EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — For the first time, the Federal Trade Commission is taking action against a company that used fake online reviews to sell its product.
According to the FTC, Naftula Jacobowitz, the owner of Cure Encapuslations, Inc. paid amazonverifiedreviews.com to write and post fake reviews about “Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia Extract with HCA” capsules, which was marketed as an appetite-suppressing, fat-blocking weight loss pill.
According to court documents, Jacobowitz demanded 30 fabricated reviews to boost his overall rating to 4.3 out of 5 stars. The FTC also accused the company of making false and unsubstantiated claims about the product.
Now, Cure Encapsulations and Jacobowitz are facing a $12.8 million judgment, which will be suspended upon payment of $50,000 to the FTC.
The company’s settlement with the FTC also prohibits the defendants “from making weight-loss, appetite-suppression, fat-blocking, or disease-treatment claims for any dietary supplement, food, or drug unless they have competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing supporting the claims,” according to the FTC.
Cure Encapsulations is also required to notify consumers who purchased the supplement.
The Better Business Bureau’s Paula Fleming says fake reviews for products and services run rampant online.
“It’s just unfortunate that consumers don’t know who to trust anymore,” Fleming said. “It doesn’t only hurt the business, but it hurts the customers.”
In some cases, companies pay for positive reviews to boost business. In other cases, the goal is to tank the competition.
“What we have seen is competitors logging on and using alias email addresses and writing negative customer reviews,” Fleming said. “It’s actually increased year over year.”
Consumers can sift through the fakes.
“What I encourage people to do is go to a verified source,” Fleming explained. “A verified customer review means that the business has been contacted and that it is indeed a customer of that business.”
According to the BBB, consumers should also:
BBB research shows 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Susan Campbell (scampbell@wpri.com) is the Call 12 for Action and Target 12 consumer investigator for WPRI 12 and Fox Providence. Follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.
The maker of a supposed fat-blocking weight-loss pill that didn’t help much with weight loss paid for fake Amazon reviews to push its false and misleading claims, the Federal Trade Commission said in a lawsuit announced yesterday.
It’s the first time the FTC has filed a lawsuit “challenging a marketer’s use of fake paid reviews on an independent retail website,” the agency said. The FTC complaint was filed against Cure Encapsulations, Inc. and its owner, Naftula Jacobowitz, in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The defendants have agreed to settle the case, pay a $50,000 fine, and notify past customers that there’s no scientific evidence backing up the weight-loss claims. Customers may get refunds, but it’s not definite.
The FTC said its complaint “alleges that the defendants made false and unsubstantiated claims on their Amazon product page, including through the purchased reviews, that their garcinia cambogia product is a ‘powerful appetite suppressant,’ ‘Literally BLOCKS FAT From Forming,’ causes significant weight loss, including as much as twenty pounds, and causes rapid and substantial weight loss, including as much as two or more pounds per week.
“[T]he reviews the defendants bought were posted on Amazon.com and gave the product a five-star rating,” the FTC also said. “The complaint charges the defendants with representing that the purchased Amazon reviews were truthful reviews written by actual purchasers, when in reality they were fabricated.”
In October 2014, Jacobowitz agreed to pay $1,000 to www.amazonverifiedreviews.com, a website that no longer exists but which “offered Amazon sellers the ability to “‘Push your product towards the top!’ using ‘verified’ product reviews that will ‘help your product rank better in the internal search engine,'” the FTC complaint said. Jacobowitz asked for 30 reviews and asked the operator of Amazon Verified Reviews to “Please make sure my product should stay a five star.”
The resulting five-star reviews, which were listed in the complaint, included the following:
- “I started to using this product 2 months ago and I have lost 15 pounds already. Don’t get me wrong, I was originally 150 pounds and 5’6. I haven’t felt dizzy or anything as these 1-star reviews said, which I was worried at the beginning. Will definitely keep buying!”
- “Wow. I’m actually still amazed that it worked way faster than I expected. I have lost 20 pounds by using these amazing capsules. The pills help you with your intake of food, cleans all toxins from your body and does not allow fat or sugar to stick. Highly recommended! 3.”
