How to spot suspicious health supplements and avoid getting scammed

• The internet is littered with unproven health supplements that use deceptive marketing and sales practices to trick victims into handing over their money. Not all health supplements are scams, but many of those that are scams engage in consistent practices that internet users can learn to spot at a glance.
• While the exact goal may differ from scam to scam, most health supplement scams have the same objective: to take buyers’ money and run. The scammers usually try to pressure the victim into overpaying for multiple bottles of the product and sometimes even try to trick their victims into unwittingly signing up for subscriptions. Even through scammers often claim to offer money-back guarantees, in actuality they try to make it difficult or even impossible for customers to get their promised refunds.
• These unproven health supplements can pose risks to victims, too. Many don’t work at all, and some are filled with random substances or even doses of prescription medications that can cause permanent injuries.
• Scammers selling unproven health supplements often try to lure victims by establishing the illusion of credibility, such as with fake celebrity endorsements and customer reviews. They also create false urgency, using meaningless countdowns and language that suggests the “deal” being offered won’t last.
• Many of these supplements put meaningless labels on their bottles, including labels suggesting they are in some way Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved. The FDA doesn’t actually regulate supplements, meaning such labels are meaningless or outright false. Credible health supplement products usually carry labels certifying they’ve been reviewed by third-party testers.

Snopes readers regularly send emails asking if various health supplements they’ve seen online are legitimate. While the brands vary, in late 2025 many of those questions were about Neurocept, a supplement in capsule form that, according to some of the company’s ads, contains Himalayan honey and butterfly pea flower and improves brain health, and Burn Peak, another capsule-based supplement meant to promote weight loss.

Many supplement brands readers ask about use unethical business practices to sell products that simply do not work. For example, in July 2025, the physician and media personality Sanjay Gupta spoke out about ads that used artificial-intelligence (AI) deepfakes to create ads that falsely made it appear as if Gupta had endorsed a memory-enhancing supplement that claimed, without any evidence, to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

While deepfakes may be difficult for many internet users to spot, many of the health supplement products that seek to trick people into parting with an excessive amount of money have common red flags in their online presence that take no research or special knowledge to be able to spot. All it takes is a little attention to each step from the ad that first tells you of the product to the final confirmation of the product’s purchase.

In this article, Snopes will guide you step-by-step through how to easily spot a potential health supplement scam.

Knowing scammers’ tactics

For this particular guide, we’re digging into health supplements that use deceptive marketing and sales tactics to try to take and keep victims’ money.

While Snopes is unable to independently assess whether any particular supplement does what it says, many don’t. According to a January 2024 page on MedlinePlus, which is run by the National Library of Medicine, “at best, these scams don’t work.” There are credible health supplement products out there, although not even the ones sold by credible brands work for everyone, according to New York Gastroenterology Associates and UCHealth. You should talk to your doctor if you think there is a supplement that might be beneficial to you.

It’s worth noting that we were unable to reach out to the companies mentioned in this story to inquire about their business practices and the efficacy of their supplements because they all either did not list contact information or had nonfunctional contact links on their websites, a common practice for the sellers of unproven supplements.

Before we dig into what a scam looks like, we should establish why many of the red flags below are red flags. The Better Business Bureau (BBB), which has an online scam tracker to help identify scams, broke down the anatomy of a supplement scam in 2018 and gave advice for avoiding the same scams in 2025. The AARP has also given tips on spotting these scams on multiple occasions.

The two organizations point out some common tactics scammers use:

• They may make extravagant claims about their supplements being miracle cures or from a scientific breakthrough to prey on victims’ hope. 

• They may use false celebrity endorsements or fake customer and doctor reviews to get their victims’ trust. 

• They often create false urgency with countdowns and language to rush victims into making a decision before they have a chance to think it through. 

• They often try to force or trick their victims into bulk orders and subscriptions to get as much money out of them as they can.

The thing is, scammers can implement these tactics in many different ways, even beyond the ones the BBB and AARP list.

Luckily, once you know how to spot these tactics, it becomes easier to identify what supplement products are sketchy or an outright scam.

Reviewing whether an ad is a scam or legit

Before scammers can do any of the above, they need people to hear about their product. Relying on word of mouth alone is not a good strategy, from a scammer’s perspective, since these products often don’t work and the companies that sell them rip people off. 

