Defendants Allegedly Selling Fake Hoodia Weight Loss Pills Settle with the FTC

Spear Systems, Inc., Bruce Parker, and Lisa Kimsey are the three defendants who were allegedly involved in selling fake hoodia weight loss pills through illegal spam emails settled charges with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The group of defendants were marketing a diet pill called, Naturaslim, a weight loss pill that supposedly contained hoodia gordonii. The complaint by the FTC was that the defendants claimed in their marketing pitch that the diet supplement would help people lose a significant amount of weight in a short period of time. One of the claims was that you could lose 4-6 pounds per week taking the diet pill!

As readers of this website know, there is no evidence whatsoever that hoodia gordonii has the ability to accomplish those kind of weight loss results. The FTC’s attorney learned that as well from the testimony from a medical expert. According to the medical expert testimony, “…there is no credible medical evidence to support the claim that hoodia gordonii causes weight loss.”

The medical expert is right. Hoodia doesn’t “cause” weight loss - and too many people make that assumption. All hoodia has the potential to do is suppress appetite. The idea is if you feel full, you’ll eat less. That’s how hoodia works as part of an overall weight loss program. Taking hoodia without maintaining a balanced diet will do nothing.

While this wasn’t part of the settlement, there were questions whether or not Naturaslim even contained authentic hoodia gordonii. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t. Most of the hoodia diet pills don’t contain authentic hoodia gordonii and even if they do, they contain so little of it that they’re worthless.

This latest settlement is further proof that the FTC is not taking all these bogus weight loss claims lightly - especially when hoodia is involved. Earlier this year I wrote about a hoodia spam case. All these cases and settlements are good news, however, for the legitimate companies that sell authentic hoodia diet pills and play by the rules (such as Desert Burn and Hoodoba). Their credibility will be stengthened, as will consumer confidence in the industry, once the dust settles and all these scammers are put out of business.

Source: NutraIngredients-USA.com