Twenty "As Seen on TV" Items That Were Actually Scams

[Webster]

In the 1980s, TV wasn’t just for sitcoms and game shows—it was a battleground of outrageous promises. You’d be sitting on your couch when suddenly, a wild-eyed pitchman would appear, swearing that his product could change your life forever.

Some of these inventions looked futuristic. Some seemed too good to be true. And well… most of them were. From miracle health cures to financial "secrets" that emptied wallets instead of filling them, these were the scams that TV didn’t just promote—it practically blessed.

So grab your cordless phone, and let's rewind to the golden age of late-night lies.

00:00 Intro
00:56 The White-Van Speaker Scam
01:48 Tom Vu’s “Get Rich” Scheme
02:57 Kevin Trudeau’s Mega Memory Tapes
04:03 Carleton Sheets and the “No Money Down” Dream
05:09 Don Lapre’s “Tiny Classified Ad” Fortune
06:24 Mega Memory and “Hair Farming” Tapes
07:34 Coral Calcium Supreme
08:42 Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About
09:47 The One-Minute Addiction Cure Gadget
10:58 The Action Reading System
12:02 The Mega Reading Course
13:20 The “They” Weight-Loss Cure
14:23 Biotape: The Miracle Pain Patch
15:36 The Memory Improvement Tapes
16:51 The Fake Bomb Detector That Was a Toy (ADE 651)
18:00 Distressed Property DVD Scams
19:01 Generic Miracle Gadgets
20:01 The ThighMaster Knockoffs
21:11 “Fat-Burning” Apple Cider Vinegar Tonics
22:20 “Wrinkle Erasers” and Electric Facelift Wands

 

[DrLeftover]

only twenty?
But they were focused on the eighties.

Remember this one?

Hey Doc. What in the hell is Head On "Apply Directly to the Forehead"? I know you've seen the commercial, all you watch is the Weather and History channels.
-Chris

please don't apply directly to anything

herbalism and hoaxery

www.themediadesk.com

 

[KO896]

I don't remember any of those!

 

[DrLeftover]

The punchline is that about half the commercials on Youtube that ran during that video are for THE SAME SORT OF SCAM PRODUCTS....

Vinegar weight loss, "black salt", some sort of skin care crap.... the same worthless stuff that was being debunked in the video.

 

[MrDawn]

I still see commercials like this still airing on the tv where I work and I always just assume they're scams to begin with.

 

[DrLeftover]

I still see commercials like this still airing on the tv where I work and I always just assume they're scams to begin with.

They are.

But people still call.