That means they’re going to need ads, usually in the form of social media ads and Google ads, to get their supplements in front of as many people as possible. In some cases, scammers may make fake social media accounts to spread ads in a way that looks like a real person is praising the product.

A scammer will hope a person who sees an ad will then go to the store page for their product, usually by clicking on the ad or searching for it on Google. We’ll take you step-by-step through either possibility.

Let’s say a victim clicks on the ad, which then directs them to a news article or blog post. The article or blog post may feature a celebrity seeming to praise the supplement.

Whether the content takes the form of a written article or a video story, there will be a few clues that it isn’t what it seems at first glance.

First, check the URL. Most major news organizations have short, simple URLs: foxnews.com, cnn.com, cbsnews.com, nbcnews.com, time.com and so on. If the URL is something random or unrelated, then you’re probably not on that publication’s real website.

You can further check if you’re on a real news organization’s website by clicking the site’s logo. Generally, clicking the company logo on the header of a news site should take you to the homepage. However, the logos on these imposter websites rarely take you anywhere. The same goes for any other link or dropdown menu you’d usually use to view other parts of the website.

Even the content of the article, post or video itself can be a giveaway. Often, the fake news stories used to promote supplement scams read like advertisements trying to sell the product and contain many hyperlinks to the product’s website. Sometimes, they’ll even go so far as to encourage people to buy the supplement and tell people about limited-time offers.

Some of the imitation news articles claim a celebrity was involved in developing the supplement, or that a celebrity endorsed it. While a celebrity may develop or endorse any product, supplements included, the truth is that most celebrities are unlikely to put their name beside a new, unproven health product. Scammers often use AI-generated voices, video, images and text to try to make it look and sound like a celebrity has really endorsed their supplement.

Perhaps, however, you see an ad for a potentially scammy supplement and decide to look it up on Google instead of clicking it. You might just search for the product name, or you could search for the product name alongside a word like “review,” “scam” or “legit” in hopes of finding something that’ll tell you if you’re getting duped.

Many scammers create fake reviews to try and get ahead of legitimate reviews and warnings, meaning you see their “reviews” before the real ones. Scammers may even publish blogs that initially appear to call their product a scam, just so they can fool victims into reading an ad instead of an actual scam warning.

For example, searching for reviews of Neurocept may uncover a page titled Neurocept Review (archived) that claims it’s the best brain health supplement, another titled Neurocept Scam (archived) that rates the supplement 9.5 out of 10 and yet another page titled “Is Neurocept a Scam or Legit?” (archived).

While all three blogs are framed as reviews, they are each littered with buttons urging people to try Neurocept and linking them to a Neurocept website. They promote a “special offer” and urge people to claim their discount right away. The “Neurocept Scam” blog claims the scams are the “fake” versions of Neurocept sold on eBay, Walmart and Amazon. In some cases, supplement scam blogs will just ignore the part of the title that says “scam” and just promote the product’s supposed virtues anyway.

But if you just search for the supplement’s name on Google, there’s a good chance you’ll find red flags even without looking for any reviews.

Searching for Neurocept, for example, returns multiple different “official” websites in the sponsored section of the search. Even though they’re all supposed to be the official website, each one has a different domain name and they often look different from each other. Most legitimate products just have one official website.

Finally, you should take note of where the supplement is being sold. Is it only sold on these “official” websites and on online marketplaces with loose seller restrictions such as Walmart, Amazon and eBay? If a supplement isn’t sold by a pharmacy that sells numerous products from a variety of brands, be it a national chain or a small online retailer, then it might be worth considering if there’s a reason.

CVS, for example, requires third-party laboratory testing for all vitamins and supplements that it sells. While a supplement doesn’t need to be sold by CVS or another retailer that requires third-party testing to be legitimate, having to meet those testing requirements certainly makes a product’s claims a little more credible.

Spotting the sketchiness of an ‘official’ website

Once you reach a suspicious supplement’s “official” website, you’re likely to be bombarded by predatory marketing tactics designed to get you to part with your money before you catch onto the scam.

These websites will often try to rush you into making a purchase by creating false urgency. Many times they will also convince you of their credibility with mentions of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certifications, endorsements from celebrities and doctors and countless 5-star reviews from happy customers.