- “This product really cuts your appetite! I didn’t eat much and i was already feeling full. I used this product for 3 month’s and I am very glad I did. It helps with weight loss. I really love it.”-
- “lost 10 pounds in the past 2 months, while not a single pound from boobs, lol.”-
- “made in the USA. safety ensured. 110lb to 100lb in 40 days, its beyond 5 star.”-
- “Lost 7 pounds in one month. What more can I say? I was originally 140 pounds and 5’6. Now I felt like a model. lol.”
The FTC accused the defendants of violating US law by making false or unsubstantiated efficacy claims and by making false endorsement claims through the fake Amazon reviews.
Amazon itself has cracked down on fake reviews over the years, in part by suing the operator of websites that sold reviews. Amazon emailed Ars with a statement saying that it “welcome[s] the FTC’s work in this area.”
“Amazon invests significant resources to protect the integrity of reviews in our store because we know customers value the insights and experiences shared by fellow shoppers,” Amazon said. “Even one inauthentic review is one too many. We have clear participation guidelines for both reviewers and selling partners and we suspend, ban, and take legal action on those who violate our policies.”
The defendants’ “Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia Extract with HCA” pills were sold only on Amazon.com. Each pill contained 500mg of garcinia cambogia extract, which in turn included 300mg of hydroxycitric acid (HCA), and the company recommended taking two pills a day. The company sold bottles, containing 180 capsules each, for $19.99 a bottle.
According to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) fact sheet, weight-loss pill makers have claimed that the hydroxycitric acid (HCA) in garcinia cambogia fruit can “decrease the number of new fat cells your body makes, suppress your appetite and thus reduce the amount of food you eat, and limit the amount of weight you gain.”
In reality, “Garcinia cambogia has little to no effect on weight loss,” the NIH says. The NIH further says that Garcinia cambogia “seems to be fairly safe,” but “can cause headache, nausea, and symptoms in the upper respiratory tract, stomach, and intestines.”
An exhibit in the lawsuit provided this screenshot of the now-deleted Amazon page from February 8, 2017:
The FTC has not said how many customers bought the product.
The proposed settlement includes a judgment of $12.85 million, but most of it would be suspended, and defendants would be ordered to pay the FTC only $50,000. The deal letting Cure Encapsulations and Jacobowitz off the hook for most of the financial penalty “is expressly premised upon the truthfulness, accuracy, and completeness of Defendants’ sworn financial statements and related documents,” the proposed settlement says.
All money paid to the commission will “be used for equitable relief, including consumer redress and any attendant expenses for the administration of any redress fund,” the proposed settlement says.
But the settlement says it’s possible that there won’t be any refunds if it turns out to be “impracticable.”
“If a representative of the Commission decides that direct redress to consumers is wholly or partially impracticable or money remains after redress is completed, the Commission may apply any remaining money for such other equitable relief (including consumer information remedies) as it determines to be reasonably related to Defendants’ practices alleged in the Complaint,” the settlement says. “Any money not used for such equitable relief is to be deposited to the US Treasury as disgorgement.”
Officially, the defendants did not admit or deny any of the allegations. But they agreed to identify customers who bought the product on or after March 6, 2017, and send this exact email to them:
Subject Line: FTC says company deceptively advertised a product you bought
Dear Customer:
Our records show you bought our Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia Extract with HCA product. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, has charged us with deceptive advertising. To settle the case, we have agreed to send this notice to people who bought our product.
According to the FTC, we deceptively claimed–among other things–that our product causes significant weight loss, is a powerful appetite suppressant, and blocks the formation of new fat cells. We don’t have scientific proof for any of those claims.
You might want to look at the attached National Institutes of Health fact sheet on dietary supplements for weight loss. It discusses common ingredients in weight-loss dietary supplements, including garcinia cambogia. It says, “Garcinia cambogia has little to no effect on weight loss.” The fact sheet also addresses other topics, including whether weight-loss dietary supplements can be harmful and choosing a sensible approach to weight loss.
Sincerely,
Naftula Jacobowitz Chief Executive Officer Cure Encapsulations, Inc.
The emails would have to be sent within 30 days after the settlement is approved by the court.
