Sibutramine, marketed as Meridia, was a weight loss drug on the market in the United States from 1997 to 2010, pulled from the market because it was linked to heart problems in patients. The drug is still available, it turns out: You just have to buy certain “herbal” weight loss supplements. Two of these supplements have now been recalled, since they contain undeclared prescription drugs. [More]
weight-loss supplements
Spammers Must Pay $500K After Using Hacked Emails To Push Diet Pills
Last summer, federal regulators charged the operators of an alleged spam scam of hijacking hacked email accounts to spread the word about a slew of unproven weight-loss products. Now, the three affiliate marketers have agreed to pay $500,000 to put the case behind them. [More]
Supplement Company Owner Gets 30 Months In Prison For Selling Diet Pills Containing Unsafe Ingredients
One slogan used by the folks at now-defunct Floyd Nutrition on weight-loss “supplements” like ZXT Bee Pollen and ZXT Gold Infinity was “Offering the gift of health,” but a more accurate statement might have been “Offering the secret gift of drugs that were pulled from the market years ago for potential health risks,” or rather, “Offering products that will land this company’s founder in federal prison for two-and-a-half years.” [More]
FTC Shuts Down Two More Fake News Sites Pushing Weight-Loss Products
For years, the Federal Trade Commission has been combatting scammy marketers of weight-loss products who use fake news sites, fictional reporters, and bogus celebrity endorsements, but people keep trying to pull these cons on consumers. This morning, the FTC announced yet another takedown of a sketchy diet pill marketer using lookalike news sites to sell its products.