Watch out for fake counterfeit supplements on Amazon, disguised at genuine authentic brands when they are imitations. I’m pretty shocked there aren’t more processes in place to police this. I’d imagine this is more rampant than we even know.
Video Transcript
Doing it this way, I mean obviously this video is way too long to say, “Hey, these supplements on Amazon are a scam.”
Some of the ones that I have recommended to you guys could potentially be a scam.
Wanted to let you know right away, in case you get an email from Amazon or…
Not even that, because before the email came in, I knew…
I mean, I knew something was going on with me, but I had no idea that it was this.
So my hope is that if I put this video out, and you’re having adverse reactions, and you don’t correlate the two, that, “Hey, maybe it’s the supplements that I’ve been buying for the last three years.”
But now all of a sudden… [claps] What’s up guys?
Hope you guys are doing well.
Wanted to make a really quick video.
I’m not really even sure what to say.
I have been ordering supplements and all kinds of stuff for years from Amazon.
And I send a lot of people to Amazon to buy certain supplements, especially to do some of the sauna detox protocols.
And I need to make this video as quickly as possible, because the purpose of it is twofold.
Number one, I don’t want to be recommending anything that could potentially be dangerous to you guys.
And number two, I really just don’t know what to say.
I’m probably going to have to put the screenshot of this up there, because the camera is not going to focus good enough on this.
But the short of it is, there are some scam supplement manufacturers that are making counterfeit…
I didn’t even know this was a thing, counterfeit supplements on Amazon.
Right, so I have been taking a Pure Encapsulations B-Complex for God knows how long.
Because one of their… they’ve got a couple different variations, but some of them have the broad spectrum.
And also some of them support MTHFR, if you guys know what that is.
And so you can experiment with taking certain types of B-Complexes that both have the right ingredients for that and don’t.
And I’m getting tripped up over what to say here, because…
I’m going to read you this email.
I’m going to read you this email, but I want to make sure… and I don’t even know if this is possible.
So I’m going to have to find another place to buy this stuff that I know is reliable.
And I don’t know how I’m going to do that.
And the reason that this is so important to me is because there are hundreds of YouTube videos that have links in the comments, links in the description, links in blog posts that are sending people to buy certain supplements.
Not necessarily this.
But if this happened to me, it could be any of them targeted next.
So let me read you what Amazon says.
Amazon sent me a personal message.
It says, “Hello, we’re contacting you about blah, blah, blah order.
Pure Encapsulations, da, da, da, da, 120 caps…”
And I’m no stranger to ordering this stuff.
I mean, I have ordered Pure Encapsulations things for years and never, ever, ever had an issue.
And I don’t know how to say this delicately, but I wouldn’t really…
I wouldn’t believe this if I personally didn’t have a problem.
For some reason, the last time I reordered my vitamins, the B-Complex that I take, had terrible experiences, like started experiencing diarrhea, was having digestive issues.
And I had no idea that it was this.
But now, after seeing this, I 100% believe that this is a problem.
So that’s the reason for the video.
I guess I need to learn how to say that in about 15 seconds.
It just… this has never happened before.
I’m not really sure what to do.
I mean, people in very complicated health situations, you know, are buying certain supplements that I recommend to do some of the sauna detox protocols, to do some of the binder therapies.
And so, this could potentially be not only very dangerous, but a huge problem.
Because you can’t tell what’s authentic and what’s not.
And I’m going to show you exactly what I mean.
So, it says, “At Amazon, customer trust is our top priority.
We go to great links, da-da-da-da-da, fast delivery, low prices.
Part of our ongoing effort is to ensure you can shop with confidence at Amazon stores.
We recently learned that the product you receive from a third-party seller…”
I don’t pay attention to that.
Like, when I purchase stuff on Amazon, if it’s Prime and it says, “Pure Encapsulations,” like it’s sold by the company that makes it, I don’t look at the delivery.
And so, like, you don’t even notice.
It says, “It is likely not an authentic product by Pure Encapsulations.
We’re sorry for any disappointment or inconvenience this may have caused.”
And there were some, obviously, some things that it was causing, but I had no idea that it was related.
Man, I can’t speak.