Article source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/02/ftc-lipoes-diet-company-for-fake-amazon-reviews-of-fat-blocking-pills/
On the Snyk.io site they've announced the release of their State of Open Source Security Report for 2019. In this report they talk about packages and managers outside of the PHP ecosystem, but there's also plenty in there about general Open Source security, regardless of the technology used.
We’ve seen big technology players doubling-down on open source in 2018. In every registry we reviewed, we saw an increasing rate of open source libraries being indexed in every language ecosystem. This is to be expected, but the rate of growth may come as a surprise to many.[...] In 2017 the CVE list reported more than 14,000 vulnerabilities, breaking the record for the most CVEs reported in a single year. 2018 continued the record-breaking streak with over 16,000 vulnerabilities reported.
We can see how open source package growth translates into user adoption when looking at the download numbers for various packages in different ecosystems.
They specifically cover packages in the Node.js, Python and Java worlds but the same principles apply to PHP and Composer packages too. There's a few other related posts that go into more detail on the vulnerability increases, the desire for Open Source developers to be security-minded and other topics. You can get all of the information in one place, though: the PDF version of the report.
In a new post to his site Christian Scheb has written up a guide to help you set up inspections in PHPStorm to help make your continuous integration process simpler.
Did you know that PHPStorm (or any other Jetbrains IDE) can run inspections from command line and generate XML files for the results? This is a great “hidden” feature of those IDEs and machine-readable output means it can be somehow integrated with a continuous integration (CI) process. So let’s do this!
He walks you through the full process to get the integration set up to easily report the results of various code inspections:
All commands and configuration examples are included.
In a new post to his blog, Leonid Mamchenkov has linked to a resource that aims to help developers refactor their code to use best practices and design patterns: Refactoring.Guru.
Refactoring.Guru is a great resource for learning about refactoring best practices and design patterns. A lot of the website’s content is also available as Dive into Design Patterns ebook.Today I came across this GitHub repository, which makes this resource even better specifically for PHP developers. Yup, that’s right, the GitHub repository features all code examples written in PHP 7.3, making it super easy to jump into coding.
The repository includes a Composer configuration to pull in some analysis tools and includes examples of about twenty different design patterns in use.
Tomas Votruba has put together a new post with a list of five helpful hints for working with GitHub in your development projects.
The best programmers aren't the smartest in the field. They're lazy, they know their tools well and they know good tools other programmers don't.Do you know the following tips?
His tips include using single-character console command aliases, receiving notifications only when a new package release is made, and the use of the refined-github browser (Chrome/FireFox/Opera) to help reduce required clicks. He also shows how to implement Composer "scripts" for use on the command line - a very useful extension to your Composer configuration.5 Tips to Effective Work with Github Repository
The burgeoning field of complementary medicines, including weight-loss products, is now a billion-dollar industry. Every year, more people are spending disposable income on complementary and alternative medicines that may prove to have no benefit for our health.
Garcinia Cambogia is one such example. Marketed as a weight-loss pill, it has had an exponential rise in sales since it was featured on the Doctor Oz show.
Garcinia cambogia is the former scientific name of a native Southeast Asian plant, belonging to the family Clusiaceae, that bears a pumpkin-shaped fruit. The skin of the fruit contains the active ingredient, hydroxycitric acid (HCA). HCA inhibits an enzyme that produces fatty acid, thus suppressing fatty acid and the processing of cholesterol.
But does this mode of action translate to the weight-loss claims associated with it? Or is it just clever marketing convincing us this product helps us lose weight?
Double-blinded, randomised controlled trials are the gold standard of clinical study and whenever possible should be conducted to test the effectiveness of a treatment compared to a placebo. Weight-loss products should be assessed for a minimum of six months, with a further six-month follow-up period (12 months total).
There has never been a long-term study investigating the efficacy of Garcinia Cambogia. Most of the studies have been conducted in animals.
In fact, the majority of well-designed trials investigating the effect of this product on weight loss have found no effect that is of clinical relevance. In a 12-week double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted in humans, people receiving 3000mg of Garcinia Cambogia extract (1500mg of the active component HCA) per day lost the same amount of weight as the control group.
