Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates

p2y · 08-20-2009, 09:30 AM

It was only a matter of time, if you have an acai berry domain with the word "Oprah" or "Dr. Oz" or use their images/false endorsement in your ad copy or landing pages now would be a good time to remove them:

OUTRAGED OPRAH SUES OVER CURE-IOUS WEB CLAIMS - New York Post

Quote:

Oprah Winfrey and her favorite physician, "Dr. Oz," filed suit yesterday to shut down more than 500 Web sites that falsely claim the pair endorses the sites' diet pills and miracle cures.

Winfrey and celebrity surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz claim in court papers that many of the sites are actually "credit card scams or other fraudulent schemes" that con customers into costly subscriptions to their dubious products.

The concoctions "purport to be dietary supplements, such as for 'resveratrol,' 'acai berry' and colon cleansing; cosmetics, such as cellulite and anti-wrinkle creams; and/or over-the-counter drugs, such as tooth-whitening products," the suit says.

They're sold on Web sites with names including "oprahsnewdiet.com," "oprahhealthoffers.com" and "drozadvice.com."

The suit targets more than 50 companies and individuals behind the various sites, as well as up to 500 defendants who haven't yet been identified.
Total damages aren't specified, but the Manhattan federal court filing demands up to $100,000 per Web site for "cybersquatting," along with "restitution for any unjust enrichment."

Winfrey and Oz say the snake-oil sales have "gravely injured" their valuable reputations, with thousands of disgruntled customers filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau and various law-enforcement agencies.
Lead defendant FWM Laboratories of Hollywood, Fla., didn't reply to an e-mail seeking comment.

I'm surprised it took them this long, I was always disappointed when people had to resort to this type of false advertising just to sell a product.

Johnaxe · 08-20-2009, 11:36 AM

This is the best thing since sliced bread!!!!!!!!

No offense to anyone reading this that is promoting these offers, but this stuff has to come to an end. It is tarnishing the internet and the affiliate marketing industry as a whole.

I can only hope that all the flogs and the fake news articles that are beginning to become popular as a promotion tool will be hit by this too.

I am however sad to see that we as humans can't seem to get a grip on the concept of morality and that the only way to keep things clean and safe is to finally push the boundaries of deception to a point were legal systems have to get involved in order to protect the innocent prey of venomous vipers.

But such is life and the few always ruin it or make it harder for the many.

John

futuremills · 08-20-2009, 01:04 PM

so much for that idea

edgehill2000 · 08-20-2009, 01:08 PM

My company was also targeted by FWM. I won't even mention our company name -- I don't want to be seen as trying to benefit from this law suit.

This company sells products under names ResV, ResVmax, ResVultra, Rezmelts, and plenty of others.

Some of the things that FWM did to us (and others) include:
- Give out free bottles (it's hard to compete with Free) and then in the fine print start charging people up to $85 per month if they don't cancel within 10 days, but that's in the very fine print
- Use our company name in their Google ads, forcing us to advertise on our own search results, because they were stealing traffic
- Put up web pages with our content to get people to click to their web pages, when they meant to click to ours
- Buy up all the Google ads at high prices so that my company can't even advertise on words like Resveratrol

We haven't had any idea what to do. Thank you Oprah and Dr. Oz for getting involved. My small company doesn't have the money to sue companies like this for unfair trade practices.

Mark

Johnaxe · 08-20-2009, 01:18 PM

LMAO

When I checked out the link to the NewYork post article on this issue there is a 728x90 header banner for "www.abbysdietjournal.com" and guess who's smiling faces are pictured on the sidebar.

talk about the irony.

John

Saj Gupta · 08-20-2009, 01:33 PM

Well said John. I'm quite delighted to hear this news and I wish tv entities like CBS, ABC etc should take same steps. And what about flogs that have become rampant lately.. they need to stop.

Catalyst eMarketing · 08-20-2009, 02:23 PM

Yes I agree, this type of shady marketing hurts our entire industry.

