I wonder if Attorney Generals from all the different states ever get together and swap stories?  If so, they could have a great time debating who has the biggest acai berry scams going on in their state.  We have already reported on the Attorney Generals in Florida, Texas, Illinois and Arizona taking action against acai companies that were deceiving the public – well you can now add Colorado to that list.

Same Acai Scam – Different State

I think we all know the game by now – consumer signs up for “free trial of Acai”, but then finds out they will be sent products each month and billed $80 a month.  Consumer tries to cancel, but gets the run around.  Here is the quote from the Colorado Attorney General John Suthers…

“The Office of the Attorney General learned through its investigation that Bezoni’s Arvada-based company, which has operated under the names Golf Nutrition Sciences and GNS, used so-called “free-to-pay conversion” marketing since 2005, which resulted in consumers unknowingly incurring ongoing payments for products that they initially believed were free. Consumers, according to court filings, signed up for free trials of products, such as Acai Berry Edge, Acai Berry Elite and Slim Seduction, and believed at the time they placed their order that they were authorizing only the shipping and handling charges for the free trial. When the free trial arrived, however, consumers also received a two-month supply of the product and were given a limited amount of time to return the product or face a nearly $80 charge within 30 days.”

- Attorney General announces Settlement with Arvada-based Nutra Pills, Inc.

Who Knew Giving Away Free Acai Could be Worth $40 Million a Year?

We are not surprised that companies will try to deceive consumers, what did surprise us was how successful they were!

The company generated $40 million in sales in 2009, nearly all of that was a direct result of its free-to-pay conversion sales.

This is just one company – doing over $40 Million a year in Acai sales with a “free trial” product.  There are many more companies, operating in different states (and outside the USA) who are bringing in much more per year.    Anyone who thinks this is not a major problem just needs to follow the money.

What is The Penalty for Deception?

First, Nutra Pills claims they did nothing wrong as part of the settlement.  Still, they have agreed to refund money to consumers who have filed a complaint since December 2006.  In addition, they have to pay a $100,000 fine – but half of that is suspended if they do not deceive anyone in the next 5 years.  To date the company has refunded $9 million dollars and ceased doing business.

So There You Have it – Crime Does Pay!

Let us first legally state something – Nutra Pills does not admit to any wrong doing as part of the settlement.  Nutra Pills reached a settlement with Colorado before a legal proceeding could determine if laws were broken.

So, you can draw your own conclusions if you think that Nutra Pills did anything wrong.   We would ask – why shut down a business that is doing $40 Million a year in sales if you did nothing wrong?  If you do believe they did something wrong, you have to ask if the punishment fits.  We say NO!

The company made $40 Million in 2009 alone.  So far, they have refunded $9 million and paid a $50,000 fine.  The penalty is just not strong enough to stop others from doing this same form of deception.  In fact, we would argue that this just gives acai scam companies a blue print of how to operate.  Make as much as you can – then settle and close shop when the Attorney General comes knocking.

Let us know what you think?

Additional Resources:

The Julia Miller Health News 5, News 6 or News 7 Acai Berry Scam Exposed

Click Here to Watch A Screen Capture Video Exposing These Julia Miller Acai Scam Health Sites.

Oprah and Illinois Attorney General File Suit Against Acai Scam Companies

Oprah Writes, then Throws Book At Acai Scammers

How I Lost $90 in 30 Days Using the Acai Berry

What Did Oprah and Dr Oz Really Say About Acai

Acai Berry Scams – How to Avoid Them

Acai Berry Maxx named Texas Lawsuit

Free Black Belt Course in Spotting Acai Berry Scams

How Do You Stop An Acai Berry Scammer From Scamming?

We love fish oils.  Omega 3 fatty acids have some incredibly strong health benefits and we believe everyone can benefit from increasing their intake of Omega 3s.  So, it is very troubling to learn that a number of Omega 3 Fish Oil supplements have been found to have carcinogenic chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

PCBs, Fish Oil, California… Smells like a Lawsuit!

Yes, last week a lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco.  The lawsuit targets eight supplement manufacturers or distributors – CVS Pharmacy, Rite Aid, General Nutrition Corp., Solgar, Twinlab, Now Health, Omega Protein and Pharmavite – for alleged violations of California’s Proposition 65, which requires that consumers be warned about chemical exposures.

The plaintiffs claim that their initial testing found that levels of PCBs in supplements in popular fish oil products varied wildly, from about 12 nanograms per recommended dose in to more than 850 nanograms.   They claim that Proposition 65 requires disclosure of all non-zero PCB levels, so they are all in violation of the law.

Is this Really a Big Deal?

