Weight loss product spam operation thick with violations

Two Florida firms marketing dietary supplements scored a grand slam of regulatory violations with illegal spam emails, unsubstantiated claims, false endorsements and fake news content, the Federal Trade Commission alleges.

Tachht Inc. and Teqqi LLC paid for emails to be sent from hacked email accounts, making it appear the messages came from consumers' family members, friends or other contacts and luring them into clicking on links that led to websites deceptively promoting the firm's weight loss products with brands such as Original Pure Forskolin and Original White Kidney Bean, FTC said June 6.

The agency filed a complaint against Colby Fox, owner of the firms, and Christopher Reinhold, manager of Teqqi, in US District Court for the Middle District of Florida alleging violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, as well as FTC regulations. The complaint seeks a permanent injunction against the firms and an order for consumer redress.

The firms' emails linked to fake news websites designed to appear as if an independent consumer reporter, and not a paid advertiser, reviewed and endorsed the product, FTC said. The sites also included testimonials from consumers who promised weight loss like “4 lbs/week of belly fat” and “41.7lbs in 2.5 months.”

The sites also falsely represented the products had been featured or endorsed by Oprah Winfrey or the hosts of the “The Doctors” TV show. The websites then linked to other sites where consumers could purchase the defendants’ weight-loss products.

Tachht and Teqqi paid affiliate marketers commissions when consumers clicked through from a fake news website to the firms and bought their supplements, according to the complaint.

FTC regularly looks for false ad claims for weight loss products, recognized as a category with ample opportunity for advertising abuse, and also has made multiple warnings about myriad products marketed by firms using fake news websites to convince consumers of their products' value and efficacy ([A#05150511004]).

Scoop mistake in PediaSmart, sibutramine in Exhilarate

As adulterated products go, one problem FDA noted on June 6 is among the most common, a drug-spiked dietary supplement, while another could perhaps be the rarest, the possibility of an incorrect-size scoop in a children's nutrition product.

Nature’s One Inc. is voluntarily recalling three lots of its PediaSmart Dairy Vanilla complete nutrition beverage powder in 12.7-ounce cans, generally consumed by children between the ages of 13 months and 13 years. Some cans in the lots were shipped with a 20cc scoop rather than the correct 32cc scoop, the Lewis Center, Ohio, firm said.

Measuring the product with the smaller scoop would deliver 60% of the labeled nutritional content per serving, though there should be no health risk from using the incorrect scoop unless the product is used as a sole source of nutrition, Nature's One said. No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this incorrect scoop size.

The lots were distributed between Jan. 26 and June 1 in most of the continental US and in Canada. Nature's One said an error in its packager's facility resulted in some cans being packaged with the smaller scoops.

A product branded Exhilarate and marketed as a dietary supplement, however, is at the opposite end of FDA's risk scale. The agency announced that laboratory analysis found the product contains sibutramine, previously available Rx in the US but banned since 2010, and an analog of the ingredient, and phenolphthalein, a chemical that is not an active ingredient in any approved drug in the US and that presents a cancer-causing risk.

According to an image included with FDA's announcement, the product label lists garcinia cambogia, apple, kiwi fruit, grape and sweet potato fiber as ingredients and states it was manufactured for a Corpus Christi, Texas, firm.

As it does with other announcements about spiked supplements, FDA said it is unable to test and identify all products marketed as dietary supplements "that have potentially harmful hidden ingredients." Exhilarate is among "a growing trend of dietary supplements or conventional foods with hidden drugs and chemicals" in products "typically promoted for sexual enhancement, weight loss, and body building," the agency said.

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