Another 12-week study with a four-week follow-up (16 weeks total) also found no greater weight-loss effect than for a placebo control group. For those studies where a statistically significant effect was reported, the weight loss was around one kilogram more than for those receiving a placebo pill.
Positive and greater weight losses were found in some studies, but this effect is suppressed when looking at all of the studies combined.
With respect to other health benefits from taking this supplement, the evidence to suggest it can improve blood cholesterol levels is lacking.
Most importantly, the product safety profile of Garcinia Cambogia has been adequately tested and there appear to be no issues.
Some complementary medicines have been found to contribute to improved health outcomes, through increased efficacy and cost-effectiveness. However, if there is to be a role for such complementary and alternative weight-loss products and medicines, we must build upon the evidence to investigate whether these increasingly popular products are a viable treatment option.
A recent Obesity Australia and Price Waterhouse Coopers report found obesity cost Australia A$8.6 billion in 2011-2012, with the indirect costs far higher. We must establish whether complementary medicines have a role to play in preventing and treating obesity. If we take no action to reduce obesity rates, an additional 2.4 million people will become obese at a cost of $87.7 billion over 10 years.
Please visit this website if you’re interested in taking part in our clinical weight-loss trials on Garcinia Cambogia and other weight-loss supplements.
The Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday evening that it has brought its first case against using fake reviews to sell products online. The Commission said it will settle with defendant Cure Encapsulations Inc., a New York City-based company, and owner Naftula Jacobwitz, who it accused of making false claims about a weight loss supplement and paying a third-party website to post fake reviews on Amazon.
Fake reviews are a constant nuisance for Amazon shoppers, despite algorithms designed to safeguard its review system, and the company has hit back with a series of lawsuits against websites that offer to post fake verified reviews.
According to the FTC’s complaint, Cure Encapsulations sold pills with garcinia cambogia, a tropical fruit also called brindleberry that is sometimes used as a “natural” weight loss aid. Called Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia, the pills were sold only on Amazon. Jacobwitz paid a website called www.amazonverifiedreviews.com to post favorable reviews in order to boost its rating.
An exhibit from the FTC’s complaint against Cure Encapsulations Inc.
On October 8, 2014, Jacobowitz sent an email to the site’s operator saying he’d pay a total of $1,000 for 30 reviews, three per day, with the goal of increasing its 4.2 rating to 4.3, which he claimed was necessary in order to have sales. He also wrote that he wanted the product to “stay a five star.” Www.amazonverifiedreviews.com then posted a series of fake five-star reviews praising the pills. The FTC said the reviews made false claims, including that the pills were a powerful appetite suppressant, caused weight loss of up to 20 pounds, and blocked the formation of new fat cells.
The proposed settlement includes a judgement of $12.8 million, to be suspended upon payment of $50,000 to the FTC and certain unpaid income tax obligations. The settlement also bans Cure Encapsulations and Jacobwitz from making weight-loss, fat-blocking, or disease-treatment claims for dietary supplements, food, or drugs, unless they have reliable scientific evidence from clinical trials in humans. They are also prohibited from making misrepresentations about endorsements, including fake reviews, and must tell Amazon which reviews were faked and email customers who have bought the pills to give them information about FTC’s allegations.
In press release, Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said “When a company buys fake reviews to inflate its Amazon ratings, it hurts both shoppers and companies that play by the rules.”
In a statement to The Verge, an Amazon spokesperson said “We welcome the FTC’s work in this area. Amazon invests significant resources to protect the integrity of reviews in our store because we know customers value the insights and experiences shared by fellow shoppers. Even one inauthentic review is one too many. We have clear participation guidelines for both reviewers and selling partners and we suspend, ban, and take legal action on those who violate our policies.”
Article source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/26/ftc-brings-its-first-case-against-fake-paid-reviews-on-amazon/
We web designers put a lot of hard work into our projects while keeping a number of goals in mind. For instance, we have to be cognizant of what our clients are trying to achieve. Then there are the issues of usability and accessibility. Performance and simplified future maintenance are certainly worthy goals as well.
