Shopping to Buy Diet Pills? Watch Out for Fakes

Your pals will tell you online is the best place to search when looking to buy diet pills, but past experiences show that a happy ending isn’t always guaranteed.

From time to time, the Federal Drug Agency and Federal Trade Commission receives complaints of deceitfully marketed products that do not achieve their alleged purpose. And other times, these agencies are busy cracking down on illicit players selling potentially harmful substances to their unsuspecting customers.

All of the FDA’s efforts to create a safer environment continue amid criticism from different industry analysts, some who blame the agency for failing to hold the fort for the many consumers who buy diet pills online.

Market experts are worried about the unregulated dietary supplement industry projected to hit $230.7 billion by 2027. Critics cite the lack of strict rules, which have permitted the surge of poor-quality and potentially-dangerous products.

Why it’s Dangerous to Buy Diet Pills Online

Below are the primary complaints as expressed by critics:

1. Less Strict Industry Regulations

The sector lacks strict rules and regulations, leaving loopholes for phony players to exploit the unsuspecting masses.

2. Traces of Illegal Drugs and Bacteria in Supplements

The FDA has spotted traces of dangerous and prohibited drugs and bacteria in supplements and done little to safeguard consumers who buy diet pills.

3. Health Risks that Could Worsen to Death

Specific supplements (a group including vitamins & herbs) can be hazardous and have been linked to ER services or sudden death.

4. Deceptive Marketing Language

New supplement businesses continue targeting innocent customers with deceptive marketing language while concealing their product’s possible side effects.

In truth, only a few supplements can be said to have been scientifically investigated for effectiveness. Many times, innocent consumers who buy diet pills toss cash away and still endanger their wellbeing. In a nutshell, the supplements may be contaminated, or counterfeit, or just genuine but hazardous to human health.

When pushed to explain why the dietary supplement sector is such a mess, the best Steven Tave, Director of dietary complements at FDA, could say was, “We’re doing our best.”

In the Agency’s defense, Tave puts all blame on the 1994 Congress for transferring controversial bill dabbed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which “has since hampered the Agency’s efforts to enforce stricter rules.”

FTC files the First Case on Fake Amazon Reviews Against a Diet Pill Company

Last year, FTC filed the first case against a Nutraceutical firm for using deceptive language to lure customers to buy diet pills through fake reviews on Amazon.

Cure Encapsulations, Inc.—The maker of an alleged fat-blocking weight-loss capsule found to be ineffective—paid to earn fake Amazon reviews to convince customers into believing its false claims.

According to the agency, this is the first time it filed a case against a marketer using fake paid-for reviews on a local website. The FTC filed the lawsuit against the company and its founder, Naftula Jacobowitz, in a US District Court— the Eastern District of New York.

The respondents have agreed to settle the case; pay a fine of $50,000, and inform past consumers of the pill that there’s no scientific proof backing the weight-loss allegations. The buyers lured to buy diet pills were also refunded.

Image Alt Tag: buy diet pills and inspect before taking.

FTC’s claim purported that “the suspects made false and unsupported claims on their product page in Amazon, including the use of paid reviews, that their pill— Garcinia Cambogia—is a “powerful appetite suppressant, BLOCKS FAT from forming, leads to significant weight loss, even as much as twenty pounds, and leads to rapid and substantial weight loss, as much as two or more pounds per week.”

The agency also said the accuse Company bought these reviews on Amazon.com, giving the product a five-star rating. According to the Federal Trade Commission, “Cure Encapsulations, Inc. represented that the purchased fake Amazon reviews were honest reviews from real buyers when they were fabricated.”

Back in Jacobowitz, owner of Cure Encapsulations, Inc. agreed to pay $1,000 to www.amazonverifiedreviews.com a site that no longer operates but which “offered sellers in Amazon the power to ‘push your product to the top with ‘verified’ product reviews that assist your product to rank better in Amazon’s search engine,'” according to the FTC complaint.

Jacobowitz requested 30 reviews and Amazon Verified Reviews staff to “Please ensure my product stays a five star.”

