SCAM ALERT: Don’t Give 3-Week Diet Any of Your Time or Money

scamThe 3-Week Diet is one of the newer so-called diets peddled on the Internet.  Most of these Internet-based diet plans all offer significant weight-loss or body-shaping results, but don’t believe it.   This most recent one claims you can lose up to 23 pounds in 21 days, as well as lose 2-3 dress sizes..  The claims are directly targeted to these unscrupulous marketers’ target market:  women who are insecure about their bodies.   As you’ll read below, you are all getting played by clever, but greedy, marketers.

In addition to 3-Week Diet, recent Net offerings include Fat ObliteratorVenus Factor Weight Loss, Trouble Spot NutritionFat DiminisherThe Truth About Cellulite, Pound Melter and the Weight Destroyer, just to name a few.  Their slick websites ask for the “low price” of $35-39.95 for what appears to be an ebook or a “program” that “guarantees” weight loss.  This is a textbook version of the numerous other $39.95 infoscams that have infected the Web over the last three years.  The 3-Week Diet has opted to charge $47….which is pretty standard. (although if you refuse that offer, they’ll also sell the same “system” for $27).

If this claim looks familiar, it probably is — it is almost identical to the questionable other brain health offerings also hawked on the Internet — and it was probably conjured up by the same marketers.   In some cases, one marketer may be offering a host of related products.  A guy named Clayton Nee, for example, boasts that he has created Disease Less,  Memory Healer, Weight Destroyer and Pound Melter.   They almost all charge the mysteriously-set price of $37-39. (We’ve reviewed some of these scams and they are laughably bad)  Here’s how it works:  you are treated to a videomercial that touts the “proven way to lose weight;  many of them are targeted specifically at women.   Is it a scam?   Is it a rip-off?  Does it work?   You’ll never find out, largely because of an increasingly pernicious Internet industry that uses fake product review sites to hide customer reactions.   You’ll also never be able to find out about the credentials of the authors — none apparently exist on the Internet, nor are they provided at his own alleged web site.    So, should you spend the $47?   We recommend not, for the following reasons:

1.  There’s a reason this sales pitch is slick — they spend a lot of marketing money to get it to you.   Who is paying for that?  You are.   And, like many scammers, they are using Clickbank to sell their ebook so don’t assume you’ll get a refund.  “Rock solid guarantee”…..don’t bet on it.   The scammers bet on the fact that most consumers won’t seek refunds until after the 60-day period expires.   In fact, they count on it.

2.  If you look for a review of the product, you are deluged with lots of fake review or “scam” sites that simply direct you to the main sales site or offer some officious pablum talking about how the product is highly rated or recommended.   The marketers for this service pay 75% commission for any referrals they generate.   So these “affiliate marketers” create create fake review sites which effectively thwart any customer who is looking for real reviews.   It is also a tactic to obscure any customers who have posted complaints or alerts about fraudulent claims.  This affiliate marketing trick makes it very difficult for consumers to detect this and other such scams,  As one persevering blogger has noted, scam artists rely upon these fraudulent reviewers to be using tags like:  “does it work?”, “is it a scam?” or “verified review” to suck unsuspecting consumers into this fraud.    In the case of the 3-Week Diet, they are offering affiliate marketers the standard 75%, meaning of the $47 you fork over to these fraudsters, they paid $35 to the affiliate website that promoted this scheme.

3-week

 

3.  In the case of the 3-Week Diet, the alleged author of this plan is never disclosed.  They offer no qualifications or credentials about the author.   If the creator of a diet won’t agree to be identified, it tells you something about the credibility of the “system”;  there is none.  Oh, and on that point, another recent scam diet called the Fat Obliterator sounds suspiciously like its 3-Week scam cousin.   It, too, offers a “3-Week” system to get rid of all of your fat.  And, they’ll sell it to you for $27 — just like the discounted 3-Week Diet scheme.   Is it created by the same marketers?   Well, they offer the same 75% commission……

obliterator

4.  Perhaps most importantly, there is an abundance of free or low-cost diets available on line.  Sadly, most all of them don’t work.  Fad diets been around for so long that we lose weight just calculating all of the weight loss schemes out there.    They are all appealing because they make it look as though others have succeeded.   But be aware that the only fat that melts away is whatever surplus existed in your checking account.  In fact, fad diets that promise dramatic results often can be dangerous.   Please know that no matter how well-intentioned you are, without a commitment to exercise and substantial lifestyle changes, you likely won’t succeed in maintaining any weight loss.  And if you have that commitment or will-power, then just about ANY diet will succeed.   You don’t have to pay $40 for the information.    Begin by going to this free and reputable website and then follow-up with your doctor to make sure that the diet you’ve chosen will work for you.    Another way is to use a high-protein diet or meal replacements;  that’s one of the reasons why the Paleo Diet has proven so effective.

Another is through gradual weight-loss plans that change your lifestyle, and not just your calories.  Perhaps most importantly, these are free or low-cost diets available on line.  Please know that no matter how well-intentioned you are, without a commitment to exercise and substantial lifestyle changes, you likely won’t succeed in maintaining any weight loss.  And if you have that commitment or will-power, then just about ANY diet will succeed.   You don’t have to pay $40 for the information.    Begin by going to the Mayo Clinic’s free and reputable website.  The medical experts at the Clinic have fashioned a thoughtful and time-tested plan that has worked for untold numbers of people.  Then follow-up with your doctor to make sure that the diet you’ve chosen will work for you.

Here are some additional free and reputable dieting and weight-loss resources for you on the Net:

Smart for Life

Livestrong Diet –  Aims for a loss of about 1-2 pounds per week.

GM Diet  –  It’s not really a General Motors-designed diet plan.  It’s actually a short one-week detox program.   But it could be a useful starter to a major personal diet reboot.  Linora Low gives a helpful (and free)  step-by-step video and written guide to how to do this detox program.

The Lose Weight Diet –  It does what many of the diet scammers do (take free  information and distill it down to 3 easily understood phases) but he actually offers it for free!

Our bottom line: you don’t have to spend $47 to get information about how to lose weight. And beware ANY Net-based sales pitch that has uncredentialed, slick video presentations with no independent reviews. It may not be a scam, but it is probably a rip-off because it is overpriced for what it is offering.   In this case, there’s lots of good diet information in the marketplace offered at a fraction of the cost of most weight loss schemes.  Save your hard-earned money.

One additional warning:  once you give them your money, you’ll be tagged as “meat”.  Once they know that you’ll fall for this pitch, the same marketers will be coming back to you over and over and over for other such pitches.  So understand that if you pay these marketers anything….let alone $40…..they’ll continue to hound you with more slick schemes designed to prey on your fears and concerns.  Don’t open your door or wallet to them.

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