A couple of years ago, I wrote about Fake Blogs being used to promote marketing scams. It seems that the fake bloggers have moved on to become Fake News sites.
The fake blog scam used a fake blog to show how the fake blogger had lost weight using 2 magic products they saw on Oprah. They gave rave reviews to the products and had lots of fake comments too. They link you to a site to get supposedly free samples. If you signed up, you got put on a monthly subscription for $70 per month or something like that, without really knowing you signed up for anything.
Ads for these kinds of sites were all over the internet, including the big search engines like Google. Google took steps to stop these ads from showing on their site by banning everyone whoever ran an ad to such a site. They did it without appeal or warning. Just banned people for life. They banned me too because I had tested ads to see if they were hard to get approved. They weren’t hard to get approved. Google had no problems with them until much later when the FTC got involved. Despite Google’s harsh treatment of its customers, at least you won’t find those ads there any more.
Not so for Bing, Huffington Post, Fox News and other big name sites. They still run ads for these scammers. The ads look like these and point to Fake News sites promoting wrinkle cream or weight loss or whatever.
This first example is an ad from Bing, followed by ads from Huffington Post and Fox News.
The one below is from the Huffington Post.
This one is from Fox News:
These ads point to sites that look like these:
These sites claim to be advertisements at the top of the page. But it’s not clear what part is an ad. In fact the entire site is an ad with fake news stories, fake endorsements and fake comments. They even disclaim that they are all fake at the bottom of the page in some really fine print in faded colars at the bottom of the page saying something like:
* We are not affiliated in any way with Headline News, CNN or USA Today. Headline News, CNN, Newsweek, Shape and USA Today are all registered trademarks of their respective owners. ® All trademarks on this web site whether registered or not, are the property of their respective owners. The authors of this web site are not sponsored by or affiliated with any of the third-party trade mark or third-party registered trade mark owners, and make no representations about them, their owners, their products or services.
* THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.
* The story depicted on this site and the person depicted in the story are not real. rather this story is based on the results that some people who have used these products have achieved. The results portrayed in the story and in the comments are illustrative and may not be the results that you achieve with these products. this page receives compensation for clicks on or purchase of products featured on this site.
The depictions on this page are fictitious and indicitive of potential results. Actual results may vary.
*DermaLift-SP Terms & Conditions:
By placing my order, I agree to the Terms of Offer, which explain that I must cancel within 30 days of today to avoid enrollment in monthly delivery program, which ships fresh supply and charges $69.95 upon the end of the trial period, and subsequently $69.95 monthly thereafter. You will be charged on same card provided today. If you wish to cancel, please call: xxxxxxxxxx If You have any questions about Our Risk Free Trial, please contact Our Customer Service Department toll-free at xxxxxxxx
These sites are scams in my opinion. They are no better than the fake blogs. The FTC should take them down and sites like Bing, Huffington Post and Fox News should be fined for letting these kinds of ads run.
BTW if you look at the ads above that run on Huffington Post and Fox News, there is one titled Veterans Administration. It is not any part of the real Department of Veterans Affairs, but it sure does a good job of sounding official. My guess is that that’s some sort of scam too.