Diet Fraud &
Weight Loss Scams

Testimonials are the primary selling tool of diet fraud. They are frequently fabricated, paid for, or taken out of context. The FTC has repeatedly found that "typical results" disclaimers are buried in fine print while dramatic claims dominate advertising. Before/after photos are routinely manipulated, use different lighting, or depict results achieved through diet and exercise rather than the product being advertised.

Diet scammers routinely fabricate celebrity endorsements from Oprah Winfrey, doctors, and athletes, or falsely claim their products appeared on Shark Tank. The FTC specifically warns: before you spend money on a "Shark-approved" miracle invention, weight loss product, or keto diet pill, are you sure it really appeared on the show? Scammers create fake news websites, blogs, banner ads, and social media posts to sell weight loss products using false stories about celebrities.

Nothing you can wear on your body or rub into your skin will cause you to lose weight. Period. Diet patches, slimming creams, body wraps, vibrating belts, and electrical stimulation devices have been sold for over a century with no evidence of efficacy. The FTC's position is unequivocal: any product claiming to cause weight loss through skin application or wearing is making a fraudulent claim.

Social media has become the primary distribution channel for diet fraud. Influencers are paid to promote diet teas, appetite suppressant lollipops, meal replacement shakes, and detox programs without disclosing the payments or the lack of scientific evidence. The FTC's endorsement guides require disclosure of paid promotions, but enforcement has been limited. Health Canada has no specific enforcement mechanism for social media health claims. Scammers specifically target young women, new mothers, and people with body image concerns.

The extraordinary public interest in GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs (Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro) has spawned a massive new wave of diet fraud. Scammers sell fake or counterfeit GLP-1 products, unregulated "compounded semaglutide," telehealth programs that exploit interest in GLP-1 drugs with undisclosed costs and fake reviews, and supplements falsely claimed to mimic GLP-1 effects. In December 2025, the FTC gave final approval to an order against telehealth company NextMed, which allegedly exploited "skyrocketing interest in prescription GLP-1 weight-loss drugs," sold programs with undisclosed costs and membership commitments, made unsubstantiated weight loss claims, used fake testimonials, and failed to process cancellations and refunds. Health Canada warns Canadians not to buy GLP-1 drugs from unregulated online sources.

The FTC launched Operation Big Fat Lie against six companies making false weight-loss claims in national advertisements, all using at least one of the seven Red Flag bogus weight-loss claims. The FTC simultaneously launched the Operation Red Flag education campaign to help media outlets identify and reject fraudulent diet ads. The Maine Attorney General joined with an additional state enforcement action.

The FTC sent refund cheques totalling more than $8.5 million to consumers who bought dietary supplements from NUG / National Institute for Weight Loss, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, and related parties, following a $40 million court judgment against the marketers for making fraudulent weight-loss product claims. A related case resulted in the FTC refunding $6 million to consumers who bought deceptively advertised supplements.

The FTC took action against TruHeight for deceptive and unsubstantiated advertising of supposed height-enhancing supplements for kids and teenagers — a reminder that diet and body supplement fraud targets children as well as adults.

The FTC sued Amare Global Holdings for misrepresenting the health benefits of its dietary supplements for children and adults — the most recent major supplement enforcement action at time of writing.

A comprehensive 2026 analysis finds that despite nearly 100 years of FTC enforcement and over 268 cases, weight loss fraud persists and the FTC's enforcement capacity has actually weakened. Recent FTC enforcement has been almost non-existent despite republishing its Notice of Penalty Offenses in 2022. The authors warn that inadequate regulatory tools — including lack of premarket approval for supplements and restricted ability to recover monetary redress — mean effective deterrence may be difficult to obtain.

Health Canada considers it illegal to market a health product (including diet products and supplements) with claims to diagnose, treat, mitigate, or prevent a disease or health condition unless the product is authorized as a drug. Many weight loss products sold online and in stores make drug claims without authorization. Canadians can report illegal marketing to Health Canada using the illegal marketing complaint form.

Hundreds of natural health products (NHPs) sold in Canada make weight loss claims. Health Canada's NHP licensing process does not require proof of efficacy for most claims — only safety and proper manufacturing. This means a product can be legally sold in Canada with a weight loss claim without any evidence that it works. Products labelled "Licensed by Health Canada" or displaying an NPN (Natural Product Number) are not proven to cause weight loss — they are only proven to be safe for use as directed.

