Since at least 2022, ads have been displayed online that claimed PGA star Tiger Woods had abruptly left during an interview and later revealed "the final truth."
One such ad that was displayed in a conservative political newsletter email read, "Tiger Woods Storms Off in the Middle of an Interview. The Final Truth Is Out Now."
The inclusion of the ad specifically in a conservative newsletter brought to mind previous reporting from ProPublica that said a "mysterious" ad network had been "placing ads with fake endorsements from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk on conservative sites," all for some sort of healing or fat-busting gummies.
However, this ad was false. The ad did not lead to any evidence of Woods having stormed off during an interview, nor was there any further information about the golfer having revealed any "final truth."
This ad and others like it routed through adsoniris.com and led to a purported U.S. Golf Association (USGA) article from "USGA News." The article was hosted on the website cbdinsiderdeals.com and claimed that Woods had created his own line of CBD gummies, and that former NBA icon Michael Jordan, actor Sam Elliott, fellow golfer Phil Mickelson, and country singer Garth Brooks all endorsed the product.
As we previously reported, Woods had not created his own line of CBD gummies, nor did any of the aforementioned celebrities endorse any such products. Further, the USGA had no involvement in the publishing of this article on cbdinsiderdeals.com, which is a scam website with no homepage.
According to a search of online records, Namecheap.com provided the domain registration for cbdinsiderdeals.com and Cloudfare.com was involved with hosting the scam content. As for adsoniris.com, Cloudfare.com provided both domain registration and hosting.
We reached out to the USGA's legal team to alert it of the activity on cbdinsiderdeals.com, including the fact that the bottom of the website misleadingly said, "© 2022 United States Golf Association. All Rights Reserved."