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What Works, What Doesn't? We Exposed The Scams And Let You Know What Really Works!
One of the things we are proudest of is the investigative work we have done to track down and expose the scams. There is no reason for you to get ripped off! Here are most of the popular scams on the market that you should avoid.
- Acai Berry Scams
- Auto Billing Scams
- Before & After Photo Scams
- Counterfeit Products
- Diet Gimmicks
- Fake Doctor Scams
- Free Trial Scams
- Mail Order Scams
- Powdered Herbs Scams
- Laced Drugs Scams
- Telemarketing Scams
- Website Scams
Ever since Oprah and Rachael Ray mentioned the weight loss benefits of Acai Berry on their shows, the United States has become captivated with this supposed “superfruit” from South America. Hundreds of health companies jumped on the opportunity to take advantage of the craze. Products like Acai Berry Supreme, Acai Pure, Acai Force, Acai Burn and Acai Fit have all made claims that their product is the miracle diet pill because it contains high-quality acai berry extracts. The problem is, there is NO scientific evidence that acai berry has any weight loss properties, can burn fat or can boost the metabolism.
Acai berries have been found to have antioxidants that help fight cell damage and protect the immune system, but that will not help you lose weight. Acai berries are extremely expensive to harvest and ship to the United States. Therefore getting pure, high-grade acai berry extract is nearly impossible so most companies use fake or low-quality extracts. Not only do companies use outrageous marketing claims, low-quality ingredients and deceptive billing practices, but the berry doesn’t even have any weight loss effects. If you don’t believe us, research it yourself! Try to find one scientific study from a trustworthy doctor or organization—you won’t!
This is one of the oldest tricks in the book. A website offers a “Free Trial” or “Risk-Free Trial” and customers only have to provide their credit card number to pay for a small shipping fee. However, if you don’t read the extra small, fine print at the bottom of the page, you will see that if you don’t cancel within a certain amount of days, your card will be charged the full product amount and the product will automatically get shipped to you.
This is an extremely deceptive business practice but it’s a quick way for companies to make millions of dollars. They often get away with it because of the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, which is often grayed out or too small to read. There is nothing wrong with monthly shipments—if you know about it. Nutrisystem delivers every month, as do many legit supplement companies. This saves you money and saves them money. So not all autoship programs are bad, just be cautious and watch out for Acai Berry free offers (these companies are the king of scams). Make sure you read the small print and cancel the order within the trial period if you do not want to continue using the supplement.
How many times do you open the Star or National Enquirer or US magazine and see an ad for a diet pill featuring some amazing, jaw-dropping before and after photos. In the before photo the person looks like some overweight schlub eating a bag of Doritios, and then in the after picture they look like a finalist in the Ms. Six Pack abs contest or the Mr. Universe contest. They credit their success to the diet pill they have been taking. They seem almost too hard to believe.
Well many of them are in fact too hard to believe because they are 100% fake! Our investigation has showed that more than 70 of all before and after photos are either doctored, deceptive or completely fake. As you will see in our Before and After section on the website we have illustrated two examples of fake before and after photos we have uncovered. Most fraudulent before and after photos are found in the mail. You get a piece of junk mail promoting some diet pill from a company you have never heard of— chance are very high that the before and after photos are fake.
Manufacturers will go to great lengths to cash in on the billion-dollar diet pill industry. In fact, many are willing to knock off or imitate the leading products just so they can make millions. Not only is this highly illegal, but it’s also unethical.
A New Jersey health store was recently caught selling counterfeit Zyatonix—one of the top-selling diet pills on the market. Lab tests confirmed the knock off formula contained placebo-grade ingredients, and the health store simply slapped Zyatonix labels on the bottles. When confronted with the allegations, the store manager tried to blame the scam on the manufacturer. Further investigation found that the formula was made at an off-campus Rutgers University apartment and then bottled in the back of the store. The manager of the store was required to immediately pull the counterfeit product from the shelves and refund all customers that bought the pills.
Be cautious of independent health food stores because this problem is very common. It is always best to deal with a reputable chain like GNC or leading brand-name stores. Or if you shop online, order directly from the official product website. This way you know you are getting the real supplement. Also, if you see the product sold on eBay, Amazon or another website for a very low price, it is most likely fake. It’s very easy for stores to rake in millions off these products because fake ingredients and labels are cheap to make.