Although not universally the case, most of these sketchy supplement websites exist to sell exactly one product. They usually don’t offer the option to buy different dosages, bottle sizes or formulations to account for the differences between what different people need and the various ways their bodies may or may not react to certain chemicals. The only options customers are given are the number of bottles they order.

But even while allowing you this singular choice, the people behind scammy supplement websites try to influence you to buy in bulk by claiming to sell the largest amounts at massive, nonsensical discounts with no rhyme or reason to them. For example, the supplement MindHero, which contains ingredients said to boost cognitive function like Ginkgo biloba and Bacopa monnieri, features several purchase packages on its website (archived). Each bundle claims to save a certain amount of money, up to $780, without actually explaining where the numbers are pulled from.

(MindHero)

These “discounts” created out of thin air are often a part of the scammer’s strategy to rush you into a purchase. The website may claim a discount is a “limited-time offer” or only available “while supplies last.”

In some cases, as in the check-out section on the Neurocept website, the page will feature a timer, implying that the deal you’re getting will go away if you don’t buy right away.

(Neurocept)

However, the timer doesn’t actually mean anything. If you wait long enough for it to reach 00:00, nothing will happen. Similarly, there might be a countdown on the store or checkout page that supposedly tells you how much stock is left, or in other cases those same pages might claim that a certain number of people have the product in their carts already. These “deals” are not actually limited and the stock isn’t actually running out — the people running these scams just want you to purchase without having time to think about what you’re doing.

Scammers often contradict themselves in their certifications. For example, they’ll often include a badge referencing FDA certification or an FDA-approved facility. In reality, the FDA is unable to directly approve supplements. And in the case of an FDA-approved facility, whether the certification is real or not has no bearing on the supplements’ credibility — an FDA-approved warehouse is simply one that follows official guidelines for the handling of products to protect against bio-terrorism (see Page 4 of this FDA guidance PDF), rather than guaranteeing safe production of dietary supplements.

(MindHero)

Some supplements even market themselves as miracle cures for serious diseases like Alzheimer’s in their advertising, but backpedal this claim on their websites to avoid FDA scrutiny. They might feature a disclaimer at the bottom of the page saying that their statements and products aren’t “intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.” One ad for Neurocept that ran on social media platforms (archived) contained text reading, “URGENT: Scientists uncover a natural cure for Memory Loss that can be made at home. Over 15,000 Americans have already reversed Alzheimer’s for less than $45.”

(Neurocept)

In addition to FDA labeling, many fake supplements include countless certifications that may or may not have anything to back them up. AquaSculpt, a weight-loss supplement, features 12 certification badges on its website (archived), embedded below:

(AquaSculpt)

While these labels could be technically true, many are applicable to the vast majority of supplements (for example, there is no definition for what “guaranteed pure” actually means). The badges’ only purpose is to give the supplements the appearance of being more legitimate.

In fact, credible supplement brands put few if any of these labels on their products. Instead, they’ll often have little more than the label of a third-party testing organization, such as those listed by CVS. Supplements certified by United States Pharmacopeia (USP), which outlines on its website exactly what’s necessary for a supplement to receive its certification, will often have the USP label alone on the bottle. Even though USP-certified supplements must comply with FDA good manufacturing practices, those supplement brands rarely put FDA labels on their bottles. 

What about that money-back guarantee?

Many of these websites claim to offer a money-back guarantee. Supposedly, if the supplements don’t work, customers can reach out and return them for a refund. That means it can’t hurt to give the product a try, right? In reality, that money-back guarantee rarely actually guarantees you’ll end up with all of your money back.

Online supplement scammers will often make it as difficult as possible for victims to get the refunds that are supposed to be guaranteed.

Sometimes, this means there is no actual way to reach out. For example, the Neurocept website (archived) features a “contact” button that is purely aesthetic — it doesn’t connect to any email or other page.

Websites that do feature a form of contact often include misleading wording about the guarantee, and will sometimes refuse a refund if the bottles are opened or because of other bogus technicalities.

In many cases, denying a customer a refund is just a matter of stalling. The shipping policy page of a supplement called EchoFree, for example, states that all bottles, empty or full, must arrive at the fulfillment facility within 60 days of the original purchase date for a customer to receive a full refund. That means every delay in the initial delivery of the product or in the replies from customer service representatives gives the customer that much less time to qualify for a full refund.

