So in the fine art of procrastination I thought while I was looking at facebook I would click a random rubbish advert on the side for some amusement!
By chance I randomly clicked on an advert saying something along the lines of "Lose 14lb in 2 weeks". I clicked on it and it took me to this website:
http://www.news7daily.tv/ft/index.php?t202id=2246%26amp;t202kw=728
Now I read this webpage and what it appears to do is have a "News Report" where "Julia Miller" the "Health and Diet Writer" talks about how skeptical she was about these acai berries and the stories she has had and so goes on to try them and WOW! they work wonders and she loses 25lbs in 2 weeks.
I am always a little skeptical of such things (as I believe most people are) however this is one of the better attempts I've seen!
The first give away clue is that at the top it has a picture of "Julia" with a little text below saying "Julia investigates the Acai Berry diet to find out for herself if this super diet works". It took me a moment to realise is that this picture of Julia is actually a photo of the rather good-looking french anchor woman - Melissa Theuriau
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_en-GBGB358GB358&um=1&q=melissa+theuriau&sa=N&start=84&ndsp=21
I just googled images of Melissa Theuriau and on page 3 there is the exact same image!
Don't ask how I knew it was Melissa Theuriau, let's just say I recognise anchor-ladies when I see them!
I wonder if she knows her face is being used to promote such a thing!
Second giveaway - Slightly more subtle,
The comments section has "conveniently" been closed due to spam. (The site should be closed due to spam!)
Third Giveaway
I googled Julia Miller and came up with nothing of any relevance
There are endless giveaways really! Including at the bottom in tiny font "This website, and any page on the website, is based loosely off a true story, but has been modified in multiple ways including, but not limited to: the story, the photos, and the comments."
Anyway enough of that. I wonder how may people have been scammed by such a thing!!
Done for now!
So how DO you know who that woman is..
ReplyDeleteWas checking out yet another nasty weather storm and did a similar thing, clicked on that random pop up to check out Julia Miller news 6 endorsement of this diet. Just a little bit of googling on Julia resulted in no less then four different photos of four different women claiming to be julia miller endorseing four different acai berry products. Intersting that no one has noticed this ;-)
ReplyDeleteDid the same thing as you, found your post. Saved me some time searching. Figured it was a fake. Thanks for checking into it.
ReplyDeletethanks for the info!!!! I though it was Bull shit but my co worker was going gunho!!! So I said let me research and Im glad I did!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, thank you. I too was about to check this story out when I noticed your article. Thank god for Google it has transformed pigeons to eagles.
ReplyDeleteThere are several of these sites out there. The name and news channel varies. The first one I stumbled upon was supposed to be for channel 6 news, which is CBS, but at the bottom of the page in fine print, it states no affiliation with CBS, CNN, FOX, etc. (I always read the fine print)I hope people are not sucked in by this fraudulent advertisement. Thanks for sharing this information, hopefully some people will be helped thanks to it!
ReplyDeleteI guess the ones pushing this stuff don't realize that by using such unscrupulous methods of advertisement that they are dissolving any credibility they could have hoped for regarding such a diet.
Thank you! I almost fell for it!
ReplyDeleteThank you all! Desperation can lead to a blind spot... Thankfully I too googled Julia Miller and here I am! It's amazing how often I see this ad pop-up. How can a scam like this is allowed to persist?!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part is the bar at the top that says "home" and "email us" and such and they aren't even links to anything!
ReplyDelete