Madison Avenue must think America is made up of morons, based on some of the bogus, crazy and insulting diet products they have tried to sell us over the past few years. Well, some of us may have been born at night – but it wasn’t last night! Anyway, so many people are looking for the magic weight loss bullet – there really isn’t one – there are a few that are close (see our top 5), but even the super pills won’t knock 30 pounds off the average person in 30 days. Things take time. But people want to believe the 10 pounds off in 48 hours or the 35 pounds lost in 30 days. These are the RARE exceptions to the rule. The golden rule to remember on diet pill offers is – “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” So here are some gimmicks, accompanied with hocus-pocus science mumbo-jumbo that you should avoid like a guy coming after you with a chainsaw!
Diet Patches Scam
Don’t believe any of the "transdermal delivery system hype" – it's bogus science. These companies try and trick you by talking about the nicotine patches that help people stop smoking. These diet patches do no use the same technology – it's just a scam.
Magnetics
More bogus science.
Hypnotism
Might work for a very small percentage of the population. 99 out of 100 people fail.
Pens you Sniff
Yup you read this right – there is a company selling a pen that looks like a yellow highlighter which you are supposed to smell when you get the urge to eat and this “magic pen” is supposed to trigger a sensor in your brain to prevent you from eating. Hogwash! Real doctors that have reviewed these claims for us have literally laughed out loud at this crazy claim.
Ab Belts
They are supposed to melt away the fat just by wearing them. BULL! The FTC has shut down every one of these companies because they are based on totally false science. New companies keep springing up, so it means people still believe these lies. Don’t get taken.
Many of the doctors endorsing diet pills online and through direct mail are fake. The names and pictures are made up. The photos of these so-called doctors can be purchased online for about $1! And it’s easy to put together a fake website with false information about the doctor just to trick consumers. The weight loss supplements CycloCleanse and LipoPlexxPro use false doctor recommendations to validate their products. They assume most people will see the doctor’s name and picture, and automatically think the product is effective, safe and legit. However, if people did a quick search online, they would find that this doctor most likely doesn’t exist. Some companies even steal a doctor’s name, but slap a fake picture next to them. The consumer wouldn’t know the difference! Most real doctors are very skeptical about putting their name behind products, so just ignore any diet pill that uses this false marketing tactic.
The Free Trial Scam is almost identical to the Auto Shipment scam. You are enticed by a radio ad or an ad in a newspaper or on TV to get a free trial of a weight loss pill. You call up and the exact same process takes place. It turns out that the “Free Trial” of the natural diet pills you were promised, is just a ruse to get your credit card billing information so they can charge you every month, until they either go out of business, or until you cancel your credit card with your credit card company! Make sure you read the Auto Shipment scam profile listed above. Don’t be a victim of some smooth talking diet pill sales people.
If you have ever ordered or bought any diet pills, appetite suppressant or metabolism booster or mail order item, chances are the company you bought from has sold your name and address on a mailing list. There are companies out there that do nothing but sell the names and address of their customers to other companies and marketers selling weight loss pills, fat burners, energy pills, and any other diet pills you can think of.
Now some of these mailers are very honest and legitimate. But about 60% of them are total scams! They feature fake doctors, false studies, made up testimonials, and just about every other lie you can think of. We have listed some examples of scams here, but new ones pop up all the time. So use extreme caution when buying from a company through the mail that you have never heard of. Check back with us if you don’t know who the company is and we can tell you. Shoot us an email and we’ll be happy to help. Bottom line – not alldiet pill mail order companies are on the up and up. In fact a good majority of these mailers for pills are a fraud!
An extract is a concentrated form of a compound, where the active portion of the plant or herb has been "extracted" and concentrated. A powder is just the plant or herb crushed up until it's a dusty powder. You will see in our product reviews that we are very critical of products that use powders, and for good reason. There are huge differences between the quality and potency of herbs on the market, even if they have the same name. Imagine if the government required cars to list their ingredients. A Ferrari would come with a label that says 4 tires, one trunk, one steering wheel, one engine. The label for a Yugo would also say 4 tires, one trunk, one steering wheel, and one engine. But as we know the difference is dramatic!
The same holds true with herbal compounds. Most companies are out for a fast buck and use the cheapest ingredients they can find, figuring they will maximize profits that way. Actually, just the opposite is true. By spending the extra money to give the consumer a better product and reducing your profit margin a bit, you will actually make much more money in the long run because the product will really work, and people will buy again and again and tell their friends about how well it works and so on. Top companies, and there are a good number of them, use only the best ingredients in their products. The most common ingredient where 9 out of 10 products uses junk powder is in the case of Hoodia. Top grade Hoodia is fantastic – (remember Pfizer paid $32 million just for the rights to test Hoodia. They later gave up because there was no way to patent it, and any company could copy them – that’s not what the pharmaceutical companies want). But most of the Hoodia on the market is cheap cactus powder from Mexico – not real Hoodia from South Africa. The moral of the powdered herb scam is – you can’t trust a bottle label; a product is only as good as the reputation of the company who makes it.
