Fact Check
According to scammy websites, the former host of the "Dr. Oz" talk show once called keto gummies the "holy grail" of weight loss.
Jordan Liles
Published May 30, 2023
");}else if(is_tablet()){slot_number++;document.write("
Advertisment:
");}
Claim:
A social media post or website reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz endorsed CBD or keto gummies and once called them the "holy grail" of weight loss.
Rating:
ScamAbout this ratingDespite what online scammers might have you believe, Dr. Mehmet Oz of the former "Dr. Oz" talk show has never endorsed apple cider vinegar (ACV) weight loss gummies or any sort of CBD or keto diet gummies.
According to scammy websites where customers can purchase many of these kinds of products, Oz once called keto gummies the "holy grail" of weight loss. However, he never said anything of the sort.
Dr. Oz never called any keto gummies products the "holy grail" of weight loss.
A seemingly countless number of product websites falsely claim that Oz gave his endorsem*nt of weight loss gummies.
A few recent examples of the Oz scam appearing on order pages included the product namesRetroFit Keto + ACV Gummies, XtremeFit Keto + ACV Gummies, Optimal Keto + ACV Gummies, Speedy Keto + ACV Gummies, Transform Keto + ACV Gummies, and Ketoviva Keto + ACV Gummies.
While some of the websites for these products have since disappeared, we were able to confirm that they all originally promoted Oz's name.
Again, these were just a few recent examples. Going back to 2022, it's possible hundreds of more keto gummy product names falsely mentioned that Oz endorsed them.
The websites for these purported weight loss products promised that the candy-like gummies can "melt fat fast without diet or exercise."
Always remember with online offers that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
This same text and design appeared on multiple keto gummies websites.
These websites alsofalsely claimed that CBS News, NBC, CNN, Women's Health, Honolulu Magazine, Woman's World, and theDiabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Journal all endorsed, reviewed, or mentioned the products. In truth, none of them ever did.
Customer Support Phone Numbers
Parent company information for many keto diet weight loss gummies products is often hard to find. Phone numbers for customer support, if they haven't been omitted from the websites, route to call centers that greet customers in a general sense without announcing any company names. Most of them simply begin with, "Thank you for calling customer service."
We previously asked one of the call center agents to reveal parent company information or anything about the whereabouts of the people behind the gummy websites. The person provided no details.
Strange Customer Experiences
In our research, we found that many customers who received these products at their doorstep and found a charge on their credit card said that they had no recollection of ever ordering them. Other commenters said that, in addition to not remembering ordering the keto gummies, they also found no charge on their credit card. It's possible that this could have occurred because ofcard-skimming scams, when a criminal places a device on top of a credit card reader at a place of business, all to secretly capture the card's sensitive data.
Customers who shared their experiences also said that the return address for these weight loss gummy products that bore Oz's name was a nameless "fulfillment center" with a P.O. Box in Smyrna, Tennessee, or Las Vegas, Nevada. Many others also said that Tampa, Florida, was the city mentioned on their packages.
How These Scams Work
While a package at the door is the last step of some of these scams, the first step oftentimes involves an alluring paid ad. This kind of an ad might appear next to an article on a website or on Facebook or Instagram.
Oprah Winfrey has been featured in many of these scam ads, even though she has nothing to do with weight loss gummies.
Clicking on the ad leads to the second step: a fake article that scammers designed to fool readers into believing they're reading from Fox News, CNN, ABC, or other big-name news organizations.
In this case, scammers attempted to fool readers into believing this was a real Time magazine article. It wasn't.
While these kinds of fake articles might look like the website for one of those companies, the address bar at the top of the browser reveals the truth — that the user is not, in fact, on cnn.com, for example, but instead on a strange scam website that's simply pretending to be CNN simply by featuring its logo and article page design.
Within the fake articles are links to the third step in the scam: the aforementioned product order pages that misleadingly mention Oz's name. On these pages people fill out their credit card information, a move that, apparently unbeknownst to the customers, enrolls them in recurring charges of hundreds of dollars per month.
As we've done in the past, we'll continue to provide more reporting about these dangerous and costly scams in the future.
Note: In the past, Ozfaced allegations of promoting a "magic weight-loss cure" for "green coffee extract." However, this had nothing to do with weight loss gummies.
Sources
Gabriel, Trip. "'Magic' Weight-Loss Pills and Covid Cures: Dr. Oz Under the Microscope." The New York Times, 26 Dec. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/us/politics/dr-oz-medical-advice.html.
Liles, Jordan. "Did Oprah Winfrey Suffer a 'Tragedy' and Endorse Keto Weight Loss Gummies?" Snopes, 12 May 2022, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oprah-winfrey-tragedy-keto-gummies/.
---. "Oprah Winfrey 'Allegations' Facebook Ads Are False, Nor Did She Ever Endorse 'Weight Loss Gummies.'" Snopes, 13 Jan. 2023, https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/13/oprah-winfrey-allegations-weight-loss-gummies/.
Smith, Daeshen. "Better Business Bureau Warns Customers to Be Mindful of Card Skimming Schemes." Fox10TV.com, 25 Apr. 2023, https://www.fox10tv.com/2023/04/25/better-business-bureau-warns-customers-be-mindful-card-skimming-schemes/.
By Jordan Liles
Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016.
Advertisment:
Article Tags
ScamsKetoMehmet Oz
");}}// Page is not a test page, add the sticky adelse{// Create the inner div elementvar innerDiv = document.createElement("div");innerDiv.className = ad_name;// Get a reference to the body elementvar body = document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0];// Insert the outer div as the first child of the bodybody.insertBefore(innerDiv, body.firstChild);}Advertisem*nt:
') }