If we don't start self policing there will be more suits and more government intervention.

jndavis · 08-20-2009, 04:58 PM

I believe this company (FWM Labs) should have to pay for what they have done to all the consumers that have bought their products. I had my account be overdrafted due to this company for sending me products, and charging my credit card. It has hurt my credit with my bank. and I think this company should be ashamed for what they are doing to people.
It's ashame that there is so many dishonest people in this world.

Oprah, and Dr. Oz, Please make this company pay big for what they have done to others

Jennifer Davis
TN
931-438-4364

ChrisBa · 08-20-2009, 05:52 PM

damn, this is gonna be interesting

Shana_Adam · 08-20-2009, 06:01 PM

Well you get what you sow!

There is plenty in the world to go around why not help people instead of ripping them off.

Help people that are suffering from illnesses and disease - come up with ways to save our planet instead of being money grabbing and only looking out for no1.

There is such thing as karma - what goes around comes around.

I have seen hundreds of these fake review sites - they are just so oily that you can see they are fake. But i guess with the word free its hard to pass up up until you get a huge bill. I'm sure consumers have done reverse charge backs on credit cards maybe even lieng to their cc companies to get their money back.

Hell I would be fuming if a company did that to me. You should hear the way I talk to my cc companies when they call me.

There are principals involved and often the fluff and BS needs to be cut! Give it straight and you will get it straight.

I wonder if this company has a call center cant imagine how badly the cs staff get treated by angry customers.

canadian84 · 08-20-2009, 06:42 PM

right below that article...a "1 tip to lose your belly" ad haha

Barbara Eyre · 08-20-2009, 06:42 PM

I was just made aware of the lawsuit via a link at Webpronews (Oprah, Illinois AG Sue Internet Marketers | WebProNews) ....

These ads with Oprah's name have been around for awhile, wonder what took so long for the objections and lawsuit to happen?

But, am glad it did - the industry needs to be cleaned up for us honest marketers. The result will be more trust from the public and thus more profits for the rest of us.

JayInOrlando · 08-20-2009, 08:55 PM

Well, lets hope some more comes out of this. When FWM labs is shut down for good, I'll be happy.

Zach Booker · 08-21-2009, 12:23 AM

As if this is going to stop anybody, lol.

People are simply moving on to using Rachael Ray etc.

It's not a big deal, really, at all.

If you are one of the 0.05% of affiliates being targeted you aren't going to go to jail.

You're just gonna pay a little bit of money to them, that's all they want.

I think 10 grand for using their name 50 for using their "symbol". With a good lawyer you can also cut that in half I would guess.

Their, except for a few rare cases, targeting people that have made 10-50 grand a day(Big affiliates). They aint shaking in their panties IMO.

Their legal team has gone pretty strong against a few cases to "make an example" but mark my words they'll pay MAYBE 1% of what they gross a year. (Which is still a lot don't get me wrong.)

It's all about perspective.

Zach

girlshrink · 08-21-2009, 12:31 AM

Once you start throwing "Oprah's" name around for profit -- the s#@! was sure to fly. I can't believe that it even took them this long to do something about it. Good for them, this mess has to stop.

Zach Booker · 08-21-2009, 12:37 AM

P.S- Before I get jumped on for making light of the situation here's why I feel so strongly.

1) Are RFT's dead? No, remember some are ethical so some don't get any complaints.

The ones being sued are just some, maybe 5%, of the companies actually using the Oprah symbol etc.

Once they literally pay off the legal team they'll move on to another celeb, no big deal.

2) Even if they had no celeb endorsement they'd still convert like crazy.

These aren't just guys who decide to make a website so they can make some monies on the internets.

These are guys with 30+ million dollar business'. They know what's going on, how to avoid it, and what to do after the good times slow down. (Which is a long way away!)

3) People are still getting flogs/fnews/farticles made. And they're still using Oprah's name; with a few wording changes and everything their good to go. If they even bother to think about the lawsuit.

4) People who are making bank protect their websites. You can't just go to the whois and see of Zach Booker owns that site, let's get him.

The only way they can tell who you are is by getting your info from the affiliate networks. And why are they gonna give up your name, unless they have too, when your making them thousands a day?

