{"id":508557,"date":"2026-01-11T13:09:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/508557\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T13:09:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:09:30","slug":"new-weight-loss-scams-fueled-by-glp-1-hype-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/508557\/","title":{"rendered":"New weight-loss scams fueled by GLP-1 hype"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy have surged in popularity, but so have scams targeting people eager to access the drugs \u2014 or products claiming to deliver similar results.  &#8220;What we\u2019ve been seeing in our scam tracker is advertisements about supplements that work just as well as a GLP-1 medication would,&#8221; said Melanie McGovern, a spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau. The BBB says that reports to its scam tracker spiked in late 2025, as fake promises of rapid weight loss flooded social media feeds. &#8220;AI-generated ads were popping up everywhere,&#8221; said McGovern. Many of those ads involved deepfakes of celebrities. One example the BBB shared with the National Consumer Unit included a widely circulated fake video impersonating Oprah Winfrey to promote a so-called &#8220;natural&#8221; weight-loss product.Winfrey addressed the use of artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes of her likeness in a letter published by our Hearst partner Oprah Daily in August.&#8221;Every week, my lawyers and I are playing whack-a-mole with fake AI videos of me selling everything from gummies to pink salt,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;Let me say this clearly: If you see an ad with my face on a &#8216;product,&#8217; it\u2019s fake.&#8221;The BBB says scammers are capitalizing on the public&#8217;s familiarity with GLP-1 drugs. To spot a scam, there&#8217;s one clear warning sign above all others: any treatment offered without a prescription. &#8220;If they\u2019re saying, &#8216;Hey, we\u2019ve got it, just come on and pay us this amount of money,&#8217; that\u2019s a huge red flag \u2014 the biggest of the red flags,&#8221; McGovern said.McGovern emphasized that legitimate telehealth providers do exist for GLP-1 medications, but consumers should carefully research companies and consult their doctor before pursuing treatment.&#8221;It\u2019s your health. It is something that you are injecting into your body to make you healthier,&#8221; she said. &#8220;So, you want to make sure that your doctor is on board and is aware of what you\u2019re doing.&#8221;Consumers are also urged never to share personal health or insurance information without first confirming a company is legitimate. Anyone who encounters a suspected scam is encouraged to report it to the BBB\u2019s Scam Tracker and to the Federal Trade Commission.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy have surged in popularity, but so have scams targeting people eager to access the drugs \u2014 or products claiming to deliver similar results.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we\u2019ve been seeing in our scam tracker is advertisements about supplements that work just as well as a GLP-1 medication would,&#8221; said Melanie McGovern, a spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau. <\/p>\n<p>The BBB says that reports to its scam tracker spiked in late 2025, as fake promises of rapid weight loss flooded social media feeds. &#8220;AI-generated ads were popping up everywhere,&#8221; said McGovern. <\/p>\n<p>Many of those ads involved deepfakes of celebrities. One example the BBB shared with the National Consumer Unit included a widely circulated fake video impersonating Oprah Winfrey to promote a so-called &#8220;natural&#8221; weight-loss product.<\/p>\n<p>Winfrey addressed the use of artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes of her likeness in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oprahdaily.com\/life\/a65578118\/oprah-misinformation-intention\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">letter published by our Hearst partner Oprah Daily<\/a> in August.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every week, my lawyers and I are playing whack-a-mole with fake AI videos of me selling everything from gummies to pink salt,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;Let me say this clearly: If you see an ad with my face on a &#8216;product,&#8217; it\u2019s fake.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The BBB says scammers are capitalizing on the public&#8217;s familiarity with GLP-1 drugs. To spot a scam, there&#8217;s one clear warning sign above all others: any treatment offered without a prescription. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If they\u2019re saying, &#8216;Hey, we\u2019ve got it, just come on and pay us this amount of money,&#8217; that\u2019s a huge red flag \u2014 the biggest of the red flags,&#8221; McGovern said.<\/p>\n<p>McGovern emphasized that legitimate telehealth providers do exist for GLP-1 medications, but consumers should carefully research companies and consult their doctor before pursuing treatment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s your health. It is something that you are injecting into your body to make you healthier,&#8221; she said. &#8220;So, you want to make sure that your doctor is on board and is aware of what you\u2019re doing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Consumers are also urged never to share personal health or insurance information without first confirming a company is legitimate. <\/p>\n<p>Anyone who encounters a suspected scam is encouraged to report it to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbb.org\/scamtracker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">BBB\u2019s Scam Tracker<\/a> and to the <a href=\"https:\/\/reportfraud.ftc.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Federal Trade Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy have surged in popularity, but so have scams targeting people eager to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":508558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[27784,224036,23985,224037,435,224043,9223,10000,224051,224044,224038,224052,94791,224039,210,224045,224053,224040,1060,224050,224054,224046,10514,224041,224047,19153,12842,30530,224048,9226,67,132,68,224042,224049],"class_list":{"0":"post-508557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-ad","9":"tag-ai-generated-ads","10":"tag-bbb","11":"tag-bbb-scam-tracker","12":"tag-celebrity","13":"tag-celebrity-deepfake-scams","14":"tag-doctor","15":"tag-drug","16":"tag-fake-video","17":"tag-fake-weight-loss-drugs","18":"tag-ftc-fraud-reporting","19":"tag-glp-1-hype","20":"tag-glp-1-medication","21":"tag-glp-1-scams","22":"tag-health","23":"tag-health-fraud","24":"tag-huge-red-flag","25":"tag-medicare-scam-warning","26":"tag-medication","27":"tag-melanie-mcgovern","28":"tag-new-weight-loss-scam","29":"tag-online-health-scams","30":"tag-oprah-winfrey","31":"tag-ozempic-scams","32":"tag-prescription-drug-scams","33":"tag-product","34":"tag-scam","35":"tag-social-media-scams","36":"tag-telehealth-scams","37":"tag-treatment","38":"tag-united-states","39":"tag-unitedstates","40":"tag-us","41":"tag-wegovy-scams","42":"tag-weight-loss-scams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}