Category: Weight Loss Products

The internet is rife with ads and links leading to pictures of celebrities and “miracle” products that promise easy weight loss, whiter teeth or disappearing wrinkles. You may be enticed to try these products through a “risk-free” trial: Just enter your name, address and credit card number, and the product will be on its way for only a nominal shipping and handling charge. An in-depth investigative study by Better Business Bureau (BBB), however, finds that many of these free trial offers are not free. BBB receives complaints from free trial offer victims nearly every day and warns consumers to use extreme caution before agreeing to the offer and entering their credit card number.

The investigative study – “Subscription Traps and Deceptive Free Trials Scam Millions with Misleading Ads and Fake Celebrity Endorsements” — looks at how free trial offers ensnare consumers in so-called “subscription traps” that hook them for expensive shipments of products they did not explicitly agree to buy. It digs into the scope of the problem, who is behind it and the need for law enforcement and consumer education to address the issue. Read the complete report at us.bbb.org/freetrial.

Many free trial offers come with fine print, buried on the order page or with a link that gives consumers only a short period of time to receive, evaluate and return the product to avoid often being charged $100 or more. In addition, the same hidden information may state that by accepting the offer, you’ve signed up for monthly shipments of the products and such fees will be charged to your credit card. Many people find it difficult to contact the seller to stop recurring charges, halt shipments and get refunds. Such obscure terms in these offers often violate Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and BBB guidelines on advertising, as do the satisfaction guarantees that are ubiquitous in free trial offers.

The study found that many of the celebrity endorsements in these ads are faked. Dozens of celebrity names are used by these frauds without their knowledge or permission – ranging from Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres to Mike Rowe, Tim Allen and Sally Field. Sometimes the fine print even admits these endorsements are not real.

“Free trial offers relying on deception have infested the internet, especially with social media,” said Jim Hegarty, president and CEO of the BBB serving Nebraska, South Dakota, The Kansas Plains and Southwest Iowa. “Those running these scams are counting on consumers to be so dazzled by celebrities and big promises that they fail to read the fine print. It’s imperative that consumers read the terms and conditions of such offers very carefully before they take the plunge.” Free trial offers can be a legitimate way for credible companies to introduce new products -provided that the company is transparent about the offer and its terms. However, fraudsters have turned such offers into a global multi-billion-dollar industry that is growing every year!

Available FTC data shows that complaints about “free trials” more than doubled from 2015 to 2017, and BBB has received nearly 37,000 complaints and Scam Tracker reports over the last three years, though not all of these complaints involve monetary loss. In addition, victims in 14 resolved FTC cases collectively lost $1.3 billion, and consumers making reports to BBB lost an average of $186.

An examination of the BBB complaints and reports found that victims span all income and education levels. While a review of complaints to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) from 2015 to 2017 shows a fairly even spread of age ranges, BBB reports show that 72 percent of victims were female, most likely because many free trial offers involve skin care products geared toward them.

One Omaha woman reported that she saw an article on Facebook about a UCLA student who discovered an excellent way to lose weight by using a product called Garcinia Cambogia. She thought it would be worthwhile to get a free sample by paying $4.95 for shipping, so she entered her credit card number. She saw no terms or conditions.

She tried the pills for a few days and said she didn’t notice any results. She then received a second bottle of pills in the mail and thought it was a mistake, so she emailed the company and was told to call customer service. After spending 40 minutes explaining that she did not want more pills and wanted her money back, the operator told her that “you accepted the terms, and there is nothing we can do.” They told her that the company could end her “membership” and stop shipping more, but she could not get her money back. She lost $184.

She went back to the web page where she had placed her order and saw that the conditions of the trial and continuing shipments were mentioned in fine print on a gray background. She says she would never have provided her credit card information for the trial if she had seen the terms before purchasing.

She talked to a representative from her bank, who said there wasn’t really anything they could do. She complained to BBB. She also found and joined a Facebook group with almost 1500 members called “STOP GARCINIA CAMBOGIA FREE TRIAL SCAM.” She says that many of the experiences discussed in the group are very similar to hers.

FTC data on free trial offers strongly suggests that most such enterprises operate in the U.S. and Canada, though the companies do sell extensively outside the U.S. and frequently employ overseas credit card processing. A 2017 study by the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) found that the credit card transactions at the center of the scam were processed through banks in 14 countries.

The report recommends:

• BBB urges credit card companies to do more to ensure victims receive chargebacks where key conditions are not adequately disclosed. Because this fraud is dependent on the use of credit cards, more effort is needed to identify and combat deceptive free trial offers employing credit card systems. Also, it would be helpful if they could do more to educate their customers.

• Additional criminal prosecutions of this conduct are needed. The FTC and BBB have done much to address the issue, but do not have the ability to bring criminal charges. Only criminal prosecutions are likely to deter this type of fraud.

• Social media sites should do more to curtail such deceptive advertising.

