The Office of Fair Trading has set up two spoof websites to show the methods used by scammers to rip-off consumers. The products advertised on the sites are 'FatFoe' and 'Glucobate'.

The websites promote a 'fat melting pad' and a cure for diabetes, respectively. Consumers who try to order the products are redirected to a page explaining that the cures are fake and that the websites have been set up to warn the public about the dangers of such scams.

According to the OFT, the government department responsible for protecting UK consumers from unfair sales practices, an estimated 200,000 UK consumers waste money on 'miracle' cures for things such as baldness, obesity, impotence and old age every year. Miracle health and slimming cure scams cost the UK public an estimated £20 million a year.

The websites have been set up with the help of the charities Sense About Science and Diabetes UK. There message to the public is that buying miracle health cures is not only a waste of money, but often also dangerous: "There is no evidence that a product such as Glucobate is safe for people with diabetes to take, let alone help them manage their condition", according to Zoe Harrison of Diabetes UK.

The Office of Fair Trading advises consumers to be wary of miracle health products that:

• Claim it can cure cancer or other serious illnesses. There's no pill, patch, or other 'miracle' treatment that can cure such illnesses.
• Claim to be a 'scientific breakthrough'. Researchers around the world are racing to find better treatments for diabetes and other serious illnesses, so genuine scientific discoveries make front-page news. If the first you hear about a new treatment is an ad on the internet, be suspicious.
• Try hard to sound scientific. Technical terms like 'clinically proven' don't necessarily mean there is medical proof a product works. Also the presence of a doctor in an ad or an endorsement by a health institute, foundation or hospital is no guarantee the product works. Scammers have been known to hire models to look like experts and to fabricate institutions.
• Tell questionable 'success stories'. Despite what the company claims in its testimonials, there's no guarantee that 'J B of Liverpool, UK' had the advertised results - or is even a real person.
• Have a money back guarantee. Scammers who offer a guarantee often don't honour it and just take your money and run.

In 2008 new consumer protection laws were introduced to close loopholes that rogue traders were previously able to exploit. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations introduced a general prohibition against unfair commercial practices and ban 31 unfair sales practices outright. One of the sales practices that has been banned is "falsely claiming that a product is able to cure illnesses, dysfunction or malformations".