaction’s terms and obtained the consumers’ consent.
The FTC charges the defendants trick consumers into disclosing their credit and debit card information, and then enroll them without authorization in programs that kept charging their accounts.
The cost for Simple Pure’s supplements, with names such as Pure Green Coffee Bean Plus and RKG Extreme, ranges from $60 to $210 per month, with some consumers sold additional products for $7.95 to $60.
For details on sales offers of this type, see Weight Loss & Fitness and “Free” Trial Offers?
If its one thing consumers are good at it’s ignoring/tuning out bogus dieting claims and nutritional advice. A bunch of personal trainers at the gym I work at tried to offer nutrition & dieting classes. The very well designed professional programs never got any interest. You can thank the way corporate food makers pollute us with endless ‘eye-catching’ ads and packaging to convince us eat lots of garbage food is good for you. Most people are smart enough/overwhelmed enough to ignore these claims no matter who is making ’em. It makes life easier, though not necessarily healthier to ignore all claims.