• International cooperation is needed to combat this fraud. U.S. and Canadian law authorities need more information about victims from other countries. In addition, evidence and other key information may be located in a variety of countries around the world.

• More consumer education is needed from news media and consumer groups like BBB.

What to do if you believe you have been a victim of a free trial offer fraud:

• Complain to the company directly.

• If that is not successful call the customer service number on the back of your credit card to complain to the bank.

• Complain to www.bbb.org

• Report the fraud to www.bbb.org/scamtracker

• Report it to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or call 877-FTC-Help

• Report it to Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3

• In Canada, report it to Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (toll-free from the US at 1-888-495-8501) and to the Competition Bureau.

• Report suspicious, confusing or misleading ads to BBB Ad Truth.

Kim Kardashian is to sponsored Instagram content as Jennifer Lopez is to … well, everything. In other words, she’s really, really good at it, and she’s been doing it for a long time. However, her latest Instagram ad appears to have landed her at the center of controversy, yet again.

The 38-year-old faced serious backlash from fans on Wednesday after she shared a sponsored post on Instagram promoting Flat Tummy Co’s meal replacement shakes.

In the post, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star poses with one of the brand’s chocolate shakes, sharing in the caption that the drinks are “helping me get my tummy back to flat.” 

The ad didn’t go over well with the reality star’s fans. The comments section was quickly flooded with angry responses, with many people calling the shakes “dangerous” and claiming that Kardashian’s post was “deceiving” her 124 million followers.

RELATED: Kim Kardashian Is Still Talking About Her Weight Loss in Terms of Numbers

“Dangerous and misleading! You should be ashamed of yourself, flogging laxatives to millions of impressionable young people,” one commenter said.

Another wrote, “People have stopped falling for stupid detox drinks and tea scams. Please!! Stop it! Start off 2019 by Not trying to deceive consumers with this garbage.”

Though, the beauty mogul’s fans weren’t the only ones who took issue with the post. British actress Jameela Jamil took to Twitter just hours after Kardashian’s post went up to write that the “diarrhea powder pushers are back out in full force pouting next to their laxative shakes,” along with a video shading influencers who endorse the weight-loss drinks.

But this is far from the first time that Jamil has criticized Kardashian’s Instagram ads.

In May 2018, she slammed the star on Twitter for endorsing Flat Tummy Co’s “appetite suppressant lollipops.” The Good Place actress screenshotted the beauty moguls controversial post, calling her a “terrible and toxic influence on young girls.” 

So, is there any truth to these claims of danger surrounding Flat Tummy Co’s popular line of shakes? To answer that question, InStyle spoke to Tracy Lockwood Beckerman, a registered dietitian in New York City and resident nutrition expert at Betches Media, over email about the risk factors associated with meal replacement drinks.

RELATED: Why People Are Upset with Kim Kardashian for Promoting a Lollipop

“These shakes are beyond dangerous to promote to society,” she said. “Celebrities are endorsing a product to their impressionable fans that can ultimately cause unpleasant side effects in the body such as diarrhea, uncomfortable headaches and drastic shifts.” 

Beckerman explained that appetite suppressants are not only unhealthy for the body, but they “promote a false high where people may see results which may cause them to become addicted to these types of products.”

So, yes there is a chance than you can lose weight by drinking a Flat Tummy Co shake — but don’t expect it to last.

“Short term, if anyone removes a meal from their diet and replaces it with a low calorie shake, yes, they will lose weight temporarily. Key word, temporarily,” Beckman said. “The day someone stops taking the Flat Tummy Co products, their natural hunger hormone, known as ghrelin, will return and often with a vengeance. This may result in subsequent weight gain due to the swift metabolic disturbances taking place in the body.”

And that’s not all! It turns out there is some truth to those comments about the shakes acting as a laxative, and it all stems from a special ingredient called Super Citrimax, which Flat Tummy Co claims makes their meal replacement shakes “3x more effective than diet and exercise.”

“A common side effect to garcinia cambogia (aka Super Citrimax) is diarrhea and cramping, so I’d expect lots of people to be experiencing some form of GI (gastrointestinal) discomfort while taking this product.”

 Beckerman added that consumers should also be concerned about the other ingredients included on the rather lengthy nutrition label, particularly the level of Vitamin B12.

“They have unsafe levels of vitamins, especially Vitamin B12, which is extremely dangerous for the kidney to have to filter out from the body. I’ve never seen a food product on the shelves with 8,335 percent Vitamin B12, that is a big red flag.”

“The amount of work the body has to go through in order to metabolize, digest, absorb and excrete over 80 different ingredients on their nutrition panel, seems exhausting and downright unethical,” she continued. “Their ingredients are pumped up to distract us from the many holes in their company. There’s two different types of protein powders and too many different flavor profiles and sweeteners to count,” she said.

And these are just the short-term concerns. “Until research looks at the long-term results and long-term effects that this supplement has on the body, don’t expect me to buy into this magical elixir,” Beckerman explained.

Maybe stick to promoting makeup, Kim.