There have been over 50 natural diet pills taken off the market by the FDA in the past 5 years because they were secretly laced with versions or analogues of pharmaceutical drugs. This is very scary because the level of some of these drugs secretly placed in these products have resulted in the death and severe injury of numerous people.
Many people have asked us when the FDA pulled Hydroxycut off the market a few years ago because 17 people suffered liver failure and two people died, was Hydroxycut laced with a prescription drug? The answer is no, it did not contain any illegal drugs, it was just a dangerously formulated natural pill.
One of the more famous pills to get pulled off the market by the FDA for secretly containing illegal prescription drug was the very expensive product Star Caps. You see Nikki Haskell at celebrity events in Hollywood touting her pills. Well it appears the secret ingredient may have been a dangerous prescription drug.
Also dangerous is that some companies get their herbs from China and the Chinese companies secretly lace the pills, knowing they will work well and the company will be successful selling them and come back and buy more. You have to be careful. Always buy from a reputable company.
- Slim 30 Herb Supplement: Undeclared Drug Ingredient:
- GMP Herbal Products Inc Found to Contain Undeclared Drug Ingredients:
- Que She Weight Loss Capsules Contain Potentially Harmful Ingredients:
- Solo Slim Undeclared Drug Ingredient:
- Starcaps Dietary Supplement Recalled due to an Undeclared Drug Ingredient:
One of the biggest diet scams making the rounds now, are unsolicited phone calls from telemarketers selling diet pills. 99% of them are complete frauds. These are high-pressured boiler room outfits with commission-only salesmen, who get a 40% share of all diet pill sales they make. So they will lie their teeth off to you. We have heard reports of telemarketers telling women they have won a first class, all expenses paid trip to the Bahamas for 10 days as part of some promotion from a weight loss pill company. They tell you all you have to do to get the free vacation is to be a customer of the pill company, and you can qualify even if you just buy a $5 free trial. So men and women are giving their credit card figuring $5 for a free trip to the Bahamas seems like the biggest no-brainer of all time. But what really happens is the trip is some bogus time-share thing that never happens, and meanwhile they put you in an auto-shipment program for the diet pills that you can’t get out of! So if you are sitting at home watching TV and the phone rings with an offer like this – you know what to do – tell the telemarketer to stick it where the sun don’t shine!
Acai Berry products are one of the hottest supplements on the Internet. However, it’s important to be careful when ordering Acai Berry products online because there are a lot of scams and warnings. Many of the companies selling acai berry pills will claim it has amazing weight loss benefits when in fact there is not one single scientific study to prove this. Other companies claim it has amazing colon cleansing abilities—again, no proof. A lot of these acai berry companies offer a Free Trial and you only pay for shipping. There is no such thing as free! You pay the small shipping fee and then they have your credit card so they can enroll you in an automatic billing and shipping program. You get charged an enormous amount each month for a product you didn’t order and it’s very hard to cancel. Look out for these factors and you’ll notice that most of the websites out there today are acai berry scams.
Acai berry is one of the biggest scams on the market. Oprah, Rachael Ray, Dr. Oz—they are trying to trick us into thinking a berry from South America actually promotes weight loss. It’s a bunch of bull. Try to find one scientific article or a research study from a real doctor (Dr. Oz doesn’t count) that says acai berry can help burn fat or boost the metabolism. You will not find a single piece of evidence because it doesn’t exist. So if acai berries don’t work, then why is everyone still trying to sell this formula? It’s mainly because Oprah’s word carries so much power and people like to buy what’s popular. Acai Supreme Plus is a perfect example of a product scamming millions of people based on the reputation of one ingredient. Remember, popular doesn’t always mean effective. The only benefit a scientist at the University of Florida found is antioxidant properties, meaning acai berry may be able to protect your immune system from the common cold. Other than that, acai berry is completely unproven, ineffective and a waste of money. And don’t be fooled by the pill’s energy-boosting claims—it’s loaded with caffeine!
Wow! Lose 35 pounds in five nights—yes “nights” because this weight loss pill claims to work while you sleep. Forget about watching what you eat or exercising, just pop a few Actislim before you go to bed and you’ll wake up 5 pounds lighter! First of all, EVERYONE wakes up weighing a few pounds lighter because there is no food in their body. Second, what magical weight loss fairy visits you while you sleep and performs liposuction—because that is the only way you could possibly lose weight in the night and keep it off. As a consumer you would love to know where the evidence is…how does the product work and what is in it? None of this information is in the ad, which is very suspect. So we're supposed to send this company money without knowing how the product works or what’s in it? Actislim also uses some very hardcore evidence to prove it works—a cartoon drawing of a woman progressively losing weight. It doesn’t get shadier than this!