And than again some people will find work arounds by using fake names etc

There's probably 10 more points I could do. Thing is this affects 0.0001% of CPA affiliates, 0.001% of Oprah product endorsing affilaites, and 0.01% of companies who own the CPA/Oprah offers.

Many of whom are based outside the US for a little added pleasure of the legal teams coming after them.

This is no big deal, no ones worried except for the people who 1) didn't prepare for legal action 2) don't have a good lawyer 3) didn't hid their stuff well enough.

P.P.S- Remember I'm the one who made the post about bad RFT offers. I know a lot are "scammy" out there and I know with all these RFT's it's a dangerous road.

But some are good so promote the good and leave the bad.

Robyn8243 · 08-21-2009, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shana_Adam

Well you get what you sow!

There is plenty in the world to go around why not help people instead of ripping them off.

Help people that are suffering from illnesses and disease - come up with ways to save our planet instead of being money grabbing and only looking out for no1.

There is such thing as karma - what goes around comes around.

I have seen hundreds of these fake review sites - they are just so oily that you can see they are fake. But i guess with the word free its hard to pass up up until you get a huge bill. I'm sure consumers have done reverse charge backs on credit cards maybe even lieng to their cc companies to get their money back.

Hell I would be fuming if a company did that to me. You should hear the way I talk to my cc companies when they call me.

There are principals involved and often the fluff and BS needs to be cut! Give it straight and you will get it straight.

I wonder if this company has a call center cant imagine how badly the cs staff get treated by angry customers.

One of the reasons that people respond and don't view it as Fake...is the exact reason that Oprah and Dr. Oz are bringing their legal actions....People see a picture of Oprah and Dr. Oz (other celebs they trust too)...they assume that Oprah and Dr. Oz would not allow their image to be used as part of a scam...so they believe it must be a decent product and company.

Outside of the IM world, people have no clue how easy it is to just grab other people's images and use them without permission.

Plus, the concept that a company would illegally use someone else's image without permission so blatantly out it the open....most people cannot imagine that companies would be able to do this and get away with it.

People have the naive idea that if something is illegal, it will be dealt with and stopped....and it usually will be, but justice is not often swift.

As far as the customer service people at those companies go....I never ordered any of these products, but I had dealings with an unrelated 'impossible to cancel' continuity program....after a ridiculous amount of time on hold, every time I was connected with an actual person, the call would mysteriously disconnect.

Robyn

p2y · 08-21-2009, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by girlshrink

Once you start throwing "Oprah's" name around for profit -- the s#@! was sure to fly. I can't believe that it even took them this long to do something about it. Good for them, this mess has to stop.

I can't believe it even happened in the first place, affiliates should know better than to use trademarked domains, images, and video. Especially when it's somebody like Oprah who one would have to imagine has a pretty decent team of legal experts.

08-20-2009, 11:36 AM	#2
Johnaxe Active Warrior Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: St. Louis, Missouri Posts: 82 Thanks: 3 Thanked 13 Times in 9 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates This is the best thing since sliced bread!!!!!!!! No offense to anyone reading this that is promoting these offers, but this stuff has to come to an end. It is tarnishing the internet and the affiliate marketing industry as a whole. I can only hope that all the flogs and the fake news articles that are beginning to become popular as a promotion tool will be hit by this too. I am however sad to see that we as humans can't seem to get a grip on the concept of morality and that the only way to keep things clean and safe is to finally push the boundaries of deception to a point were legal systems have to get involved in order to protect the innocent prey of venomous vipers. But such is life and the few always ruin it or make it harder for the many. John

08-20-2009, 01:04 PM	#3
futuremills HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: SoCal/NY/MD Posts: 413 Thanks: 118 Thanked 15 Times in 15 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates so much for that idea

