Editor�s Note: January 2007 FTC Newsrelease.
The US Federal Trade Commission has fined the marketers of four weight loss pills $25-million for making false advertising claims.� The companies' claims ranged from rapid weight loss to reducing the risk of serious illnesses like cancer, osteoporosis and Alzheimer�s.

The FTC says the fines were levied against the marketers of Xenadrine EFX, One A Day Weight Smart, CortiSlim and TrimSpa.� The companies will be able to continue selling the products but they cannot make the claims that the FTC says have not been proven as true.� The FTC claims that the testing done by some of the companies has proved the products do not do what the advertising claims say they will do.

Filed January 2007� (Also See�Scam Alert Page for "FTC says Fast Abs Commercials are Fake.)

The Big "FAT" Lie

I did a CBS-2 investigation several years ago into some diet pills because I had reports from viewers using the pills that they made them sick at their stomach. As a result of this investigation I tracked down the company that was selling the diet pills. They claimed the pills were like a fat blocker and if you took them and did exercise and ate less you would lose weight.

To prove that the pills would not harm people they gave me the name of the manufacturer of the pills in Orange County, Ca. The diet company simply put their labels on the pills and advertised them.

When I visited the manufacturer of the pills I was told they were made of a harmless natural substance. What was it? It was ground up apple. I asked the manufacturer if the pills would make you lose weight, and he said, he did not know, but he added they will not hurt you. He said they sell the same pills to several different diet companies. Each of those companies sell them as their secrete "Special Diet" pill that will melt the fat off.

So I set up a phony diet company and sent in an undercover investigator to buy pills that my phony company could sell as diet fat burners. He was able to buy the same "ground apple" pills for our fake diet product. The manufacturer told him he would put any label on the pills no matter what the diet claim was. He basically said his pills would be any diet pills you wanted them to be. It was pills on demand no matter what the claim was.


The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has also been investigating diet pills and advertising of them, and says they have found that 40% of all the diet ads they looked at were not true. The FTC said that 55% were likely to be false and they found that the "before" and "after" pictures in the ads of people who allegedly used the pills and lost weight had been altered. The FTC also found that the pills that were supposed to be "fat blockers" were ground apple. The FTC has filed charges against a Canadian company Bio Lab, that sells under the name of Quick Slim.

Here are some examples of the advertising terms that these diet companies use: "an all-natural weight loss pill designed to literally destroy fat even if you refuse to diet." Since the pills are made out of apple, just have an apple a day. Here's another line: "there are three highly unusual and hard to pronounce ingredients combined in such a certain scientific way that scientists call is "synergistic." This statement uses a lot of big words but says nothing, and we still don't know what the ingredients are. Here's a so-called statement from a doctor: "One doctor says this pill has the potential to change the way we look at weight loss forever."

First of all, who is this doctor, and secondly, it has the "potential" to change weight loss forever, that statement also has no meaning.

At the bottom of the ads they always say there is a "full money back guarantee" if you follow the simple instructions they give you about using their product. So what are those simple instructions? Every diet ad will say you need to exercise and cut back on your calorie intake. But if you do that there is no reason to buy their secret "ground apple pill."

For more information contact the FTC at www.ftc.gov

Filed Oct. 3, 2002