A man who falsely claimed he was a doctor in order to promote green coffee bean supplements has been ordered to pay consumers $9 million in refunds. Lindsey Duncan appeared on both the Dr. Oz Show and The View to push his diet pill even though he had no evidence that it worked to promote weight loss.
The settlement comes after fraud charges were filed against Duncan by the state of Texas. The Federal Trade Commission said that Duncan “deceptively touted the supposed weight-loss benefits of green coffee bean extract.”
The Doctor Oz Show is known for pushing over-hyped diet supplements such as green coffee bean on an unsuspecting public, many of whom are desperate to lose weight. Over the summer, Dr. Oz appeared in a hearing on Capitol Hill on similar accusations. During that hearing, he was reprimanded for using misleading language to promote unproven weight loss treatments.
Duncan appeared on the show claiming that he was a doctor, however, according to Vox, he holds “alleged” degrees from online and unaccredited schools, and those degrees are illegal to use in his home state of Texas.
The promotion of green coffee bean was actually an elaborate fraud set up to dupe the public into purchasing supplements from companies with which Duncan was affiliated. According to Vox, Duncan had no experience with green coffee bean when he was contacted by Dr. Oz’s producers. Duncan quickly instructed his company to immediately begin selling green coffee bean on its website after Dr. Oz’s producers reached out to Duncan to ask if he knew anything about the supplement.
He also purchased ads on Google that would direct people to the company. When he appeared on the show, he scammed viewers into visiting his company’s website by suggesting they go to Google and type in the keywords he had purchased. The script used that day made many viewers believe that the supplement was a “magic” pill that would melt fat off of their bodies. It included the words “magic,” “miracle” and “exciting, breaking news.” Duncan augmented the script himself to include a directive for users to be led to his company so they could purchase the pills directly.
It is being reported that Duncan made over $50 million from his scam. The so-called scientific research he used to tout the pills was never solid to begin with, and it has since been withdrawn. To date, there is no evidence that green coffee bean causes weight loss in humans, and now “doctor” Duncan has to pay $9 million in refunds to customers who wasted their money on a fraudulent scheme.