If you have purchased or seen a diet product making illegal health claims in Canada, you can report it to Health Canada's Regulatory Operations and Enforcement Branch (ROEB) at 1-800-267-9675, or use the online illegal marketing complaint form. You can also report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or report.antifraudcentre.ca if money was lost or online fraud was involved.

Garcinia cambogia, marketed as HCA (hydroxycitric acid), was one of the most heavily promoted diet supplements of the 2010s, appearing on television programs and in countless online advertisements. Multiple systematic reviews and clinical trials have found it produces no clinically meaningful weight loss compared to placebo. The FTC has specifically cited garcinia cambogia as an ingredient used in fraudulent weight loss claims. Liver toxicity has been reported in some users.

Raspberry ketones and green coffee bean extract were both heavily promoted after appearing on the Dr. Oz Show, generating enormous sales with no credible clinical evidence of weight loss efficacy. The FTC took action against marketers making unsupported claims for both. "Superfoods" marketed for weight loss — acai berry, moringa, goji berry — similarly have no clinical evidence of efficacy for weight reduction.

DNP is an industrial chemical sold illegally online as a diet drug. It causes dangerous increases in metabolic rate, resulting in hyperthermia (extreme overheating) and death. Health Canada and the FDA have both warned that DNP is not safe for human consumption at any dose. Multiple deaths have occurred worldwide, including in Canada. DNP is sold online under names including "Nitro Shred," "Fat Burner," and other disguised labels. If you see anyone selling DNP as a diet product, report it immediately to Health Canada.

Ephedra (ma huang) was banned in Canada and the United States following numerous deaths and serious cardiovascular events including heart attacks and strokes. It was widely used in diet pills and bodybuilding supplements. Despite the ban, ephedra-containing products continue to be sold online and shipped to Canada from foreign sources. Products containing synephrine (bitter orange) are sometimes marketed as ephedra substitutes with similar risks.

Detox diets, juice cleanses, and colon cleansing programs have no scientific evidence of benefit for weight loss or health. The human body has a liver, kidneys, and immune system that handle detoxification continuously. "Toxins" are never identified in detox marketing because they don't exist as defined by the promoters. Colon cleansing carries real risks including electrolyte imbalances, perforation, and infection. Despite this, detox products are a multi-billion dollar industry in Canada and worldwide.

Human growth hormone (HGH) is a protein hormone produced by the pituitary gland that plays a critical role in growth and development during childhood and adolescence, and in regulating metabolism in adults. Legitimate prescription HGH (somatropin) must be injected — it cannot be absorbed through the digestive tract because stomach acid destroys protein molecules before they can reach the bloodstream. This means that any oral pill, capsule, spray, or sublingual drop claiming to contain or deliver HGH is scientifically impossible — the HGH would be destroyed in digestion. So-called "HGH releasers" or "secretagogues" take a different approach: they claim to stimulate the pituitary gland to produce more HGH naturally. These products typically contain amino acids (arginine, lysine, ornithine, glutamine), herbs, and other ingredients in doses that have never been shown in rigorous clinical trials to produce meaningful increases in HGH levels or any of the claimed benefits.

HGH releaser products — including GHR-15 and similar products sold across North America — routinely make some or all of the following claims, none of which are supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence:

• Causes significant weight loss and fat reduction without diet or exercise
• Builds lean muscle mass
• Reverses the aging process
• Increases energy and sexual performance
• Improves skin tone, reduces wrinkles
• Strengthens bones and reduces risk of osteoporosis
• Endorsed by doctors, athletes, or celebrities
• Backed by "clinical studies" (which are invariably unpublished, unverified, or nonexistent)
• Safe and natural alternative to prescription HGH injections

Fraudulent endorsements by fake or misrepresented "doctors" are a hallmark of this category. GHR-15 ads in the Toronto Star on September 7, 1999, for example, featured four supposed endorsers: a chiropractor misrepresented as a physician, an Olympic sprinter with an honorary degree, a testimonial customer, and an unverifiable individual — none of whom were medical doctors with relevant expertise.

