Health & Fitness

Imagine wearing an undergarment for eight hours a day for a month to slim inches off your hips and thighs and reduce the unsightly orange peel appearance of cellulite. Yeah, right. In your dreams. Yet, according to the FTC, that’s just what Norm Thompson Outfitters, Inc., and Wacoal America, Inc., claimed in advertising and marketing for their slimming shapewear.

Before you sign up and pay any money for health insurance or discount plans, check out all the available options — and any claims they make about coverage. Some people who call you up promoting a way for you to save could be pitching a scam.

All parents think their babies rock. But when a company says its product will help a kid master reading Harry Potter during the potty-training years, it needs solid science to support those claims.

The FTC says Dr. Robert Titzer and his company, Infant Learning, Inc., deceived consumers with ads for Your Baby Can Read, a set of DVDs, books and word cards that cost around $200. These ads and other promotional materials promoted the program’s ability to teach babies as young as nine months to read — with their skills advancing to books like Charlotte’s Web by ages three or four.

Many people would give just about anything to eat like a Sumo wrestler, yet have the body of a tennis pro. And, unfortunately, many people have — given their money, that is — for pills and products falsely promising significant weight loss with little or no effort.