pounds, 50 pounds, or more, now you can. without dieting. wow. more than 50 pounds without dieting? weight loss products promising amazing results without diet or exercise, well, it sounds like an answer to prayer. after all, who wouldn t rather smooth a cream on their tummy or spring al powder on top of their pizza to drop a couple pant sizes versus actually sweating it out at the gym or not eating so much? why not try this diet plan while you re at it? introducing the michael phelps diet. it s the only diet that lets you eat whatever michael phelps eats, and as you can tell, it works wonders for me. the sad part is the ftc, the federal trade commission, says some diet products on the market today are about just as effective as what michael phelps was pitching in his snl sketch. the federal trade commission fined four companies this week, sensa, l occitane, diet direct and hgb, accused of making bogus
true, not supported by skin scientific evidence, deceptively marketing these products and unfounded promises, these weight loss products. and they re going to pay a total of $34 million in fines and refunds to customers for these products. and, again, we talked about the sensa product that s a powder, supposed to be sprinkled on food to make you feel fuller, the two skin creams. these are things we all see, and that dieticians and nutritionists will tell you, it really is too good to be true. if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. basically one company you put some cream on your thigh, your thigh is going to look thinner and you re going to lose some weight. now they have to pay a fine. they do. the four companies total are paying $34 million, and just about all that will go to refunds of customers. we literally in the last few minutes have gotten statements from a couple of them. sensa says it stands behind its
year and a half. he s accused of embezzling 1.5 million from his bank. price disappeared after suggesting he was going to kill himself by jumping off a ferry boat. the head of the nation s largest sheriff s department is stepping down. in a surprise announcement los angeles county sheriff lee baca said he will not seek a re-election for a fifth term. citing negative perception the campaign would have on his embattled department. the department is facing several scandals, accused of beating inmates and jail visitors. makers of weight loss additive sensa have been ordered to refund customers $26 million. the ftc said it used deceptive advertising. sensa is also accused of using bogus clinical studies and paid endorsements. the company says it is standing behind the product. we can t resist calling it a
good old-fashioned horse manure. reporter: senator claire mccaskill is launching an investigation into those ads asking people to help by flagging potential scams. sensa is one of four diet supplementmakers the ftc has charged with deceptive advertising saying there s no proof those products work. other targets, hcg diet direct, distributorses of hormone drugs. place them under your tongue, the company says, and you ll lose weight fast. lean spa, the company shut down by using fake websites to market fake cloenzing and diet products. for almond scented skin creams which the company says could hone an inch of fat in a month. people want to lose weight and they don t want to work at it. reporter: they pay $34 million in settlements, the money returning to customers. they worried about who these companies are targeting. a teenage clients recently
was this hard for you? i could not believe how easy it was and how i didn t have to think. we reached out to octavia spencer to get the reaction to the ftc actions. we haven t heard back. you say even if these products worked for those actresses who were paid money to claim they worked for them, even if it did work, it doesn t matter. right. i mean, individual people might have success with a product, and you don t know what else they were doing, what kind of diet they may have been on or how much exercise they may have been doing. of course being motivated by payment helps too. but the issue is did the company have really good evidence to back up the claims they made that it works not just for that particular person but for everybody. so we want to read you the statements we got in reaction to this endorse frmt the ftc. the makers of sensa say, we stand behind sensa, a leading lifestyle tool that helps customers engage in proper portion control without traditional dieting, st