Over the past seven days, the FTC filed complaints in federal courts in Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Georgia, and Washington. The complaints named 10 website operators and asked the courts to freeze their assets.
The defendants paid more than $10 million to advertise their fake news sites, the FTC said. It is not clear whether the defendants allegedly running the sites are connected, although content on the sites is similar or the same, said FTC attorney Steven Wernikoff in Chicago.
“We’re still trying to figure that out,’’ Wernikoff told the Associated Press yesterday. “There was some copying of content going on. Regardless of the genesis of the content, the operators are still responsible for the deception on their sites.’’
Courts granted temporary restraining orders in some of the cases, and many of the websites have been taken down.
One typical lawsuit alleges that Tanner Garrett Vaughn of Mill Creek, Wash., asserted on BreakingNewsAt6.com that a reporter tested an açai berry product and lost 25 pounds in four weeks without dieting or exercise. The FTC says that no real reporter tested the products.
Vaughn is cooperating with the FTC, and the website is no longer operating, said Vaughn’s attorney James A. Kaminski, based in Washington, D.C.
“It’s our position that the defendant has done no wrong,’’ Kaminski said.
The Illinois attorney general’s office filed a separate lawsuit against Ishmael Lopez Jr. of Sauk Village. The office alleges that Lopez used a fake news site to promote açai weight-loss products. A phone listing for Lopez could not be found.
According to court filings, the scam worked like this:
A consumer uses Google or another search engine to seek information on açai, sometimes spelled acai. An ad pops up that says, “Health Reporter Discovers The Shocking Truth.’’ Clicking on that link leads the consumer to a fake news site featuring a first-person story about a fake reporter’s positive experience with the diet products. One more click and the consumer lands on an ad offering a “free trial’’ of an açai berry supplement.
The FTC received a number of complaints from those who paid from $70 to $100 for weight-loss products after having been duped by the fake news sites.
Açai, a popular beverage flavor, is a dark purple fruit from a palm found in Central and South America. Marketers sell a diet supplement purported to contain açai.