We’ve seen this one before—lose weight while you rest. No diet or exercise needed. So basically, you do absolutely nothing (literally) and the pill fights fat even if you eat pizza, pasta and hamburgers! You would think such a magical, life-changing pill would catch the attention of the pharmaceutical companies, so they could make this a prescription drug. But no doctor is interested because the pill is fake and the claims are written by people working at the company. How about this claim: If you are really obese, you can lose up to 110 pounds in just months! This is absolutely ridiculous and the fact that this company could still be in business is scary. They are completely ripping people off and wasting valuable advertising space. There’s no explanation of how this pill works—it could be ephedra for all you know! Don’t purchase any product until you see the ingredients first so you know what you’re really putting in your body.
A woman lost 84 pounds by just wearing a patch on her arm and wrist. Sure, this sounds completely possible! This patch supposedly melts fat from your body in record time and helps you curb your appetite so you don’t overeat. If this patch lets you eat what you want and still lose weight, why would your appetite need to be curbed? The most outrageous part of this ad is how the patch works: “The biomagnetic chip in each patch transmits to your metabolic energy circuit a bioenergetic magnetic stimulus that, in turn, stimulates weight loss.” What does that even mean? And do the manufacturers really expect consumers to believe a patch can send magnetic waves into the body that burn fat and remove toxins? This is one of the biggest scams in the diet industry, with no scientific proof to back its claims.
Bio-Mince makes some of the craziest claims. The headline is the first sign this product is a ridiculous scam—“You Can Lose 70 Pounds in 40 Days!” Sure, if you starve yourself and exercise for 6 hours a day. Bio-Mince then tries to fool you into thinking you can “eat all you want while the extra weight disappears.” This could definitely happen if you lived in make-believe weight loss land. It gets better—this woman claims she ate all the fatty meat, cheeses, butter, bacon, roasted chicken and heavy creams, and she STILL lost weight. Are you kidding me? Come on Bio-Mince. We may not be scientists, but we know for a fact the body cannot take in that many thousands of calories and actually lose weight! It’s offensive that the people at Bio-Mince think we're actually that dumb to believe this ad. It gets better. So you want to know how Bio-Mince lets you eat all the calories you want? Bio-Mince supposedly prevents fat from getting digested in the body. This is completely impossible. The only way fat is not getting digested into the body is if you have liposuction after every meal!
Here’s another diet product that helps you lose weight while you sleep…but how? Do you drink it before you to go bed or do you apply it to your fatty areas? The ad does not provide one single piece of information as to how the product is supposed to work. How is a consumer supposed to make an informed decision if there is no information! “Helps Reduce Body Fat”—but how? “Enhances Diet”—what does that mean? At least we’re not being fed ridiculous lies and crazy weight loss numbers, but this ad tells us absolutely nothing! The customer can’t even figure out if this is a liquid or a cream. The only part of this ad that isn’t a joke is the tiny disclaimer that says diet and exercise are needed for the most effective results. While the product is still a complete fraud, at least they try to have some morals.
22 Pounds in Just 7 Days! 44 Pounds in a Single Month! Over 108 Pounds and 16 inches off the waist! These numbers are very enticing, but they are complete lies to lure you into buying the product! Just like every other deceptive, diet pill loaded with absolutely nothing that helps you lose weight, Calorslim allows you to eat whatever you want, whenever you want and you’ll still melt away fat. How many times do we need to keep reading the same ad over and over again! There is no such thing as a magic pill that will just help fat glide off while we stuff our faces with cheeseburgers. There’s no explanation how Calorslim 2000 works or the research it has conducted—nothing! The biggest joke about this ad is the part where they tell you fat will simply disintegrate from your body—because we all know that’s how fat comes off. You just pop a pill, eat what you want and the fat just flies away! Just another fake product, with false claims that steals your money.
Eat what you want and still lose 29 pounds in 15 days by consuming a small pill made of fruit? This ad is completely ridiculous. The acids in the tablets supposedly prevent the absorption of calories and burn excess fat. Where is the proof that a fruit tablet can cause that much weight loss? The product makes all these bogus claims like you can lose up to 14 lbs in one week and keep it off forever. Even if that were possible, it’s extremely dangerous to lose that amount of weight so quickly. Your body will go into shock. In fact, there’s a warning on the ad that says losing too much weight too quickly is unsafe. What’s the deal with this company? First, they say it’s possible to lose double digit pounds and then they say it’s dangerous—what’s the deal!
