Facebook users report seeing paid ads falsely claiming country music star Reba McEntire experienced sad news or “a tragic end.” These ads lead to articles on pages that were apparently designed to trick people into thinking they were reading FoxNews.com, Time.com and others, when in fact they were sent to similar websites created by scammers. These articles falsely claimed that McEntire endorsed CBD and keto gummies, sometimes referring to them as “Reba’s candy.” McEntire had not actually experienced any sad or tragic news and never endorsed these products.
In the past, scammers have used the image and likeness of other celebrities to sell CBD and keto gummies, usually with the same script seen in this McEntire scam. We’ve seen these same scams with Tom Selleck, Oprah Winfrey, Ree Drummond and many others.
The first step in the scam is usually a Facebook ad that falsely claims that there is some kind of sad or tragic news or perhaps some allegations against the celebrity, as we saw in this case with McEntire. One of the ads featuring McEntire said he met “a tragic end.”
Source: Facebook
After clicking on the fake ad, users move on to the second step of the scam. This second step is the fake endorsement article. The article may appear to come from a well-known news organization, but the story is actually orchestrated by scammers. In the past, we’ve seen articles designed to look like People.com, FoxNews.com, UsWeekly.com, ABCNews.com, CNN.com, and Time.com, to name a few. The story usually falsely claims that the celebrity, in this case McEntire, is giving away free bottles of CBD or keto gummies.
The design of the Time.com page was recreated for a similar website hosted by scammers. In reality, Time.com had absolutely nothing to do with this scam.
The third step of the scam is to guide users from the fake celebrity endorsement article to the product order page. The product order page usually does not include the celebrity’s name. In the past, we have found that purchasing bottles of CBD or keto gummies from these types of product order pages usually enrolls customers in a trial program that will hit them with a recurring charge to their credit card or debit around 30 days later. .
There is also a fourth step in this scam, and that involves the customer. Weeks later, when the customer who saw the fake celebrity endorsement tries desperately to contact the company to cancel the trial and future orders, they may have trouble finding the phone number or address company email address. They could also post on social media to blame the celebrity for the ordeal, still believing they endorsed the products.
Some of the products we saw scammers appear in various fake articles with the unauthorized use of McEntire’s image and likeness included Truly Keto Gummies, Natures Only CBD Gummies, Keto Blast Gummy Bears, Liberty CBD, and Twin Elements CBD Gummies.
In short, no, McEntire did not experience any sad or tragic news that led her to endorse CBD or keto gummies. We recommend sharing our article with any family and friends who may be particularly vulnerable to falling for elaborate scams. Fake celebrity endorsements for CBD and keto oil products and gummies have been going around for years, and we advise everyone to stay away from these offers.
Important: If you see any of these Facebook ads for CBD or keto gummies, please send us a link to the post. To copy a Facebook ad link, tap the three dots to the right of the post and choose “copy link.” We prefer a link over a screenshot, as a link will allow us to better analyze the current state of the scam. Thanks to all the readers who helped send in tips about previous scams.