{"id":637423,"date":"2026-10-21T23:33:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T23:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/637423\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T23:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T23:33:46","slug":"how-to-avoid-fake-treatments-and-supplements-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/637423\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Avoid Fake Treatments and Supplements Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

The video begins with Morgan Freeman<\/a> standing in his kitchen beside a bottle of honey, a measuring cup full of water and two lemon halves. The beloved actor claims to have a \u201choney trick\u201d that can reverse Alzheimer\u2019s disease and dementia<\/a> in less than two weeks.<\/p>\n

He touts a \u201ctwo-minute morning ritual\ufeff\u201d that uses \ufeff\u201cordinary honey from Walmart,\u201d then, contradicting his earlier claim, concludes with a sales pitch for MemoHoney, a honey-based product he says cured his memory loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the man in the video isn\u2019t really Freeman, and MemoHoney doesn\u2019t really cure dementia. The pitchman is an AI-generated deepfake<\/a> of Freeman discussing a sham product with no proven brain-health benefits at all. The unscrupulous production \u2014 which has aired on YouTube and social media sites \u2014 is just one in a slew of online ads promoting a honey-based remedy that can supposedly reverse Alzheimer\u2019s. Alongside MemoHoney are products with names like CogniHoney and Mind Boost, with fake, AI-generated endorsements from the likes of Bill Gates<\/a>, Anderson Cooper and Bruce Willis<\/a>, as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) noted in a recent alert about these treatments with \u201cno proven medical benefit.\u201d \ufeff<\/p>\n

(We were unable to reach representatives at MemoHoney or CogniHoney for comment.)\ufeff<\/p>\n

Consumers who have purchased the products have reported unexpected monthly charges on their credit cards, difficulty canceling subscriptions, unresponsive customer service departments, denied or ignored refund requests, and continued shipments despite cancellation attempts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And fake Alzheimer\u2019s \ufeff\u201ccures\ufeff\u201d are only the tip of the iceberg. You also can find misleading ads for loads of other unproven and fraudulent health and wellness products online, notes Amy Nofziger, the AARP Fraud Watch Network\u2019s senior director of fraud victim support. She says callers to the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline<\/a> regularly report having bought fake, overpriced or disingenuously advertised dietary supplements; herbal and botanical remedies; sexual, memory and energy enhancements; and other over-the-counter cures.<\/p>\n

One recent caller to the helpline said they received a supplement they hadn\u2019t ordered; the company that sells it charged nearly $240 to the caller\u2019s credit card every month before the caller froze their account.<\/p>\n

Some people never receive the products they order online, notes Nofziger, but consumers who do can\u2019t be sure whether those products contain the ingredients promised in the ads. \u201cYou have to wonder whether they\u2019re safe for your body, to say nothing of the issues you might have with your credit card,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Before using any dietary supplement, health enhancement or medical treatment, you should seek advice from your physician. In the meantime, it\u2019s essential to carefully assess health and wellness products sold online and be aware of the risks before pulling out your credit card.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The video begins with Morgan Freeman standing in his kitchen beside a bottle of honey, a measuring cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[312515,312511,134,133053,312513,312516,111,139,556,69,312514,312512],"class_list":["post-637423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-fake-health-products","tag-fake-supplements","tag-health","tag-health-fraud","tag-how-to-avoid-counterfeit-supplements-online","tag-how-to-avoid-fake-treatments","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nutrition","tag-nz","tag-online-supplements","tag-supplement-scams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}