Here are some of the reviews the Federal Trade Commission claimed led to the five-star rating:

  •  “I started to use this pill two months ago, and I’ve already lost 15 pounds. Don’t get me wrong, I was 150 pounds and 5’6 before. I haven’t felt dizzy or anything, as these 1-star reviews said, which I was very worried about at the start. Will keep buying!”
  •  “Lost 7 pounds in a month. What more can I say? I was 140 pounds and 5’6 before. Now I felt like a model. Lol.”
  •  “Wow. I’m still amazed that it worked way faster than I thought. I’ve lost 20 pounds by using these amazing pills. The capsules will help you with your food intake, remove all toxins from your body, and do not allow fat or sugar to stick. Highly recommended! <3.”
  •  “This pill cuts your appetite! I didn’t eat much, and I was already feeling full. I used this product for three months, and I am very glad I did. It helps with weight loss. I really love it.”
  •  “I lost 10 pounds in 2 months, while not a single pound from boobs, lol.”-
  •  “Made in the USA. Safety ensured. 110lb to 100lb in 40 days, it’s beyond 5 stars.”-

The FTC blamed the accused of violating federal laws by making untruthful or unsupported effectiveness claims and by using false endorsement claims through fake Amazon reviews.

FTC catches up with a Two-Man Drug Empire Selling Fake Pills.

It’s okay to want to buy diet pills online but some of these horror stories will scare you. But this fear will spark more precaution and make help protect you when shopping online.

In another of FTC’s bizarre cases of “cyber crime gone wrong,” two criminals selling fake pills collected money worth $9 million only to lose it all in a snap.

The seemingly well-planned scheme was all successful until the criminals made a grave mistake; they bought a postage on Stamps.com, and boom! Everything they’d spent plenty of time stealing came crumbling.

The suspected illicit drug sellers made a whopping nine million selling counterfeit Adderall pills, a prescription for ADHD patients, through a dark web. The crackdown caught fire when secret federal agents managed to buy diet pills on Dream Market— an online dark web platform known for stolen identity and Narcotics.

Tzu Yang “Issac” Lin, a US citizen of Chinese origin, sourced the drugs from a Taiwanese, Meng Ting “Leo” Hu, and mailed them in packages to shoppers through the USPS. The pills were fakes, with only traces of methamphetamine, and the criminals insisted that customers buy diet pills through Bitcoin.

As of their arrest, the two suspects  who ran trafficking operations from their California residence had sold fake pills for two years. Lin is accused of initiating “more than 28,000 sales,” making up nearly $8.8 million earned on the dark website.

The operation remained secret for a long time because the criminals used different tactics to stay anonymous. First, customers need special software to enter the dark web, and two, they insisted on Bitcoin because the currency is not traceable.

The illicit sales were skyrocketing until Hu made a blunder that revealed their identities and led to the arrests. Federal agents had made three purchases, and a scrutiny of all showed that they were pre-printed postage bought from Endicia, one of Stamps.com’s subsidiaries.

Further investigations on the Stamps.com account used by the duo to deliver parcels  led investigators to narrow down to Hu as the real owner.

The Agents tailed Hu from the moment his name and address were no longer a secret. On multiple occasions, they watched him loading boxes to Lin’s vehicle in his garage. Later they followed Lin to a USPS post office in City of Industry, Calif., where they saw him drop “87 Priority Mail envelopes into a mailbox.”

The agents went to court for a search warrant to scrutinize the parcels. The 87 envelopes carried roughly 1.5 kilograms of tablets. The pills were oval, peach, and included a print ‘b 974′ on one surface and’ 30′ on another.” These tablets were similar to the ones bought by secret agents and lab-tested for methamphetamine.

Both searches in these criminals’ residences revealed pills, dyes, and pressing machines, among other things they used in their operations. Lin was corporative and accepted to have worked with Hu. But his partner attempted flight when agents went to his house for a search.

Hu remained in detention after a court order declared him a flight risk while Lin was out on bond. The latter’s attorney has so far refused to disclose any details about his client.

Final Words

Dream Market is only one of the many drug rings selling illicit items through the dark web. The business is lucrative, but only until federal agents crack the code to your case.

Hopefully, the law will corner more and more of such dealers luring people to buy diet pills that may be harmful in one way or another.