We dare you to read the entire advertisement for this weight loss product and try to figure out what they are actually selling—Is it a pill? A liquid? A patch? Diet companies are getting so sleazy, they won’t even tell you what the actual product is or what it does! All this ad tells you is that these women lost weight following this supposed Dr. Kester’s “new scientific weight-loss discovery.” This “discovery” has apparently helped thousands of people lose a combined 90,000 pounds…without having to change dieting or exercise habits. One woman claims she lost 47 pounds in 9 ½ weeks by eating everything she wanted. Another woman lost 38 pounds the first month! Only until you get to the end of the ad do you realize that this “discovery” is a “device.” But, what kind of device and what does it do? This is shady marketing at its best! At least some of these outlandish diet companies tell you it’s a pill stuffed with some fruit extracts, but this company will not even tell you anything about the product. What a joke!
Here’s another diet product trying to profit from Oprah’s name. Just like the acai berry, people like to buy what’s popular, but that doesn’t always mean it’s effective. There is some evidence hoodia can help suppress the appetite, but Pur-Hoodia Plus is claiming it can help reduce your diet by 2,000 calories per day. This is crazy because most diets are around 2,000 calories—so basically you’re going to be starving! Not only is this diet dangerous, but the company is going to completely scam you. Any time a product is offered “Risk Free” you need to be very careful. They are going to enroll you in an automatic billing and shipping policy. Of course Pur-Hoodia Plus doesn’t tell you that because they don’t want to lose your business. This company also claims that the hoodia is the purest on the market, but where is the lab report? Pure hoodia extract costs thousands of dollars and many months to import to the United States. It’s highly unlikely this company uses real hoodia and their business practices are shady—you’ve been warned!
Carmie Lipesky claims she lost 100 lbs using H57 Hoodia, yet where is the Before picture? And she claims she was able to lose all this weight while still eating all the foods she loves. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no magic pill out there that helps you lose that much weight without combining some diet and exercise plan. The main ingredient in H57 Hoodia is obviously hoodia, an herb from South Africa that claims to suppress the appetite. Unless the supplement is made with 100% pure hoodia extracts, the supplement is essentially ineffective. Even if it did have 100% extracts, hoodia alone cannot cause such drastic weight loss results. You will not find one doctor or scientific study confirming that hoodia alone (without diet or exercise) can cause significant weight gain.
Don’t wait around for this pill to work—it simply won’t. This is one of the few products that actually give some scientific explanation, but it’s all fluff. They claim the Nitric Oxide Time Release Activation is the key to burning fat and toning your body. Sounds suspect so let’s find some proof….actually you won’t find anything because there’s no evidence nitric acid has anything to do with weight loss. This ad is guilty of throwing a lot of science at the consumer, yet not really backing it with any real evidence. And then they paid some model a few thousand dollars to use her name and face to promote the product. Any company can do that if they have some extra money rolling around. Just like every other diet pill on this scams list, you don’t need to change your diet or exercise routine. This is the huge red flag hitting you in the face, telling you “buyer beware…you are about to buy a completely ineffective product.” Again…there is simply no magic pill…sorry!
Here’s another slimy company selling a phony weight loss patch that supposedly melts fat without having to exercise or diet. Simply put on this patch and throughout the day, it “gradually releases a carefully controlled amount of its special ingredient” that burns fat and increases your metabolism. This has got to be one of the most ridiculous claims a company has ever made—there is no a way a little patch is going to melt or burn fat that is deeply stored within the body’s tissue and organs. Even if there were a slight chance it could help with weight loss, this patch would require a prescription since a chemical is being soaked into your skin. The claims are just too way over the top; there is no way a doctor would approve a little patch that claims to burn fat—especially when there is no scientific evidence backing it up or any real explanation of how the patch works. These companies need to give us consumers are little more credit—we weren’t born yesterday!
Who needs surgery when you can take TrimBall-EXP200! This fiber pill supposedly expands in your stomach so you feel full without actually eating. It claims to work in the same way as gastric bypass surgery but we all know that’s not true. Comparing a pill to surgery is not only false, but it’s irresponsible. There are millions of people that need surgery, but they can’t afford it. This pill is giving people false hope. If a pill REALLY had the same results as surgery, don’t you think doctors would endorse it? Don’t you think more people would be taking this pill rather than going under the knife? No doctor will recommend TrimBall-EXP200 because it obviously doesn’t work. This pill stuffs your stomach with fiber, which may slightly reduce your hunger, but with all that fiber you are going to get severe bloating and constipation. If you want to be bloated, gassy and constipated, then take this pill. If you want to lose weight, keep looking.
