Easy Weight Loss?
Almost everyone would like to drop a few pounds, stay fit, and look good. This natural desire is exactly what online marketers target when they falsely advertise products promising to help you lose weight.
Products that purport to help drop those extra pounds now come in an array of different styles. There are pills and capsules, specific food diets, herbal products, dietary supplements – all promising to burn fat and flush it out of your system. The major selling points are that they promise immediate, effortless, and even guaranteed weight loss.
Common Pitches
Thousands of unassuming consumers are deceived into purchasing products and fall prey to the following pitches by scammers.
1. Use of words such as “ new breakthrough technology,” “secret formula,” “exclusive,” and “clinically proven” in advertisements
2. Fast, easy, guaranteed results
3. Vague Testimonials by “satisfied” consumers that are not verifiable
4. Use of exotic ingredients (i.e. Acai Berry, African Mango) in products purporting to possess a distinct fat burning ingredient
5. Free samples and offers before the actual purchase of the weight loss product
Methods
Weight loss sellers employ similar notorious tactics as other kinds of scammers. First, they will use the abovementioned common pitches to get you hooked. Most often than not, there will be a “free trial” so you can test out the weight loss product. What is conveniently undisclosed, however, is that when you agree to a free trial – thinking that you have nothing to lose – you are most likely automatically enrolled in a negative option where you will be charged for and sent unsolicited products. The cancellation process is deliberately made difficult, with customer service being unresponsive, non-existent, or complicated to reach.
How Can You Protect Yourself?
The Federal Trade Commission has designated seven “Red Flags” that you should look for in advertisements. If you find one advertising a weight loss product, it is a safe bet that it is a scam.
1. “Lose weight without diet or exercise!”
2. “Lose weight no matter how much you eat of your favorite foods!”
3. “Lose weight permanently! Never diet again!”
4. “Block the absorption of fat, carbs, or calories!”
5. “Lose 30 pounds in 30 days!”
6. “Everybody will lose weight!”
7. “Lose weight with our miracle patch or cream!”
Take our advice, and lose weight the healthy way, for you body and for your wallet.
If you have a complaint about online weight loss offers, post your complaint to Scambook.com to share your experience get help recovering your money.
See Also
Diet Lawsuit: Sensa Weight Loss V. Actress Octavia Spencer from “The Help”
Fake Diet Pills Costing More Than Weight Loss
Get the Skinny on the Top 5 Diet Pill Companies on Scambook
I received a mailing in the postal mail box for a new weight loss called
SUPERACTIVE SMART… YES, I ORDERED IT IT HAS NOT CAME AFTER DOING SO I THOUGHT BECAUSE I WAS SO EAGER TO LOSE WEIGHT, LIKE MANY OTHERS BELIEVE IT TO BE SO, THE NEXT DAY I CALLED THE BANK CREDIT CARD TO CANCEL BUT JUST MISSED THEM SENDING IT OUT, THEY SAID WHEN IT COMES TO WRITE RETURN ON THE UNOPENED PACKAGE, OKAY WHAT I NEED TO KNOW FROM YOU IS CAN YOU GIVE ME ANY OTHER RESEARCH OF ANY KNOWN INFORMATION ON THIS PRODUCT TRUTH OR FALSE PLEASE EMAIL ME ASAP WHEN YOU SEE THIS SO I WILL KNOW WHAT TO THINK WHEN IT COMES, THANK YOU
In Texas any unsolicited mail is yours to keep. So if it comes in the mail and they tell you to pay for it tell them to go to………… then advise them to speak with the Post Master general or better yet the Attorney General of the stat regarding unsolicited mail.
Also if you gave them your card and changed your mind and cancled in time don’t let them bully you with credit collectors to pay them.
Look on the Internet for a form letter to send them requiring proof of the money owed and several other items. The credit collectors will go away in over 90% of the cases. They don’t want to go to the trouble to get all the information that is required. Also the letter should state if they do not respond with the proper information withing 30 days the bill is considered null and void. Mail it certified mail with signature required. You mostly will never hear of them again.
I just went through a bunch of this with fraudulent insurance claims for medical services. I didn’t pay one cent because they are /were wrong and knew it. They just didn’t think there is anyone with the minimal intellegence to protect themselves.
Ruiin their day.
Credit collectors are scumbags delux!