Yes – in a number of different ways!  First, Omega Protein – named in the lawsuit – is the world’s largest producer of fish oil, so this effects a huge amount of products.  Second, it really brings to the forefront one of the big secrets about the supplement industry – labels do not show exactly what is in the supplement!

You can make the argument that 12 nanograms of PCB is not harmful and the benefits of Omega 3s outweigh the dangers of 12 nanograms of PCB – but this misses the bigger point.  The issue is, should consumers know exactly what they are putting into their body. We firmly believe consumers should know exactly what is in their supplements and then they can make their own choices based on the facts.

Omega Protein Has Many Issues With the Lawsuit

Not surprisingly, Omega Protein disagrees with the allegations in the lawsuit.  You can read their Press Release -

Omega Protein Comments on Lawsuit

There are very valid points about how you test for PCB and exactly what Prop 65 requires.  In addition, a number of independent groups have stepped forward to say that their testing shows that fish oil supplements are completely safe and free of contaminants.

Fish Oil is too important of a supplement to see washed away with a lawsuit.  Our hope is that this lawsuit puts the spotlight on testing and labeling requirements more than on the safety of fish oil.    Anything that makes supplement labels more open and honest is a major step in the right direction.

Millions of people have choosen to use Viagra (the brand name for Sildenafil). It is clear that the whole Erectile Dysfunction (ED) market has become a bonanza for the pharmaceutical companies. What is less clear is that many more of us are using Viagra (sildenafil) without even knowing it!

The Hot New Ingredient for Supplements – Sildenafil!

We first reported last week that a number of acai supplements were causing side effects. An investigation by Health Canada found that these acai supplements were laced with Sildenafil. It is clear that Sildenafil can have serious side effects and anyone using an acai supplement that contains Sildenafil should stop (here is the list of tainted products).

Now we have learned of more supplements that are tainted with Sildenafil. On December 14, 2009, the FDA posted a notice on its website regarding the recall of many sexual enhancement supplements sold by Atlas Operations, Inc. Apparently over 20 Atlas supplements were tested and they all contained Sulfoaildenafil, an analogue of Sildenafil. Of course since Sildenafil is a prescription drug it can not be legally used in supplements, and therefore a full recall was ordered -

Read the FDA Press Release on the Recall

Why Is Everyone Trying to Get Us To Take and ED Drug?

To be honest – we are not sure! We get why Atlas, a company that makes sexual function supplements would try to improve the performance of their supplements by adding Sildenafil. It is incredibly dangerous and irresponsible to spike a supplement with a drug, but at least we can see the motive.

It is a little more of a mystery on why you would spike an Acai supplement with an ED drug. You do feel the effects of Sildenafil, so maybe the idea is to try to get people to think they “feel” the Acai working right away.

Our Advice – Go With Trusted Companies

Some people will look at these stories and claim that they prove that all supplements are dangerous and unregulated. This is not the case. Supplements are regulated, and adding drugs to supplements is clearly not allowed – hence the recall. In any industry you will have dishonest companies – the key is to avoid these companies – not all supplements.

Our advice is to stick with trusted supplement companies that have a proven track record. You want to be able to contact the company with any questions you may have. In addition, do a search at the FDA website to make sure the company does not have any issues.

It was fun while it lasted, we all had a good laugh, but now it looks like the concept of calling Froot Loops a Smart Choice has come to an end!

Smart Choices Label Program Has Been Suspended

Guess what? Just days after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would examine whether front-of-pack nutrition claims are potentially misleading, the fine folks at Smart Choices decided to suspend their label and logo program. Smart Choices has said that it “will voluntarily postpone active operations and not encourage wider use of the logo at this time by either new or currently enrolled companies.”

What Is Smart Choices?

The Secrets are Not Just With Supplements

Additional Rescources:

Call it H1N1, call it Swine Flu – call it whatever you like but it looks like we are heading for a very bad flu season this year. While there is lots of talk in the media about treatment, vaccines and shortages – there is no shortage of marketing companies trying to prey on your fear!

Swine Flu – Sure We Have A Cure for That!

You know those Apple iPhone commercials that say “We have an app for that” – it feels like some of these marketing companies have the same approach for any disease or illness you may have. The only difference is they replace the word “app” with “cure”. I can just hear them saying – “Swine Flu, sure we have a cure for that”

The FDA and FTC Get Nasty With their Swine Flu Hall of Shame

We have knocked the FDA and FTC in the past for being very slow to shut down the numerous acai scams and the resveratrol scams . So, we now need to give credit, where credit is due. The FDA and FTC are moving quickly to make sure that companies do not take advantage of people’s fears when it comes to H1N1 or Swine Flu. The FDA has sent hundreds of warning letters and even created a searchable, public online database of all the products that have received warnings from the FDA.

