Facebook users are reporting seeing paid advertisements that falsely claim 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 believing they're reading FoxNews.com, Time.com, and others, when in reality they were sent to lookalike websites that were created by scammers. Such articles falsely claimed that McEntire endorsed CBD and keto gummies, sometimes referring to them as "Reba's candy." In reality, McEntire hadn't experienced any sad or tragic news and she 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 scam with McEntire. We have 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 misleadingly claims there's some sort of sad or tragic news or perhaps some allegations against the celebrity, just as we saw in this case with McEntire. One of the ads featuring McEntire said she experienced "a tragic end."
After clicking the false ad, users are led to the second step of the scam. That second step is the fake endorsement article. The article might appear to be from a well-known news organization, but in reality the story is hosted by scammers. In the past, we've seen articles that have been 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 the CBD or keto gummies.
The third step in the scam involves leading users from the fake celebrity endorsement article to the product order page. The product order page usually doesn't feature the celebrity's name. In the past, we've found that purchasing bottles of CBD or keto gummies on these kinds of product order pages usually enrolls customers in a trial program that will hit them with a big, recurring charge on their credit or debit card around 30 days later.
There's also arguably a fourth step in this scam, and that involves the customer. Weeks later, as the customer who saw the fake celebrity endorsement desperately tries to reach the company to cancel the trial and future orders, they might have trouble finding the phone number or email address for the business. They also might post on social media to blame the celebrity for the ordeal, still believing that they endorsed the products.
Some of the products that we saw scammers were featuring in various fake articles with the unauthorized usage 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 sum, 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 might be especially vulnerable to fall for elaborate scams. Fake celebrity endorsements for CBD and keto oil and gummies products have been going on for years, and we advise everyone to steer clear of such offers.
Important: If you see any of these CBD or keto gummies Facebook ads, 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 instead of a screenshot, as a link will allow us to better analyze the current status of the scam. Thank you to all readers who helped send in tips regarding previous scams.