08-20-2009, 01:08 PM	#4
edgehill2000 Warrior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates My company was also targeted by FWM. I won't even mention our company name -- I don't want to be seen as trying to benefit from this law suit. This company sells products under names ResV, ResVmax, ResVultra, Rezmelts, and plenty of others. Some of the things that FWM did to us (and others) include: - Give out free bottles (it's hard to compete with Free) and then in the fine print start charging people up to $85 per month if they don't cancel within 10 days, but that's in the very fine print - Use our company name in their Google ads, forcing us to advertise on our own search results, because they were stealing traffic - Put up web pages with our content to get people to click to their web pages, when they meant to click to ours - Buy up all the Google ads at high prices so that my company can't even advertise on words like Resveratrol We haven't had any idea what to do. Thank you Oprah and Dr. Oz for getting involved. My small company doesn't have the money to sue companies like this for unfair trade practices. Mark

08-20-2009, 01:18 PM	#5
Johnaxe Active Warrior Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: St. Louis, Missouri Posts: 82 Thanks: 3 Thanked 13 Times in 9 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates LMAO When I checked out the link to the NewYork post article on this issue there is a 728x90 header banner for "www.abbysdietjournal.com" and guess who's smiling faces are pictured on the sidebar. talk about the irony. John

08-20-2009, 01:33 PM	#6
Saj Gupta Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 615 Thanks: 43 Thanked 32 Times in 19 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates Well said John. I'm quite delighted to hear this news and I wish tv entities like CBS, ABC etc should take same steps. And what about flogs that have become rampant lately.. they need to stop.
	First Time Ever, Get All My WSO's for 100% Free

08-20-2009, 02:23 PM	#7
Catalyst eMarketing GooglePlaces Optimization War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: SoCal Posts: 759 Thanks: 52 Thanked 176 Times in 98 Posts Social Networking	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates Yes I agree, this type of shady marketing hurts our entire industry. If we don't start self policing there will be more suits and more government intervention.
	Linda Buquet :: Google Places Optimization Specialist :: Catalyst eMarketing Google Places Optimization :: ADVANCED GOOGLE PLACES TRAINING Available Google Places Optimization & Local SEO BLOG :: Latest Google Places News and Tips BEST Google Places Software & FREE Local SEO Tools

08-20-2009, 04:58 PM	#8
jndavis Warrior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates I believe this company (FWM Labs) should have to pay for what they have done to all the consumers that have bought their products. I had my account be overdrafted due to this company for sending me products, and charging my credit card. It has hurt my credit with my bank. and I think this company should be ashamed for what they are doing to people. It's ashame that there is so many dishonest people in this world. Oprah, and Dr. Oz, Please make this company pay big for what they have done to others Jennifer Davis TN 931-438-4364

08-20-2009, 05:52 PM	#9
ChrisBa Senior Warrior Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 3,786 Thanks: 9 Thanked 468 Times in 370 Posts Social Networking	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates damn, this is gonna be interesting
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08-20-2009, 06:01 PM	#10
Shana_Adam In Search of Eternity War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: The Earth is My Home - I love dearly Posts: 325 Thanks: 8 Thanked 58 Times in 39 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates Well you get what you sow! There is plenty in the world to go around why not help people instead of ripping them off. Help people that are suffering from illnesses and disease - come up with ways to save our planet instead of being money grabbing and only looking out for no1. There is such thing as karma - what goes around comes around. I have seen hundreds of these fake review sites - they are just so oily that you can see they are fake. But i guess with the word free its hard to pass up up until you get a huge bill. I'm sure consumers have done reverse charge backs on credit cards maybe even lieng to their cc companies to get their money back. Hell I would be fuming if a company did that to me. You should hear the way I talk to my cc companies when they call me. There are principals involved and often the fluff and BS needs to be cut! Give it straight and you will get it straight. I wonder if this company has a call center cant imagine how badly the cs staff get treated by angry customers.
	In lak'ech - I am Another Yourself Max Igan Ben Stewart - Kymatica ***Must See Film Of The Decade****