Click Here for the FDA Database of Products that may be fraudulently claiming to help with Swine Flu

You see they have them all – gloves, masks, air purifiers, shampoo and of course supplements.
So, before you waste your money on some product that claims to help with swine flu – you might want to do a quick search on the FDA site.

Dr. Andrew Weil caught in the wide FDA Swine Flu Net

Many of the products on the list will not surprise you. Acai Burn, who is no stranger to deception, made the list. What is surprising is that Dr. Andrew Weil was cited for his immune supplement line.

Here is the FDA/FTC Warning letter to Dr. Weil

This has set off a debate on many online forums – is the FDA and FTC going to far in terms of limiting a person’s right to free speech. This is a very tricky subject – on one hand we applaud the FDA/FTC from protecting consumers from companies that are trying to capitalize on our fears. On the other hand, if well respected doctors can not give their opinion on the best immune boosting natural products – that is a heavy price to pay.

Leave us a comment and let us know what you think. Do you think the FDA/FTC went too far with the Dr. Weil warning letter?

We are so excited, this is like Christmas for us! For over 18 months we have written about Acai scams and Resveratrol Scams. We have explained that Oprah never endorsed any Acai or Resveratrol brands and the same was true with Dr. Oz . People often asked, if the Oprah and Dr. Oz endorsements were bogus, why didn’t Oprah and Dr. Oz sue? Well, they have, and boy o’ boy is it a whammy of a lawsuit!

Oprah Unleashes an Amazing 267 Pages of Legal WhipAs*

On 8/18 we first reported about Oprah suing 40 companies that were selling Acai and Resveratrol and illegally using her (and Dr. Oz) images, comments and trademark. Well, at that time we had not seen the actual court filing – but now we have and it is AWESOME!

Here is a link to the full Harpo Complaint in PDF form -

Harpo Complaint Against Acai and Resveratrol Companies (right click and Save)

You will want to Right Click and Save the above link as it is BIG – Over 35mb and 267 wonderful pages. It may take a few minutes to download – but it is worth it!

Do We Really Expect You to Read 267 Pages of a Legal Complaint?

No. To be honest even we couldn’t get through it all. But here are the quick highlights…

• Pages 1-20 list all the defendants and the products that they market. This is like a Hall of Shame. You can now see a list of all the products that Oprah’s legal team believes infringed on her trademarks. Everyone deserves their day in court and people are innocent until proven guilty, but if you are thinking about buying a supplement mentioned in this complaint, you may want to rethink that!
• Pages 28 – 31 and 38-39 some great screenshots of companies that used Dr. Oz’s image to deceive consumers. It is incredible how deceiving these sites are.
• Pages 54- 80 – THIS IS THE BEST PART! This section lists every defendant and all the websites they used to promote their products. It is utterly depressing – we counted well over 1,000 websites that were used to deceive consumers into believing the Dr. Oz or Oprah endorsed these products.
• Pages 81 – 120 – More exhibits on thousands of companies infringing on the Oprah and Dr. Oz trademarkets. This is an incredible example of all that has gone wrong with pay per click advertising .
• Pages 121-130 – A list of over 185 domain names that contain Dr Oz or Oprah, without their permission.
• Pages 132 – 171 – FORGET WHAT WE SAID ABOVE – THIS IS THE BEST PART! Oh, this is so hard, this whole complaint is so good. Here they list every site, show a screenshot and name the products. You will not believe that all these sites with Dr. Oz’s and Oprah’s photo had absolutely no endorsement from them!

You know – the whole complaint is great – just page through it all. It goes on and on with more exhibits about bogus ads, articles, reviews, press releases, etc. You will never view the internet the same after seeing how low people will go.

A Lie Repeated Over and Over Again Does Not Make it True

In case you can’t tell, we love this complaint. The complaint completely exposes these scammers for what they are – scammers (of course assuming the allegations in the complaint are true). The few companies who are trying to sell reputable acai and resveratrol supplements are terribly hurt by these dishonest sites. In addition, the complaint brings home a point we have been saying for years – just because you read a lie in many different places online, does not make it true.

The companies that were blasting the internet with websites and ads that claimed that Oprah and Dr. Oz endorsed their products were lying to you. They were lying often and lying repeatedly – but this 267 page complaint shows a lie told a million times over still does not make it true.

Sometimes the more you learn about our government agencies, the scarier it gets. It turns out that the FDA Commissioner in 1994, David Kessler, was so unhappy with the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) that for 10 years he told his staff not to enforce the laws!

