2 Years Later
Well, this site has been sitting quietly on the sidelines for two years. We've actually seen plenty of development on the fake diet front.
Fake blogs and fake news articles (even fake newscasts) are now specifically disallowed by the FTC. If they see something misleading, they can fine you for it, or bring you to court. We've seen this happen since our last post, so let's get up to speed.
More regulation has been introduced to prevent re-bill scams. The kind where you don't receive your trial shipment until the trial period is over and suddenly you are locked into a subscription you can't cancel. Both the FTC and Visa are coming down on this hard. Visa will cancel a merchant's account; even go after the merchant's bank for having a high level of disputed claims. The FTC will slap them with a big fine, possibly even pursue criminal charges.
The FTC estimated more than 30 million dollars had been scammed from the general public in 2009 by Acai Berry/ Colon Cleansing scams. Acai berry supplements were named by the BBB as one of the top 10 Scams and Rip Offs of 2009.
During an online marketing convention in New York last year, there were still plenty of Nutraceutical (yes, that's what they call themselves since they push things that are both health supplements and drugs) companies strutting around saying there was no problem, ignoring the FTC warning. The warning issued was specifically aimed at marketers of Acai Berry weight-loss pills, colon cleansers and unfair billing practices. Well the hilarious thing about that was that during the convention, the FTC brought action against Central Coast Neutraceuticals (a prominent company promoting Acai Pure and Colopure), with a court order that froze the company's assets and pushed the company into receivership. That company, two individuals and four related companies were charged with multiple violations related to deceptive advertisement. The convention was a lot quieter the next day when as many of those Neutracetical guys had disappeared in the night.
New restrictions have been imposed on all sorts of promotion tactics that online marketers had been using and abusing for years.
- No more fake celebrity endorsements. I heard that Oprah was about ready to crush some people with her wallet after having her name and picture used without her permission to endorse Acai Berry products and beneficial claims made about those products.
- You're no longer allowed to Photoshop fake miraculous "After" results. So those teeth-whitening and anti-wrinkle creams had to change their banners.
- No more making completely unfounded medical claims.
- They must accurately disclose payment terms to consumers, specifically letting them know when they are enrolling in a subscription.
Does this mean no one does it anymore? No, that'd be too easy. It just means we're in a more regulation heavy environment and a lot of these scammers can still fly under the radar by being small and fast-moving. So it doesn't mean you can't get ripped off by following some 1 simple rule and buying a product that doesn't work. And it doesn't mean you can't get false information from a site. But it does mean that you are more likely to get ripped off by a site that looks amateurish and many people are still falling for lame home-made looking sites that promote "ancient methods" and "what they don't want you to know" kind of tactics. If you are going to trust your health and money to a diet what you should be looking for are claims that can be substantiated by fact, references that go to reputable and authoritative sites. So even in 2011, despite increased regulation to protect the consumer, we still have to use our brains!
A special message from our site to internet marketers... What is good for internet marketers to think about: I know many of you are planning to just take your site down and run when you get caught breaking the rules. Information on the internet never goes away. You can delete everything on your site, but a record of that site exists, and you can never erase it. Keep your nose clean!