“If you still have this product, we recommend you stop using it immediately and dispose of the item,” meaning they have no idea what’s in it.
“There’s no need to return the product.
We’ve issued a refund for $34 to your original payment method, da-da-da-da.
If you purchase this item for someone else, please notify the recipient and let them know they should dispose of the item.”
So, that’s number two.
I want to make this video so that if you’ve bought stuff and you get a notice like this from Amazon…
Yeah, I don’t know.
It says, “Amazon has zero tolerance for counterfeit products.
As a result, we’ve taken action against the supplier of this product,” da-da-da-da.
So, at the end of the day, what happened is…
Like, these are both B-Complexes that I have ordered for a long time.
Granted, they’re not the same bottle because one’s 60 capsules and one’s 120 capsules.
I cannot tell these apart, and one of these is the counterfeit product, right?
Can you guys tell these apart?
I mean, I know the camera’s not focusing or anything, but can you tell that one is genuine and one is not?
They look pretty good to me.
Look at the labels on the back.
I mean, whoever is doing this is doing a really, really, really good job.
So, here’s what’s happening.
They are ordering bottles.
They are scanning the labels from the legitimate supplement company.
They are printing these in mass quantity.
And then, they’re just matching the color of the capsules and filling them with nonsense or filler.
And they’re making a shit ton of money.
And there’s no—you can’t tell the difference between the two.
They’re making a shit ton of money doing this, but I don’t really care about that.
Make all the money you want, but don’t feed me a bunch of horse manure.
I’m trying to be nice about this so that this video doesn’t get flagged or anything, because this is a really important issue.
This is a really important problem.
The other reason that I’m struggling here is because I don’t have a solution for this.
I don’t know where I’m going to buy this stuff.
The first thing that comes to mind is to look around to other places like iHerb, or maybe like—I think there’s a place maybe called—I don’t know.
Somehow, I’m going to have to put up updated lists.
And I guess—I don’t know if I need to just stop buying things or stop recommending people buy stuff from Amazon, but this is a big—this is a huge issue.
Because now, we have no idea—like, if I tell people to go buy Interose gel, which is a binder to use before their sauna sessions, and it’s not really Interose gel, they just print the label on the squeezy tube thing, and then you’re not really getting— I mean, that’s a huge problem.
You’re not going to—you’re not going to get the same ratio, and you’re also not going to— I mean, this is an absolute disaster.
I’m wracking my brain around this.
I’m having trouble coming up with even what to say.
I just wanted to let you guys know that this happened to me, and I’m sorry if it happened to you from any of the recommendations, from any of the supplement lists or the protocols that I make or have made in the past.
I wanted to let you know about it right away.
And I’m going to do my best to try to come up with some sort of retrofit recommendations.
It’s not feasible that, you know, in a couple of weeks, I’ll be able to update hundreds and hundreds of YouTube videos, so I don’t really know what to do about that.
I think what I’m going to do is I’m going to take the list of the most important supplements, the most important binders, and put together like a new list of places that I would buy them from.
But before I do that, I’m going to have to buy them from those places and make sure that they work the same.
Short of that, I wouldn’t know—the only other thing that I would know to do is to buy them in bulk from the companies myself, and then put together a little sauna supplement kit that people could purchase that we know is authentic.
But like I’ve always said, I’m not a person that wants to get into the fulfillment business.
That’s why I don’t sell any of my own products, because I don’t want to ship stuff across the country.
So I don’t really know if that’s an option, but I’m basically like trying to figure this out live while I’m recording, and I normally don’t do that.
Usually I know exactly what I’m going to say.
I know, you know, the information top of mind.
I don’t have to think about it.
People ask questions, and it’s just second nature.
Maybe by doing it this way—I mean, obviously this video is way too long to say, “Hey, these supplements on Amazon are a scam.”
Some of the ones that I have recommended to you guys could potentially be a scam.
Wanted to let you know right away in case you get an email from Amazon or—not even that, because before the email came in, I knew—I mean, I knew something was going on with me, but I had no idea that it was this.
So my hope is that if I put this video out, and you’re having adverse reactions, and you don’t correlate the two that, “Hey, maybe it’s the supplements that I’ve been buying for the last three years, but now all of a sudden I’m buying some, you know, bullshit, fake, you know, thing that’s an imitation product.”
