• Fox News, Friday, January 5, 2007 11:30 AM

A handful of diet pill shills have been hit by the Federal Trade Commission with million-dollar fines for making false claims that range from guaranteeing rapid weight loss to reducing the risk of cancer.

While FTC Commissioner Deborah Platt Majoras says the products can remain on store shelves, the companies behind them have to stop making false claims. "What we challenge is the marketing of the claims," she says. "The marketers are required to back up the claims with the science and if they can't do that, they can't make the claim."

Fines were imposed on the marketers of Xenadrine EFX, One A Day Weight Smart, Cortaslim and TrimSpa, but she did not specify sums. Majoras says that some of the cash will be returned to consumers: "We always try to get money back when consumers have been deceived. In this instance, I'm pleased to say that I believe we're going to get millions back from some of these products to be able to return it to consumers."

She adds that marketers of Xenadrine had a study showing people who took a placebo actually lost more weight than those taking it.

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