Let’s Back Up – What is DSHEA?

In 1994 Congress passed the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA). You can read all about DSHEA in our post here. Basically DSHEA was an act passed by congress that allowed dietary supplements to remain on the market, at a time when FDA Commissioner Kessler wanted to ban basically all dietary supplements.

Due to a very strong grassroots movement and the climate of a political election in 1994, DSHEA was passed and supplements were allowed to be sold, under the guidelines of DSHEA.

Don’t Like A Law? Close Your Eyes and Wish it Away

Commissioner Kessler thought that DSHEA was a terrible law and figured if his agency did not enforce it, the rest of the world would also see what a terrible law it was. So, for almost a full decade, the FDA did not enforce DSHEA, in hopes that Congress would enact new legislation when they saw that DSHEA was not “working”.

“Kessler was so infuriated by the enactment of DSHEA, however, that he ordered FDA not to enforce the new law. Initially, this was not widely understood. As time has gone on, however, former FDA enforcement officials have admitted that, for the first full decade under DSHEA, FDA took virtually no enforcement action because of Kessler’s policy. Kessler was convinced if the law was not enforced and the worst elements of the dietary supplement industry were allowed to run wild, Congress would repeal the law. Of course, that did not occur. For a full decade, however, Kessler sacrificed protection of the public health to his own personal animosity toward DSHEA.”

- The History and Future of DSHEA – 9/21/09, Natural Produts Insider

Is it Just Us or Is This Just Flat Out Appalling ??

If Peter Barton Hutt, the author of the above article, got this all right – it is appalling. Imagine the uproar if a cop on the street decided he did not believe in Miranda rights, so he did not read anyone their rights. Now imagine it was not just a cop on the street, but the Police Commissioner who decided no one should be read their Miranda rights because he disagreed with the law. This would be completely unacceptable.

I think our nation works best when we enforce all the laws equally, not just the ones we like. Kessler’s plan almost worked – for years after DSHEA people said the supplement industry was unregulated and unsafe. There were calls for new laws and new regulations. In the end, DSHEA provided the regulations and laws – little did we know that the problem was just that the FDA had decided not to enforce the laws for personal reasons.

Additional Resources:

The History and Future of DSHEA – 9/21/09, Natural Produts Insider

What is A Dietary Supplement Anyway?

Justice may move slowly, but at least it is finally moving. On 8/18 the Attorney General of Illinois announced they are bringing a suit against 3 different Acai companies that have scammed and deceived customers. In addition, Harpo, Inc – producers of the Oprah Winfrey show – filed a trademark infringement suit against 40 internet marketers of dietary supplements such as Acai.

You Go Oprah – Stick it to Them!

Our regular readers are sick to death of us writing about Acai scams. In case you missed any of our posts, will put some links at the bottom of this article. Here is the quick summary – Acai Free Trail Scam companies have been ripping off consumers for over a year now and we have been screaming for the FDA, FTC, Attorney Generals, BBB – anyone to put an end to this! It now looks like Oprah and Attorney General Lisa Madigan are finally putting a dent in the Acai scams.

Extreme Acai Berry, Pure Acai Berry Pro and Pure Acai Berry Burn – You’ve been served!

“For thousands of dieters, the quest for a miracle product has become a nightmare,” said Attorney General Madigan. “Far too often, consumers end up losing their money – not weight – in these deals.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves… oh wait we did in our post “How I Lost $90 in 30 Days Using the Acai Berry” – anyway, we are glad an Attorney General finally said it.

Two manufacturers were hit with lawsuits – Advanced Wellness Research (now called Netalab) and Crush LLC (owned by TMP Nevada, Inc). Advanced Wellness Research is responsible for the acai products called -Pure Acai Berry Pro and New Pure Acai Berry Burn. Crush LLC is behind the Extreme Acai Berry.

Sleazy Internet Marketers… You are on the Hook for This Too!

The third lawsuit that Attorney General Madigan filed was against Amirouch – an affiliate marketer for free trial Acai scam products. We find this very interesting and positive as it is the first time a company that did not make the Acai scam product was hit with a lawsuit. These affiliate marketers do fake review blogs, fill your email box with spam and cover Google with bogus Acai weight loss sites. Up until now these marketers thought they were safe from the law because they didn’t directly sell the Acai products, they pushed the consumers to other sites that filled the orders. Well guess what – if you lie, deceive and trick consumers – you are still breaking the law! We hope other Attorney Generals will follow the lead of Madigan and go after everyone who has a hand in the deception in the land of Acai.

Is All Acai a Scam?

