Fact Check: Fake Website Uses Fake Celebrity Interviews To Flog Keto Weight Loss Products

Fact Check

  • by: Sarah Thompson
Fact Check: Fake Website Uses Fake Celebrity Interviews To Flog Keto Weight Loss Products Shady Sales

Have celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and country music singer Reba McEntire recently launched their own keto weight loss line of products on live TV? No, that's not true: This is false advertising and follows a formula that is used again and again, featuring spoofed websites that mimic trusted outlets and bounce users to unknown and untraceable affiliate links.

There have been several ads circulating online featuring false endorsements from Winfrey, McEntire and others. One example is an undated article (archived here) at lfyek.uk.com, titled, "Reba McEntire's Latest Business Venture is Helping Millions Of Americans Melt Body Fat And Get Healthy Again Post Pandemic!" It opened:

Gifted singer, musician and business genius, Reba McEntire, made headlines after revealing her new keto weight loss line on Live TV last week. Her product is competing with the biggest weight loss companies in the world. Reba went on to say:

'When I started this whole thing back in 2021, it really was just a passion project to see if I could find something to help speed up weight loss and improve health quicker than the stuff currently on the market. On top of that, it was a way for me to give back to my lifelong followers and those suffering from similar weight loss issues like me.'

This is what the spoofed article looked like at the time of writing:
rebatimepage.jpg
(Image source: lfyek.uk.com screenshot taken on Tue Oct 11 14:38:02 2022 UTC)

The false endorsement continues:

'After being given so much, I figured there was no better time to make BioLyfe Keto available to everyone, as it has already helped millions of people melt huge amounts of body fat, and it can help millions more. If I have to step away from television to keep this moving forward, I will.'

In December 2021, Lead Stories debunked a similar claim for a CBD gummy pain relief product that also was not affiliated with Reba McEntire in any way. On August 8, 2022, snopes.com published an article about false endorsements coming from Facebook pages and websites.

On August 3, 2022, the verified Twitter account @reba published a thread (archived here) that addressed in general terms some of the scams that have been using her name. The only places where any official Reba products are found are from her website, Dillards and Justin Boots. McEntire does not have a line of weight loss products. In the second of three tweets in the thread it says:

Also, be aware of targeted scam advertising that says I am selling products like CBD gummies. They are also fake.

rebatweet.jpg

(Image source: Twitter screenshot taken on Tue Oct 11 15:09:37 2022 UTC)

This advertorial follows the same format as many other diet and CBD supplement products promoted with fake endorsements from celebrities. The spoofed TIME Magazine website even includes a "subscribe" button, fake article teasers in the sidebar and TIME's terms of use in small print at the bottom of the page. Clicking on any of these, or on any of the hyperlinked text in the article that mentions "BioLyfe Keto" will take the user to another website, try.keto-gmygummies.com (archived here).

On this website there is no mention of the "BioLyfe Keto" brand from the spoofed TIME website. The product offered is "NUCENTIX KETO-GMY BHB GUMMIES." The brand NUCENTIX is not written in text anywhere on the website, which makes it unsearchable.

This try.keto-gmygummies.com website has a prominent banner stating that the company has an A+ rating with the BBB. The Better Business Bureau website does not have any records for a company called KETO-GMY BHB GUMMIES. While the company Nucentix Nutrition is not BBB accredited, it does have an A+ rating, which the BBB notes is not calculated using customer reviews and "are not a guarantee of a business's reliability or performance."

At the time of writing the company's listing has seven customer reviews and six customer complaints. Several of the customers report identical problems. They thought they were getting a reduced price trial offer but were charged much more than they expected without being able to review the charges at checkout.

A search for "gummies" on the LeadStories.com website returns several debunks of other false claims and deceptive practices associated with similar products.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Sarah Thompson

Sarah Thompson lives with her family and pets on a small farm in Indiana. She founded a Facebook page and a blog called “Exploiting the Niche” in 2017 to help others learn about manipulative tactics and avoid scams on social media. Since then she has collaborated with journalists in the USA, Canada and Australia and since December 2019 she works as a Social Media Authenticity Analyst at Lead Stories.


 

Read more about or contact Sarah Thompson

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion