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Many of us would like to believe a marketer’s claims that an over-the-counter nasal spray can prevent or treat COVID-19. Luckily, the law sets a high standard of proof before a marketer can say its product can prevent, treat, or cure a serious disease. The law requires competent scientific evidence. In its latest case targeting fake COVID-19 cure claims, the FTC says that nasal spray maker Xlear, Inc., broke the law by promoting its saline sprays as effective treatments for COVID-19 without scientific proof.

The FTC says that since at least March 2020, Xlear and its president used deceptive or unsubstantiated claims to promote their nasal sprays on their websites and in YouTube videos, social media posts, and magazine advertorials. For example, the defendants said the sprays would protect against the virus “for up to four hours, helping keep you and others around you safe.” The FTC staff warned the defendants in July 2020 that they were unlawfully advertising their products. According to the complaint, the defendants told the staff they would remove the claims from their websites and other platforms, but continued using them.

The complaint, filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, seeks substantial financial penalties and asks the court to bar the defendants from making similar false and unsupported health claims in the future.

Protect yourself — and your wallet — from bogus health products:

  • Talk with your doctor or healthcare professional before you try any product claiming to treat, prevent, or cure COVID-19 or any other serious illness.
  • Visit CDC.gov and FDA.gov for the most up-to-date information about COVID-19.
  • Remember, when there’s a medical breakthrough to treat, prevent, or cure a disease, you’re not going to hear about it first through an ad or sales pitch.
  • Know that bad actors post fake reviews and testimonials about their own products. Read How to Evaluate Online Reviews to learn more.

If you spot a bogus health product, please tell us at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

chumpss
October 29, 2021
that's good to know !!!!