We seem to write so much about Acai scams, readers may have the impression that all Acai products are scams. That is only true 99% of the time Seriously, real freeze dried Organic Acai that is pure and sold in a legitimate manner is great. We are big fans of the Perfect Acai and their Acai Consumer Bill of Rights - kind of the exact opposite of the rest of the industry.

What Can You Do if You Have been scammed on Acai Products?

We recommend you file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General – instructions are here -

Illinois Attorney General Website

Additional Resources:

Read the Full Press Release from Illinois Attorney General Madigan

How I Lost $90 in 30 Days Using the Acai Berry

What Did Oprah and Dr Oz Really Say About Acai

Acai Berry Scams – How to Avoid Them

Acai Berry Maxx named Texas Lawsuit

Free Black Belt Course in Spotting Acai Berry Scams

Spend any time online looking at bodybuilding supplements and you will see plenty of supplements promising “steroid like results”. How do these supplements product muscle building results similar to steroids? Simple, they illegally use steroids in their supplements!

The FDA Issues a Warning on Steroid Like Supplements

On July 28th, 2009 the FDA issued a warning to consumers…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public health advisory warning consumers to stop using any body building products that are represented to contain steroids or steroid-like substances. Many of these products are marketed as dietary supplements.

This advisory was issued along with a warning letter sent to American Cellular Laboratories Inc. for marketing and distributing body building products containing synthetic steroid substances. Although these products are marketed as dietary supplements, they are NOT dietary supplements, but instead are unapproved and misbranded drugs.

The specific supplements mentioned by the FDA were:

• TREN-Xtreme: 19-Norandrosta-4,9-diene-3,17 dione, marketed as “similar to Trenbolone”
• MASS Xtreme: 17α-methyl-etioallocholan-2-ene-17b-ol, marketed as “similar to Methyl Testosterone”
• ESTRO Xtreme: 4-hydroxyandrostenedione (4-OHA)
• AH-89-Xtreme: 5α-androstano[3,2-c]pyrazole-3-one-17β-ol-THP-ether, marketed as “similar to Stanozolol”
• HMG Xtreme: 2α,3α-epithio-17α-methyl-17β-hydroxy-5α-etioallocholane
• MMA-3 Xtreme: Androsta-1,4-dien-3,17-dione, marketed as “similar to Boldenone (Equipoise)”
• VNS-9 Xtreme: 17α-methyl-4-chloro-androsta-1,4-diene-3β,17β-diol, marketed as “similar to Turinabol”
• TT-40-Xtreme: 1-androsterone, marketed as “very similar to 1-Testosterone” and “converts to 1-Testosterone”

For More Information:

FDA Issues Warning on Steroid Like Supplements

Related Articles:

FDA Says Cheerios are a Drug

Cheerios - The New Drug

When we say kids, we are talking particularly about those little tikes 2 and under. Yes, for the under 2 crowd, Cheerios are the newest “it” drug. Okay, before you start wondering if we have been hitting the Cheerios a little too hard ourselves, let’s clear some definitions up…

Cheerios is a Drug

Well, at least that is what our government decided on May5, 2009. It seems the FDA sent a warning letter to General Mills stating that due to the way they label the Cheerios, Cheerios is actually an unapproved new drug under FDA Act 505(a)!

The FDA is Strange

I wish there was a more poetic way to describe the FDA, but it is just flat out strange. As we have said before, we understand the FDA is trying to help consumers, but sometimes their actions seem to have an opposite effect.

I think most reasonable people can understand that Cheerios is a not a drug. We get that it is a bland cereal that kids like to drop all over the floor and then smash with their feet. Okay, so the box talks about how a diet high in fiber can help reduce your cholesterol – but isn’t this a good thing? Not in the eyes of the FDA.

FDA Believes Only Drugs Can Help People

In our boring (but necessary) post on What is a Dietary Supplement we talk about how the FDA considers any claim to help prevent, treat, diagnosis or cure a disease off limits for anything but drugs. So, when Cheerios starting talking about helping people reduce their Cholesterol, the FDA took notice and fired off a warning letter.

What is the Lesson Here for Manufacturers?

It is still not clear what, if any action, General Mills will take in response to this warning letter. Our concern is that the FDA will make manufacturers think twice before making any healthy foods. Why make a healthy cereal that may improve someones health if you just get into trouble with the FDA?

Again, we know the FDA is trying to help, but action like this just forces companies to go back to their old marketing tricks. It is probably easier to sell some high sugar cereal with crazy superhero animals on the front than Cheerios – but is that really better for all of us?

More Resources:

Read the FDA Warning Letter to General Mills