The claim

The women's magazine Women's Health advertises the weight loss pills PLUS in an article, which are said to achieve very good weight loss success in a very short time without exercise. In addition, the global star Adele is also said to have promoted the tablets.

Our conclusion

The advertising described for the PLUS weight loss pills on Facebook is dubious. A shortened link is used to link to a fake Women's Health website and fake testimonials such as the artist Adele have already been used.

Recently, an increasing number of photo posts have appeared on Facebook in which young women advertise a weight loss pill and which link to a landing page that purports to belong to the women's magazine Women's Health. In the meantime, the pills were also advertised by global star Adele, who most likely knows nothing about them. However, these posts have since disappeared from the internet. ( HERE )

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Screenshot: Facebook

Fake Women's Health website

Anyone who follows this link will land on a website that at first glance looks like an editorial article from the women's magazine Women's Health.

The Health News section reports on a new type of weight loss pill called PLUS in a journalistic style and without any reference to advertising content.

The article's teaser highlights the supposedly excellent effect of the natural preparation and claims that it probably saved the life of a user. As the article continues, other overweight women demonstrate the alleged effects of the preparation in before and after pictures. You see women who are significantly overweight, obviously suffering and have lost massive amounts of weight. It is promised that the product can lead to significant sales success within a few weeks. However, if you take a closer look at the website, you can quickly see that it is NOT a Women's Health site.

Features of the fake site

As expected, the correct domain for Women's Health is Womenshealth.de . However, the domain of the fake site is nfuid. com . There is also the nfzbf variant. com . Different URL, same content. It would be extremely unusual if a reputable publication did not operate under its own domain, or if it published the same content online under multiple URLs, none of which have anything to do with the main domain. The senders are apparently also trying to cover up the wrong domain in the URL address window by explicitly mentioning the term “Women's Health.de Editorial Team” below the logo.

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The fake page is also designed completely differently than the original page. There are two blatant spelling errors in the headline (marked in the screenshot above). Of course, reputable media also make mistakes, but these can be corrected relatively quickly, especially online.

For comparison: the original website

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Screenshot of the real website of womenshealth.de

Other features of the fake site:

  • Below the fake article there is a very lavish comment section with opinions from supposed readers who
    encourage potential customers to buy the product.
  • The mandatory imprint is missing.
  • The preview images in the right column are not provided with links to the corresponding articles. They cannot be clicked.
  • There is only one article on the pages about the weight loss pills, no others.
  • A search for relevant search terms from the displayed article on the real Women's Health site yields no results. Nothing has been published about this product.

Once the interested reader has read through the first paragraphs, she will reach the first option of jumping to another page via a link behind the product name PLUS.

Landing page purchase target calculator

The link leads to a landing page with a calculator for the individual purchase goal. After entering your weight, starting and target weight, gender and age, you will receive information about the result of taking the product after 40 days. The landing page is decorated in serious blue tones, but has neither an imprint nor a menu that leads you to a higher-level homepage.

There is also a professionally made video embedded that presents an international study. Who wrote the study remains unclear. It promises an average weight loss of 16.2 kg in 12 weeks when taking a single “Prima” capsule per day. And without any significant exercise (watch out!? The product was just called PLUS). ( HERE )

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Screenshot with video still image on plus-prognose.com

At the end of the video, a web address is displayed that leads to another landing page with an order option. As soon as Facebook users have left Facebook, they are guided through an information process to pages that appear much more reputable until they end up on an order page where the product can be ordered online. In addition to return conditions, you will also find an imprint there.

This legal notice mentions a company called PLUS, which is said to be located in Almere, near Amsterdam. A Google search with name and address then leads to the company Premium Health BV at the same address. The slimming product is apparently a brand in this provider's portfolio.

Facebook advertising by third parties

Further research then leads to a Stern article in which the company Premium Health explains that it does not do Facebook advertising itself, but that this is done by third parties. ( HERE )

But if the company's statement that it doesn't advertise on Facebook is true, why would someone direct Facebook users who want to lose weight to an online shop if they don't benefit from it? This only makes sense if the creators of the Facebook posts benefit in some way from bringing customers to the shop.

Affiliate links?

The URL to which the fake Women's Health article links provides a clue to the possible background:

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The crucial word is the term affiliate. Affiliate links are a typical online marketing phenomenon in which companies pay commissions to their sales partners when they use their own reach and promote a product or company on their own channels.

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Source: Star ( HERE )

Diet pill advertising campaign

A Google search for the claim on the packaging “High-dose capsules for supporting weight control” leads to numerous hits with weight loss pills under the name Plus or Prima, all of which have the same characteristic logo in the shape of a P. The product is sometimes also presented in real media such as the Eßlinger Zeitung. Here the posts are properly marked as advertisements so that the promotional nature is clear. ( HERE ) Apparently money is actually flowing into an online advertising campaign. And it is also quite common to use affiliate marketing. However, companies generally attach great importance to working with reputable partners.

Conclusion

The advertising described for the PLUS weight loss pills on Facebook is dubious. A shortened link is used to link to a fake Women's Health website and fake testimonials such as the artist Adele have already been used. The amateurish design of the photo posts clearly indicates that the direct sender is probably not the company whose products are to be sold.

As soon as Facebook users click on the shortened link in the post text on the fake magazine page, they are taken to a landing page that is designed to be much more professional and is presumably the responsibility of the Dutch company Premium Health BV. In connection with the start-up Bitterliebe, the company itself points out that Facebook is not used for advertising, only through third parties.

The URL of the landing page contains the term affiliate, so it can be assumed that the senders of the Facebook post benefit financially when users reach the Premium Health BV landing page via their post and the fake Women's Health page. There they are guided to an order page using a purchase target calculator and information video in order to order the product online.

In keeping with the topic: Warning about the dubious weight loss videos on Facebook!


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )