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How to Identify
Weight Loss
Fraud

          The voice of the quack is seductive,
          secretive and soothing
          ó itís a friendly, manipulative voice
          that saps money and health
           from its victims.

Healthy Weight Network

How to Identify Weight Loss Fraud, by Frances M. Berg, national coordinator of the Task Force on Weight Loss Abuse of the National Council Against Health Fraud, editor of Healthy Weight Journal, and licensed nutritionist. Copyright 1997. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part prohibited without publisherís written permission. Healthy Weight Network , 402 South 14th Street, Hettinger, ND 58639. TE: 701-567-2646; FAX: 701-567-2602; website: www.healthyweight.net

What's wrong with fraud
Guidelines for identification
What can you do
Categories of products
How to report fraud

Whatís wrong with fraud?

     Weight loss fraud now floods the internet and other media.
     It causes numerous injuries and deaths every year; it fosters cultism, fear and distrust; it destroys, deceives and manipulates. Con artists specializing in weight loss fraud target and exploit the most vulnerable among us, often children, teens and low income consumers.
     Unfortunately, thereís a great deal of complacency about fraud. Many professionals shrug it off as not their concern. Consumers seldom complain. Regulatory agencies plead budget constraints and more pressing problems. But we can no longer afford to be complacent about the current upsurge in fraud and quackery in the health field.
     Weight loss fraud is harmful in these five ways:

1. Increases health risk. Weight loss fraud, quackery and fads cause many injuries, severe reactions and deaths each year in the U.S. Misplaced belief in quackery also prevents people from seeking adequate medical care.

2. Increases financial costs. Modern con artists use an array of high-tech methods to swindle their victims. They cheat those who can least afford to pay for their worthless products or join their manipulative pyramid schemes. They bilk Americans of an estimated $10 to $40 billion in weight loss fraud alone each year.

3. Increases emotional risk. Repeated attempts to lose weight, followed by the inevitable regain, bring shame and a sense of failure and power-lessness to the customer. This batters self-esteem and can be psychologically damaging.

4. Promotes paranoia. Quackery advertising plays on fears. It fosters delusion, cultism, fanaticism, paranoia, extremism, alienation, pseudoscience and distrust of the medical community. It corrupts truth and reason.

5. Interferes with responsible programs. With their magical solutions and outrageous promises, con artists foster impossible expectations and undermine responsible weight management and wellness programs.

What can you do?
You can make a difference by combatting fraud and expoitation with truth. It does matter that children, teens and adults develop healthy attitudes and learn to eat, move and live in healthy ways. We urge you to confront health fraud wherever you find it, and to help your family, friends, associates, patients and clients understand the vast difference between science and pseudoscience. You can reduce fraud by exposing worthless diet and food supplement products, reporting scams, registering complaints, urging action by appropriate agencies, and encouraging those you work with to do the same.

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Guidelines for Identification
Fraudulent weight loss products and programs often rely on unscrupulous but persuasive combinations of message, program, ingredients, mystique, and delivery system. A weight loss product or program may be fraudulent if it does one or more of the following.

Message
1. Claims or implies a large, fast weight loss ó often promised as easy, effortless, guaranteed or permanent. (Weight loss should not exceed an average of one pound per week.)

2. Implies weight can be lost without restricting calories or exercising, and discounts the benefits of exercise.

3. Uses typical quackery terms such as: miraculous, breakthrough, exclusive, secret, ancient, from the Orient, accidental discovery, doctor developed.

4. Claims to get rid of ìcellulite.î (Cellulite does not exist and reference to it is a red flag warning of fraud or misinformation.)

5. Relies heavily on undocumented case histories, before and after photos, and testimonials by ìsatisfied customersî (who are often paid for the testimony as written by the promoter). Weight loss claims should be typical of all clients, or include a disclaimer.

6. Misuses medical or technical terms, refers to studies without giving complete references, claims government approval.

7. Professes to be a treatment for a wide range of ailments and nutritional deficiencies as well as for weight loss.

8. Makes claims which are not stated on the product label.

Program
9. Promotes a medically unsupervised diet of less than 1000 calories per day.

10. Diagnoses nutrient deficiencies, as with computer-scored questionnaire, and prescribes vitamins and supplements (rather than a balanced diet). Recommends these in excess of 100% of Recommended Dietary Allowance.

11. Promotes aids and gadgets such as body wraps, sauna belts, electronic stimulators, passive motion tables, aromatherapy, appetite patches, earrings, accupressure devices or acupuncture.

