Anti-Cellulite, Weight-Loss Solutions Heavily Advertised on Pinterest, as Summer Trending Spam

Pinterest boards have been flooding with advertisements touting a miracle cure that rids women of dreaded cellulite and fat deposits in a matter of weeks. With a user base of approximately 49 million users, of which some 80% women, spammers are looking to capitalize on women’s annual ritual of preparing their bodies for sunny beaches and bathing suits.

A couple of dozen women – ranging from teens to mature, from single to married moms – ended up to unwillingly promote the anti-cellulite exercises and the miraculous fat loss program on their personal Pinterest boards along with fraudulent accounts entirely dedicated to these products.

Numerous boards, no matter the name or the category, display dozens of pins of the same pictures of cellulite-invaded lower body parts or pictures of bodies before and after the successful fitness program.

Pinterest’s intuitive interface is convenient in advertising this type of product. The powerful images with simple optimistic slogans invite women to click the photos and receive “the information only few people have access to.”

Though a series of redirects, by clicking the photo, the user is lead to a handful of websites that invariably display the same long but quite convincing couple of videos. Women are promised a few basic exercises to help them lose the “bumps” and the excessive body fat.

Some of the domain names are registered anonymously so no one can check the history of the business or the identity of the products’ providers. Pinterest and Google are blocking some of the websites as unsafe.

After an hour of contextual information and teasing, the videos sell a Beauty Package that includes an online version of physical exercises and the printable guide version of the program. The perpetual “today’s” offer is little below $50.

The videos also include explanations of why cellulite and fat appear and why no traditional methods work, trashing the cosmetics industry and the body building, Pilates or yoga programs.

Losing fat or getting rid of cellulite is a matter of will, discipline, sweat and time; and spending money on miracle products is definitely not going to do the trick no matter how aggressive the advertising may be. So make sure you don’t end up financing spammers this summer!

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.