Amazon wasn’t, you know—the thing had been delivered.
I had been using it, and had been having problems, and I had overlooked the fact that this could even be an issue before Amazon even sent the email.
So they’re doing the best they can, but they’re a really large company, and I’m getting off track here.
My hope is that maybe by, you know, talking all over the place and stuff like this, maybe you guys, you know, might be thinking a little more clearly than I am right now, and not be overwhelmed with kind of responsibility and thinking about how much work it is to retrofit stuff.
Maybe you guys have a better solution.
If you do, please let me know in the comments.
And again, I’m sorry if anybody got counterfeit products based on my recommendations.
I think in the future I’m going to recommend a few other places besides Amazon to purchase this stuff, but I just have to figure out and personally vet those beforehand just to make sure that— because the binders, you got to have the same exact ratios when you do the binder stuff, and the dosages are pretty critical depending on your situation.
And if those aren’t working, you’re going to have a recirculation of toxins in the gut.
If you have leaky gut, and then if you do any niacin, which is mobilizing, and then you happen to have a counterfeit binder, it is completely, completely counterproductive, and it will not work because then what’s going to happen is the— I don’t even want to use the word toxins.
The material that’s being mobilized in the body and sent to the organs for processing or sent to the elimination pathways won’t be gobbled up.
It’ll be recirculated because you have some stupid filler powder in your body, and you won’t—yeah, it just won’t bind correctly.
It won’t have the same affinity for the certain targeted compounds that some of the binders do.
I can only imagine if people were using a counterfeit interest gel and expecting to have aluminum toxicity detoxed a little bit, and then it doesn’t work.
And then you’re in the sauna or you’re taking other things to mobilize even more.
That’s just a bad, bad situation.
So, going to have to think about this.
I’m rambling at this point.
I’ll cut the video off.
But sincere apologies for anybody that is in the same boat.
This is very, very eye-opening.
I never thought in a million years.
I thought that—I don’t know how it works at Amazon because I’m not an Amazon FBA seller.
I have a lot of friends who are.
And it’s my understanding that if I wanted to come out with my own— you know, I don’t know, because this is what I really take quite a bit.
It’s Pure Encapsulations Ultra Nutrient, just as kind of like a multivitamin that has a few other things in it that I like, right?
And my body responds well to this, usually.
Sometimes I go through a phase for a month or two where it doesn’t.
Point being, if I wanted to make this formulation a little bit better and come out with my own brand and stick it on Amazon for sale and become an Amazon FBA seller, it’s my understanding that the vetting process—there really isn’t any, right?
I license this product under my brand name.
I have a supplier.
We manufacture it.
We get it tested.
We come up with our labels.
We do our little certifications, if there are any, and all this other stuff.
And we list it for sale.
And most of the time, I think what Amazon cares about is, “Can you get us the product on time?
Can you service the customers well?
Is it quality?
Do you get good reviews?
Blah, blah, blah.
Is it competitive?
Da, da, da, da.”
You know what I’m saying?
Like, there’s no Amazon department that is breaking open the capsules and sending them to a lab and testing to make sure that the ratios that are on the back are the exact number— excuse me, of milligrams—and testing for the—excuse me— and testing for the authenticity of the ingredients list.
They’re not—no one is doing that.
So, this kind of brought to my attention that, wow, we—I—we— I have really no idea what the heck I’m getting if this is, in fact, you know, an issue with ongoing counterfeit products.
And I can’t tell it.
These look identical.
I mean, these—this is something else.
These are something that are not part of the counterfeit product.
And you can see the pure encapsulations thing.
This is what the labels look like.
And this is normal.
I mean, they’ve looked like this for years.
And then, these also look the same.
And something is fake.
Something is filler.
Something is some type of powder with a dye in it that looks exactly like the other thing.
So, I don’t have anything else.
I don’t know what to say.
This is the first time where I’ve had to make a video and I’m, like, rambling and I don’t know how to finish it.
And I’m not sure what to do.
I don’t even know what to do for myself.
Because, obviously, I’m not going to continue ordering pure encapsulations on Amazon.