This scam disguises itself as a legitimate news article using the branding from Fox News. This is NOT a fox news article. If you inspect the URL carefully, you will see that it actually links to foxworldnews.today and not the actual Fox News website. The scam also falsely claims the product appeared on the hit TV show Shark Tank, with a record breaking investment from the sharks.
The scam is elaborate. If you go to Google to search for the product, most of what you will find is more lies corroborating the lies from the website of the scammer. We went a bit deeper. If you needed any further confirmation that this is a scam – this is Mark Cuban calling on the FTC and FBI to take down the scam.
How the Scam Reaches Consumers
We stumbled onto this scam through a pop-up advertisement on a very trustworthy site. The way scammers like this get their advertisements to show up on legitimate sites and through legitimate ad networks, is called “Cloaking”. Using a few lines of programming code, they will show the ad approval team one website, while showing consumers a completely different one. Cloaking has been going on for years but the methods have become increasingly sophisticated over time. For example – the scammers might know the location where the ad approval team is physically located. They know the approval team would not approve such a blatant scam. Using the knowledge of the approval teams physical location, the scammers can make it so that anyone from that city or state will see a “clean” website for a completely different product or service, while everyone else sees the scam.
What Are They Selling?
These scammy products are a dime a dozen. They come and go. This particular page will update with new products when the product owners eventually get cold feet, get sued, disappear with millions of dollars, or when their merchant accounts are frozen due to an abnormally high charge back amount. The products this page has advertised since we’ve been monitoring it were “Keto Power” and “Ultra Fast Keto Boost”. When one product goes down, they just change a couple links and they are back in business.
Other Reasons This is an Obvious Scam
It’s too good to be true folks. 50lbs in 61 Days? Come on… we all want to be in shape but this is incredibly unrealistic. None of the dietary claims made on this page are even remotely close to accurate. The page uses logos from many authoritative brands such as Fox News, The New York Times, the Today Show, Oprah, Style Watch and Redbook, in order to create the illusion of legitimacy. This is how they trick people into thinking the claims on the page are factual.
What to Do If You Are a Victim
If you were victimized by this scam, or one like it, call your credit card company and ask to dispute the charge. Scams like these are dangerous because they often times bill every month and they are notorious for adding on multiple other products without your knowledge or consent. People end up with hundreds of dollars in credit card and/or bank charges and are often unable to reach a customer service department for the company billing them.
How to Help End the Scam for Good
If you were a victim of this scam, you can help protect other people from falling victim by submitting a complaint at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov. The more complaints the FTC receives, the higher the priority will be to stop the scam, bring the scammers to justice, and refund money to the victims. The sad part is, most of the money will be spent and the victims will only receive a fraction of what they were scammed out of back.
Evidence and Documentation
The below file is a PDF copy of the entire scam page in its entirety as of 10/4/2019 which can be used as evidence. The page in question is located at: https://www.foxworldnews.today/shark/ultrafastketo/ and the product page it is currently linking to is: https://ultrafastketoboost.com/
Nameservers for foxworldnews.today
- dina.ns.cloudflare.com
- aragorn.ns.cloudflare.com
Domain Registration Dates for foxworldnews.today
- Created on 9/20/2017
- Updated on 8/26/2019
- Expires on 9/20/2020
Domain Registrar for foxworldnews.today
- NameCheap, Inc.
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