Other LanguagesDid you see Jesse’s report on Monday on fake news sites that try to sell you acai berry supplements and colon cleansers? It shows just how far scammers will go to try to convince you to buy their products.
The bogus “News5.reports.com” site and copycats make it appear that products are being endorsed by local reporters. Our computer forensics investigator, Rebecca Henderson, explained that a technology called “geolocation” uses your computer’s IP address to customize the site. So I see “(Seattle - News 5)” at the front of the article but you might see a different city name. In case you're interested, the reporter on the News5reports.com isn't from Seattle -- she's in France.
About a year ago, we wrote about how Washington consumers have been juiced by these deceptive ads. Our Consumer Protection Division has received close to 150 consumer complaints concerning such products. Most are from consumers who responded to free trial offers then were surprised when their credit cards were charged for additional shipments or for other products they didn’t know they had bought.