Wealthifier – Internet, Affiliate, Email and Information Marketing…Teaching You How to Make Money Online

The news broke today that the FTC(Federal Trade Commission) here in the United States filed lawsuits against several fake news sites that made affiliate sales on acai berries, claiming serious weight loss with the products.

The sites apparently used deceptive practices to look like legitimate news sites.

Some of these sites include “thecnnews.org”, “cnnewsat6.com” and “newsline07.com”.  There were 10 separate companies sued.  The only information they have shown so far about revenue is that the sites in total have spend more than $10 million in advertising, meaning that they have probably sold and profited much more than that.

Here are some links to the news articles:

• Some actual news about acai berries: FTC sues websites
• FTC Takes Action Against ‘fake’ News Sites

Incredible.

This just backs up the idea that deception is not good business sense.

They apparently made quite a bit of money, but they may end up paying it all back and owing court fees, lawyer fees and fines.  They may even go to jail.

I’ve seen several other fake news sites in other niches, such as the make money online niche.  One is heavily advertised on the top ranking site in this niche.  The link says news9today.com, but the site is actually at news11today.net.  It looks like they might have had to jump domains to avoid litigation or something.