{"id":8024,"date":"2019-02-28T18:06:24","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T18:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/useless-slimming-pills-face-fake-amazon-reviews-fine\/"},"modified":"2019-02-28T18:06:24","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T18:06:24","slug":"useless-slimming-pills-face-fake-amazon-reviews-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/useless-slimming-pills-face-fake-amazon-reviews-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Useless slimming pills face fake Amazon reviews’ fine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n US government advice suggests the supplements have “little or no effect” on weight loss
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A company that sold “ineffective” fat-fighting herbal supplements is facing a $12.8m (\u00a39.6m) fine for allegedly buying fake reviews on Amazon.<\/p>\n

The fine is part of a settlement deal Cure Encapsulations has reached with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).<\/p>\n

Cure had paid a now defunct website for positive reviews to push claims its pills helped weight loss, said the FTC.<\/a><\/p>\n

The company has also been told to stop making “false and unsubstantiated” claims about one supplement.<\/p>\n

‘Liver injury’<\/h2>\n

Cure Encapsulations makes pills it claims can be used to lose weight, using extracts made from the rind of a tropical fruit called Garcinia cambogia<\/i> – a variety of tamarind. <\/p>\n

But US research suggests<\/a> such supplements have caused “acute liver injury” in some people who took them regularly. And US government advice suggests they have “little or no effect”<\/a> on weight loss.<\/p>\n

The FTC said Cure had spent significant sums to get positive reviews on Amazon that had been “fabricated” to seem as if they had come from actual customers. <\/p>\n

And it had specified they must:<\/p>\n