Warnings issued to payment processors over supplement claims.

This week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued warning letters to some payment processors for boarding merchants that made unproven claims about their products.  Many of these products are sold on-line, advertised over social media, and are called “dietary supplements” or “natural remedies”. Products that promise and claim to do it all, rarely do anything at all. The reality is these unfortunately miracle products can be dangerous if not approved by the FTC and FDA. Some may contain unlabeled and unapproved drugs, which can cause serious injury or death. Always consult with your doctor, pharmacist, or other healthcare professionals before you try any new treatment.

The reality is that phony miracle products can be dangerous, and not just because of interactions with medicines you’re already taking. They also might cause you to delay or stop proven medical treatment ordered by – or available from – your physician. They might also delay you from making important dietary and lifestyle changes to help your condition. And some may contain unlabeled and unapproved drugs, which can cause serious injury or death.

Dietary supplements, nutraceuticals, and other healthcare products are under constant scrutiny by government regulators. For merchant service providers, how do you know if the merchants you are about to onboard — or others already in your portfolio — aren’t selling illegal products or ingredients?

With HawkScanner’s Database Lookups you can check the status of these products against an FDA-powered database that’s updated weekly. Simply search for the product or ingredient in question and save the results. There are also options to save frequent searches, and to enable live monitoring so you never have to manually search again. Armed with this data, you can confidently verify which merchants are operating in compliance and which are not.