Last month, counterfeit headlines went bananas over what turned out to be nothing more than a diet pill scam. Artificial news articles were created, pretending to be from reputable or popular newspapers and magazines. They claimed that Kelly Clarkson had been fired from the hit reality show, The Voice.
The articles were not, in fact, from any of those news sources. Instead, they were published on a dupe website (which will not be mentioned here as the intention of this article is not to promote traffic to that site). The site used the same font, coloring and logo in the header in order to trick readers into thinking they were reading a genuine news article. That said, it was nothing more than an elaborate diet pill scam.
A News Making Diet Pill Scam
The article was in no way genuine. The diet pill scam completely fabricated the story they knew was attention grabbing. They used the lie about Kelly Clarkson to work as clickbait. It encouraged interested readers to click on the surprising story which was created exclusively as a door to an “over-the-counter natural supplement.”
The diet pill scam included a full fake story as well as a number of photographs. The first few paragraphs were entirely fictional news regarding the firing of the star. The pictures were meant to support the story. That said, none of what was written was true.
The Article Becomes the Diet Pill Scam
After the first few paragraphs creating the fictional story about Kelly Clarkson being fired from The Voice, the rest of the article talked about the product behind the scam. It went on at length about a supplement that they claimed had helped the performer to lose weight. That said, even that part of the story was untrue.
The story was false to the point that it somehow suggested that the product was used by and/or endorsed by Clarkson, which it was not. The entire story was made up and yet it became widely successful in driving rumor and traffic.
It is unclear as to whether or not there were many sales made by people duped by this diet pill scam. This story serves as an important reminder of how vital it is to question stories read online and to take a closer look at the facts. It’s also important to remember that reputable news sources don’t turn a real news story into a sales pitch for a product.
