[News Today] FALSE HEALTH SUPPLEMENT ADS

[LEAD]
When scrolling through social media, it's becoming almost impossible to avoid random ads. Ads for weight loss or even health symptoms like arthritis pop up. But a closer look at these ads revealed exaggerations, falsehoods, and outright scams. We look into the truth behind these health supplement ads on social media.

[REPORT]
The cast of a TV show talks about a new drug that claims to help lose weight.

Social ADs : I heard a new drug has been developed overseas. Even Elon Musk is excited about it.

The video was illegally used in a social media advertisement of a health supplement.

When asked via messenger if it's the same drug that was featured in the show, the reply says it is and a whopping price is asked for it.

It's a scam that illegally uses popular TV shows.
Hundreds of customers and even the cast of the talk show all ended up becoming fraud victims.

Kim Min-soo / Fraud victim
They showed before and after images and said how much weight I would
lose. There were also experts in the ad. I had no idea it was illegal.

The current law bans ads of health supplements from featuring customer reviews saying they have been "healed" and recommendations by experts.

Chung Se-woon / Pharmacist
It's unrealistic for the same dose of a single supplement to solve health problems in everyone.

An analysis of 800 social media ads of health supplements revealed that illegal ads are rampant.

Some of them disguise actors as doctors.

Others feature falsely dubbed stolen videos of overseas doctors.

Japanese doctor featured in false ad/
What's this?
(Did you sign a contract with Korea and give your permission to be in ads?)
Never. What I said then was completely different.

The problem is that overseas platforms like Google and Meta do not provide information about people posting ads to Korean authorities.

Kim Tae-min / Lawyer specializing in food products
Administrative authorities have no way of finding out who posts those ads, so perpetrators can easily avoid them.

Because of understaffed investigative authorities and lenient punishment, social media has become a lawless realm where health supplement makers reap hundreds of billions of won in revenues by capitalizing on unsuspecting consumers.

Chang Mun-jung / Marketing expert
Consumers who buy those products end up paying marketing costs as well.