The ever-popular keto diet craze is growing fast, mostly due to word of mouth and social media promotions. However, with an increasing number of scammers using social media platforms, how does this affect consumers looking for ketogenic diet products?
According to reports by consumer watchdog Which?, as well as review sites like Sitejabber and TrustPilot, companies could be using Facebook ads and fake celebrity endorsements to sell pills online, although, currently, it’s not clear how severe the problem is.
One seller, ketopurediet.com, has been found to be overcharging customers by taking extra payments from their credit cards that weren’t authorised. They say that, after reporting these issues to the company, they were unable to get a refund.
The company used fake celebrity endorsements on Facebook ads to sell the products. For example, they created adverts saying they were backed by Anne Hegerty, from ITV game show The Chase. However, it’s been confirmed that this endorsement wasn’t genuine.
It’s also been found that several Facebook profiles are linked to the seller, including:
- facebook.com/ketopurediet
- facebook.com/ketopuredietreviews
- facebook.com/ketopuredietpills
- facebook.com/ketopuredietpil
- facebook.com/ketopuredietcost
Facebook has since removed 12 seller pages, disabled 6 profiles and removed several ads that had violated its fraud policies. In addition, it has taken action to remove links to external websites that were found to be fakes.
Consumers have also been warned to be vigilant. When buying products on Facebook or other social media platforms, it’s important to do proper checks to make sure the company, brand, products, or discounts/offers are real.
A Facebook spokesperson said: ‘We don’t tolerate fraud on Facebook and we have removed all of the pages in question along with others we had found to be breaking our policies. We work hard to keep up with fraudsters’ increasingly sophisticated techniques. In the UK, we’ve donated £3m to Citizens Advice to help consumers avoid scams and we have created a dedicated ads reporting tool so people can directly report scams as soon as they see them.’
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