Digging deeper: red flags that take a little bit of research

(Neurocept)

Celebrity testimonials and glowing reviews on these websites are often fabricated. For example, as mentioned above, some ads used Gupta’s likeness without permission to give these scams more credibility.

The increased accessibility of AI text, image and video generators means that convincing fake testimonials are easier than ever to produce. For example, the following is a review from the AquaSculpt website (archived):

I’ve been working out for years but never could seem to burn off the last bit of stubborn belly fat. I eat clean, I train hard — but the scale wasn’t moving. I added AquaSculpt to my morning routine and within weeks, I noticed real changes. My metabolism felt fired up, and I dropped 15 pounds without changing a thing. It’s like my body finally ‘woke up.’ This stuff works.

GPTZero, a tool for detecting AI in text, found a 100% likelihood that someone generated the review using AI. These fake reviews are often found word-for-word attributed to different customers and even on different websites.

Sometimes these reviews also feature images of the supposed customers. They are often stock images, but some are also AI-generated. Sightengine, a tool for detecting AI in images, gave a 99% likelihood of AI generation for the image attached below, from the nootropic supplement MindHero’s website (archived). (It’s worth noting that AI detectors are not completely reliable).

(MindHero)

What are the scammers after?

While the exact goals may differ from scam to scam, most of these supplement scams are ultimately trying to get your money and disappear.

The BBB frequently warns about various flavors of supplement scams. One medication scam alert highlighted several of the ways scammers go about taking the money and running. In some cases, according to the BBB, the victims never received the product they ordered or received a product different from what they ordered. The scammers sometimes charged victims’ cards multiple times or overcharged them in the first place. Refund requests were denied, ignored or bounced back from a dead email, making it so the victim couldn’t get their money back.

For many of these online supplements, the scam is still not over even after the initial charges. Some companies might hide subscription options on the purchase page or in their website’s terms and disclaimers sections to trick customers into starting a recurring payment. Many victims might not realize they have a subscription until they’ve made multiple payments for supplements that they don’t need. Even if the victim does catch the subscription early, the scammer might charge a cancellation fee or make it difficult to cancel, especially for customers who are less savvy. The BBB has multiple articles featuring accounts of people who fell victim to unintentional subscriptions.

On top of the misleading tactics to influence you into a purchase, consuming the supplements poses a risk too. These supplements might not work at all. Since their certifications are dubious, they might be filled with random substances. Even more dangerous is the possibility that the supplements are full of hazardous medicines or materials. For example, this paper cites an example where an unverified supplement designated to treat erectile dysfunction contained 14 times the regular dosage of the medication tadalafil and caused permanent injuries. 

For these reasons, consumers should use extreme caution when choosing to ingest supplements purchased outside of trustworthy pharmacies.

Where are these supplements coming from?

Despite all the similar marketing strategies these supplement brands share, there’s little concrete information about who manufactures the products — and where.

Some lawsuits imply that there are scammers in the U.S. ordering ingredients to manufacture unregulated supplements.

Several pages we visited for supplements including AquaSculpt featured instances of what appeared to be Brazilian Portuguese, and many sponsored links on Google traced their location back to Brazil, suggesting that multiple scam supplements might be produced, shipped or managed by the same groups.

(Google advertiser information for AquaSculpt)

To obscure any identifying information, these scammers use unrelated fulfillment companies and bogus mailing addresses. For example, AquaSculpt bottles featured an address on them that linked to “ShipOffers,” a fulfillment company. In response to several bad reviews for their physical location on Google Maps about phony supplements, ShipOffers said: 

We’re sorry to hear about your experience. To clarify: ShipOffers does not advertise or sell products. We do not charge consumers or process payments. We only ship products on behalf of other brands.

The address on a MindHero bottle led to a location on Google Maps called “Ideal Performance LLC,” but the checking the address on the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office business registry did not lead to any location by that name. A Google Search also revealed a 2023 Federal Trade Commission cease and desist order about robocalls from the same address, suggesting that scammers might use that address to hide their location.

(Amazon)

Even when supplements can be traced back to their manufacturers, the frequency with which new supplement scams pop up means it can be difficult or impossible for consumers to find the people responsible if something goes wrong. There is no specific location or individual to point to as a source of these scams — another reason to always remain vigilant when considering purchasing a supplement online.