But through all of this, we’re essentially working towards launching our creation for the world to see. Yet, even though we have this glorious event in the back of our mind, it can still seem incredibly chaotic when the time finally comes. Why is that?
When you think about it, there are a number of things that can lead to a hurried, problematic website launch. Today, we’ll take a closer look at a few of the most common issues you might face and some common-sense advice on avoiding chaos. Let’s get started!
No one ever said that working with clients is easy. But nobody said it was going to be this difficult, either. Indeed, some projects seem to take on a roller-coaster-like pace. You go from working feverishly on design to waiting weeks or months for that final approval to finish the job.
The ironic part of this is that we often attempt to coordinate a project timeline early on in the process. Everyone’s agreeable and excited to get things done. Only once the real work has started, formerly-rigid dates start to get tossed aside.
Before you know it, your client has informed you that (after not hearing from them for a month) the site has to be launched as soon as possible. This sets you off on a wild goose chase as you attempt to put all the pieces into place.
And, the faster you try to get things done, the more likely it is that a mistake will be made. That sets the whole process back and puts you further behind the old 8-ball.
As hard as this is to say, not everything is the client’s fault! Designers also make mistakes that can lead to a difficult launch process.
Among the biggest issues we bring upon ourselves is procrastination. Design and development work take up so much of our focus. Therefore, we tend to put off those little launch-related details until further notice. When the time comes, we might not be fully prepared to get things done.
Quite often it is those little details that can trip us up. Because, even if your projects tend to be similarly built, each site can have its own nuances that slip past us. For example, you may be accustomed to launching sites built with WordPress, but different themes and plugins could require extra steps you need to account for.
And, those changing timelines mentioned above also play a role. If you keep telling yourself that you won’t have to deal with launch-related issues for a while, a sudden change in schedule can throw a monkey-wrench into your plans.
Sometimes, you think you have all of your bases covered. And still, launching your site becomes a hot mess. Why? Because a third-party service provider or app drops the ball.
Virtually anything can happen. For instance, a web host could go down or an updated piece of software suddenly has a conflict with your setup. Even when you do everything right, chaos still reigns supreme.
This might be the most frustrating of the lot, because you have no control over the situation. However, the reality is that we often have to rely on others when doing our job. Bringing these disparate pieces together to get a website up and running is a required risk that we can’t necessarily avoid.
Now that we know some of the most prevalent issues that get in the way, let’s look at some things we can do to improve our chances of a smooth launch:
Think About the Launch Before and During You Build
Preparation is the best way to ensure that you can handle any situation. So, even if you don’t necessarily know every last detail of your site build, you should still start thinking about how best to launch it.
You might, for example, start up a checklist of common launch-related items that you do for every project. Then, think about the particular project you’re working on and any special considerations you need to make. As things progress and potentially change, you can then adjust your checklist accordingly.
It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. Even some well-written notes in a text file can help keep everything you need to know in mind and easily referenceable.
Keep Backups
When developing a site, it’s not uncommon to find yourself trying out all sorts of code while looking for that perfect solution. Sometimes that includes updating plugins or your CMS. This could potentially lead to one of those aforementioned software conflicts.
That’s why it’s beneficial to keep appropriate files and databases backed up during development. If one of those last-minute gremlins pops up, you can simply turn to a backup.
Expect the Unexpected
There are certain things that we simply can’t control. Clients are among the most impactful when it comes to doing our job. All of our best laid plans can be wiped away by the decisions they make.
And, while you should certainly try to work with your clients on crafting a solid plan, it’s also important to realize that everything is subject to change. Knowing that, you can be better prepared for whatever comes your way.
It’s hard to imagine a website launch that doesn’t include at least a little bit of stress. But that doesn’t mean we can’t streamline the process and make things easier for ourselves.
The key to it all is in being prepared. Know your stuff before you have to and understand that changes can come without warning. The more prepared you are to start with, the better you’ll be able to adapt to any surprises.
To start, think about your typical launch process and the pain points you encounter. Then, create something you can reference (like that checklist). From there, stay ready and tell the world to bring it on.
The post Ready for Launch: Avoiding Chaos appeared first on Speckyboy Web Design Magazine.
