Scammers take advantage of people’s good intentions to improve their health in the new year by peddling fast and easy weight loss schemes. These schemes often come with claims that you can achieve amazing results with minimal effort, such as ‘lose 30 kilos in 30 days' or ‘lose weight while you sleep’, usually accompanied by bogus before-and-after pictures. They typically involve an unusual or restrictive diet, revolutionary exercise, ‘fat-busting’ device, or products such as pills, patches or creams.
The New York Times recently reported that the Federal Trade Commission charged four weight loss companies with fraud, companies with products we've all heard about from friends and family as well as advertisements. Perhaps you've been one of the victims. The companies, charged with deceptive marketing and false advertising, have agreed to pay $34 million in customer refunds. Thousands, maybe millions of trusting people forked over their hard-earned paychecks to these con artists who sold them weight loss quackery.
However, don't expect this to stop them. The FTC has been catching these frauds for years. They just pop back up the next year with new gimmicks with new names and sales pitches. They all have the same tempting pitch: a pill, an herb or potion that will melt off the fat effortlessly by revving your metabolism or some such thing. Get ready for a new batch in the coming year while you read about the …
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