08-20-2009, 06:42 PM	#11
canadian84 Warrior Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 21 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates right below that article...a "1 tip to lose your belly" ad haha
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08-20-2009, 06:42 PM	#12
Barbara Eyre Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: North Carolina Posts: 903 Thanks: 98 Thanked 31 Times in 25 Posts Social Networking	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates I was just made aware of the lawsuit via a link at Webpronews (Oprah, Illinois AG Sue Internet Marketers \| WebProNews) .... These ads with Oprah's name have been around for awhile, wonder what took so long for the objections and lawsuit to happen? But, am glad it did - the industry needs to be cleaned up for us honest marketers. The result will be more trust from the public and thus more profits for the rest of us.
	Phoenix Rising Web Services \| Fibromyalgia Information

08-20-2009, 08:55 PM	#13
JayInOrlando HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 192 Thanks: 1 Thanked 5 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates Well, lets hope some more comes out of this. When FWM labs is shut down for good, I'll be happy.
	$600 a day? Easy! - Super Affiliates Contact ME for to get in on this private health supplement offer. !!! ONLY FOR THOSE WHO PUSH VOLUME !!!

08-21-2009, 12:23 AM	#14
Zach Booker Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 972 Thanks: 190 Thanked 161 Times in 108 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates As if this is going to stop anybody, lol. People are simply moving on to using Rachael Ray etc. It's not a big deal, really, at all. If you are one of the 0.05% of affiliates being targeted you aren't going to go to jail. You're just gonna pay a little bit of money to them, that's all they want. I think 10 grand for using their name 50 for using their "symbol". With a good lawyer you can also cut that in half I would guess. Their, except for a few rare cases, targeting people that have made 10-50 grand a day(Big affiliates). They aint shaking in their panties IMO. Their legal team has gone pretty strong against a few cases to "make an example" but mark my words they'll pay MAYBE 1% of what they gross a year. (Which is still a lot don't get me wrong.) It's all about perspective. Zach

08-21-2009, 12:31 AM	#15
girlshrink Article Marketing Queen! War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: USA Posts: 23 Thanks: 17 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates Once you start throwing "Oprah's" name around for profit -- the s#@! was sure to fly. I can't believe that it even took them this long to do something about it. Good for them, this mess has to stop.
	STOP Throwing Your Money Away On Costly Marketing Tactics And "Bright Shiny Objects"! Get The Free Article Marketing Success Kit and Write Yourself Rich! Lisa Angelettie - "The Article Marketing Specialist"

08-21-2009, 12:37 AM	#16
Zach Booker Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 972 Thanks: 190 Thanked 161 Times in 108 Posts	Re: Oprah and Dr. Oz file a lawsuit against 500 acai berry affiliates P.S- Before I get jumped on for making light of the situation here's why I feel so strongly. 1) Are RFT's dead? No, remember some are ethical so some don't get any complaints. The ones being sued are just some, maybe 5%, of the companies actually using the Oprah symbol etc. Once they literally pay off the legal team they'll move on to another celeb, no big deal. 2) Even if they had no celeb endorsement they'd still convert like crazy. These aren't just guys who decide to make a website so they can make some monies on the internets. These are guys with 30+ million dollar business'. They know what's going on, how to avoid it, and what to do after the good times slow down. (Which is a long way away!) 3) People are still getting flogs/fnews/farticles made. And they're still using Oprah's name; with a few wording changes and everything their good to go. If they even bother to think about the lawsuit. 4) People who are making bank protect their websites. You can't just go to the whois and see of Zach Booker owns that site, let's get him. The only way they can tell who you are is by getting your info from the affiliate networks. And why are they gonna give up your name, unless they have too, when your making them thousands a day? And than again some people will find work arounds by using fake names etc There's probably 10 more points I could do. Thing is this affects 0.0001% of CPA affiliates, 0.001% of Oprah product endorsing affilaites, and 0.01% of companies who own the CPA/Oprah offers. Many of whom are based outside the US for a little added pleasure of the legal teams coming after them. This is no big deal, no ones worried except for the people who 1) didn't prepare for legal action 2) don't have a good lawyer 3) didn't hid their stuff well enough. P.P.S- Remember I'm the one who made the post about bad RFT offers. I know a lot are "scammy" out there and I know with all these RFT's it's a dangerous road. But some are good so promote the good and leave the bad.