Two Florida businesses agreed to pay up to $20 million in consumer redress — the largest monetary judgment ever obtained in an FTC health fraud case at the time — to settle charges that they deceptively claimed their pills and sprays would increase HGH levels and provide anti-aging benefits including weight loss and increased cognitive function. The FTC simultaneously sent warning letters to more than 90 internet marketers making similar HGH claims, stating it was not aware of any competent and reliable scientific evidence to support claims that pills and sprays can increase the body's HGH levels and provide anti-aging benefits. The FTC published a consumer brochure titled "HGH Pills and Sprays: Human Growth Hype?" warning that neither the FTC nor the FDA is aware of any reliable evidence that pills and sprays described as HGH "boosters" or "releasers" provide anti-aging benefits.

Two operations marketing oral sprays as HGH products settled FTC charges that their claims were bogus. The FTC charged the sprays did not contain HGH or cause the body to increase production of HGH, and did not offer anti-aging, weight loss, or disease prevention effects. Marketing claims included: "LOSE WEIGHT WHILE YOU SLEEP without DIETING or EXERCISE" and "Experience up to an 82% IMPROVEMENT in body fat loss while erasing 10 YEARS in 10 WEEKS." These exact-style claims are typical of HGH releaser advertising generally.

The FTC used the US SAFE WEB Act to pursue an international spamming enterprise with defendants in the United States, Canada, and Australia that sold HGH "natural human growth hormone enhancer" products under names including "HGHLife" and "HGHPlus." The FTC's spam database received over 175,000 spam messages promoting the products. This was the first FTC action using the SAFE WEB Act to share information with foreign partners — highlighting the specifically cross-border, Canadian-connected nature of HGH releaser fraud.

The FDA issued a warning letter to AffordableHGH.com in 2002, stating that distribution of HGH for anti-aging purposes violates federal law. The FDA was explicit: "There are no recombinant hGH products that are approved by FDA for anti-aging treatment." Congress specifically authorized the Drug Enforcement Agency to investigate offenses related to HGH distribution. Providing HGH for anti-aging purposes is a criminal offence under US federal law.

Health Canada issued Advisory RA-11000659 on June 7, 2005 — just 87 days before Trueman Tuck filed the original 2005 action against Dr. Polevoy — specifically naming BIE Health Products and its GHR-15 product. Health Canada advised Canadians not to use GHR-15 because it had not been authorized for sale in Canada and its safety had not been established. GHR-15 was marketed as a "growth hormone releaser" with claims including weight loss, anti-aging, muscle building, and improved athletic performance. The four "doctors" endorsing GHR-15 in a September 7, 1999 Toronto Star advertisement were: Don E. Johnson (a chiropractor, not a physician), Ben Johnson (the Olympic sprinter disqualified for steroid use, holding only an honorary degree), Sara Khalsa (a testimonial customer, not a doctor), and John Danes (whose credentials were unverifiable). None were medical doctors with relevant expertise. The BIE litigation — CV-08-362242 — is a defamation SLAPP action brought against Dr. Polevoy arising from his consumer protection work documenting these false claims.

Real human growth hormone does decline with age — this is well established. What is not established is that restoring HGH levels produces the benefits advertised by HGH releaser products. A landmark 2007 analysis in the Annals of Internal Medicine reviewed all available evidence and found that while HGH injections did produce small changes in body composition (slight decrease in fat, slight increase in lean mass), they produced no improvement in strength or functional ability, and caused significant side effects including fluid retention, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and increased risk of diabetes. The review concluded that HGH was not ready for use as an anti-aging treatment. For non-prescription HGH releaser supplements — which cannot actually raise HGH levels in the first place — there is no credible evidence of any benefit whatsoever for weight loss, muscle building, or anti-aging.

• Is there peer-reviewed clinical trial evidence published in a recognized medical journal? Not testimonials — actual randomized controlled trials.
• Has Health Canada (or the FDA) approved this product specifically for weight loss? NPN numbers do NOT mean the product works.
• Does it make any of the FTC's seven Red Flag claims? If so, it's almost certainly a fraud.
• Is it sold primarily through infomercials, social media influencers, or celebrity endorsements? These are warning signs, not endorsements.
• Does it claim to work without diet or exercise? Nothing does.
• Is the "before and after" photo realistic, and does it disclose that results were achieved with diet and exercise?
• Can you find independent reviews — not paid testimonials — in mainstream medical or consumer publications?

If in doubt, consult your family physician before spending money on any diet product or program.