{"id":3053,"date":"2017-01-10T17:22:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T17:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ftcguardian.com\/articles\/?p=3053"},"modified":"2017-03-18T08:53:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T08:53:39","slug":"crackdown-on-fake-news-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ftcguardian.com\/articles\/crackdown-on-fake-news-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Crackdown On Fake News Sites"},"content":{"rendered":"

FTC Accelerates Crackdown On Fake News Sites<\/strong><\/h1>\n

By Chip Cooper, Esq.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all seen headlines in search results like this one \u2013 \u201cXYZ Exposed: Miracle Diet or Scam\u201d.\u00a0 And perhaps we actually believed there was objective reporting or unbiased commentary behind the headline.\u00a0 But after reading the web page, it was clear that the headline was just a clever way to catch your attention and lure you to a sales page with an aggressive sales pitch.<\/p>\n

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has seen these headlines too, and the FTC doesn\u2019t think they\u2019re clever at all.\u00a0 In fact, the FTC believes they constitute deceptive and unfair trade practices, as indicated by the FTC\u2019s accelerated crackdown on affiliates of a popular diet drink with aggressive weight loss claims.<\/p>\n

Modus Operandi<\/strong><\/p>\n

The modus operandi of these sites was to start with attention grabbing headlines such as the one listed above and these additional ones – \u201cNews 6 News Alerts,\u201d \u201cHealth News Health Alerts,\u201d or \u201cHealth 5 Beat Health News.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sites presented what appeared to be a skeptical commentator who raises the question of whether the diet drink is really effective.\u00a0 The commentator appeared to be objective; however, after a few paragraphs the commentator would conclude that use of the diet drink would result in a 25-pound weight loss in 4 weeks – all this without changing diet or exercise according to the FTC.\u00a0 The prices for the supplement ranged between $70 and $100.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The FTC\u2019s Claims<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the FTC originally initiated law suits against these sites, Charles Harwood, Deputy Director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection stated: \u201cWe are alleging that nearly everything about these Web sites is false and deceptive\u201d.\u00a0 In addition, the FTC pointed out that the defendants aggressively promoted the deceptive ads by spending millions of dollars for placement on high volume websites resulting in millions of views by consumers and substantial sales.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the FTC contended that the offending sites:<\/p>\n