12. Promotes a nutritional plan without at least one author or counselor who has reliable nutrition credentials. (Nutrition educators and registered dietitians are preferred.)

13. Fails to state risks or recommend a medical exam.

Ingredients
14. Uses unproven, bogus or potentially dangerous ingredients such as spirulina, glucomannan, human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG), echinacia root, bee pollen, fennel, chickweed, starch blockers, or chromium picolinate.

15. It is illegal to make a drug claim not allowed by the Food and Drug Administration for any ingredient, food supplement, or nonprescription drug. A drug claim is any claim that the product will alter body processes, such as suppress appetite, speed up metabolism, or block digestion. The only allowed drug claim is appetite suppression ó for phenylpropanolamine (PPA) and benzocaine only.

16. Claims ingredients will surround calories, starch, carbohydrate or fat and remove them from the body are illegal drug claims.

Mystique
17. Encourages reliance on a guru figure who has the ultimate answers or secrets unknown by others.

18. Grants mystical properties to certain foods or ingredients.

19. Bases plan on faddish ideas, such as food allergies, forbidden foods or magic combinations of foods.

20. Declares that the established medical community is against this
discovery and refuses to accept its miraculous benefits.

Method of delivery
21. Is sold by self-proclaimed health advisors or ìnutritionists,î often door-to-door, in health food stores, or chiropractor offices.

22. Distributed through hard-sell mail order advertisements, television informericals, or ads which list an 800 number without address, indicating possible Postal Service action against the company.

23. Demands large advance payments or long-term contracts. Payment should be pay-as-you-go, or refundable. (May display prominent money-back guarantee, but a common complaint against these companies is that they do not honor their own guarantees).

24. Uses high pressure sales tactics, one-time-only deals, or recruitment for a pyramid sales organization.

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Questionable weight loss products

The following weight loss products and programs are commonly sold and advertised in false, misleading and illegal ways:

1. Diet pills
Herbal and ìnaturalî diet products sold as food supplements; anti-cellulite pills; bee pollen; starch, fat or sugar blockers; fiber pills; ephedrine or ma huang; chromium picolinate.

2. Creams and aids
Cellulite creams and lotions; thigh cream; appetite patches; appetite spray; fiber cookies; herbal slimming teas, mushroom tea, hypnosis.

3. Gadgets
Continuous passive motion tables; body stimulation devices; buzzing belts; vacuum pants; body wraps; heat devices to ëmelt fatí; toners.

4. Themes and combos
The products listed above are sometimes combined into costly programs involving herbal pills, cellulite creams, body wraps, the quack concept of detoxifying the body, and liberal doses of mystique to overwhelm the vulnerable client.

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How to report fraud

If youíve been scammed, or know someone who has, or you want to report a suspected fraud, the first place to go is usually the consumer protection department of your own state attorney generalís office. Some states have more active consumer agencies than others, but all need to be encouraged, and all need more consumer complaints. To make a stronger impact, repeat your complaints to federal agencies.
Contact the agencies below:

for help in getting reimbursement or redress for wrongs
to file a complaint or report suspected fraud
to report injury (MedWatch for health providers)
to get information on products
to ask how to proceed with a complaint

Your state consumer protection department. The state attorney general has authority under most state consumer protection statutes to investigate and prosecute unfair or deceptive acts and practices. Many have the power to seek consumer restitution, civil fines, and revocation of a companyís authority to do business. Contact:

U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The FTC regulates advertising and marketing of foods, non-prescription drugs, medical devices, and health care services. FTC can seek federal court injunctions to halt fraudulent claims and obtain redress for injured consumers. Contact:

U. S. Postal Service: The postal service has authority to prevent companies using the mails for fraudulent purposes. For products advertised or sent through the mails, contact:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA has jurisdiction over the content and labeling of foods, drugs, and medical devices. FDA can take law enforcement action to seize and prohibit the sale of products that are falsely labeled. Contact local, regional (US Dept. of Health and Human Services - FDA), or federal offices:

FDA MedWatch for health providers: MedWatch is a new FDA program aimed at speeding up and increasing adverse-event reporting of drug and product problems. A survey found 50 percent of doctors are not aware they should report adverse drug and medical device reactions to the FDA. Thus, it took four years for FDA to get the weight loss product Cal-Ban 3000 off the market, but less than four months to withdraw temafloxacin. Both resulted in adverse effects including death, but the difference was an effective reporting system for prescription drugs compared with less emphasis on over-the-counter (nonprescription) drugs. Consumers who have health problems that appear due to nonprescription or prescription drugs, are urged to insist that health providers report their complaints to MedWatch.

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