False websites and videos claimed that Winfrey was a fan of a “pink salt trick,” redirecting users to fraudulent sales pages for supplements.
The month of August was 2025. posts on social media and websites accurately stated that Oprah Winfrey had endorsed an “pink salt trick” for weight loss.
In the late summer of 2025, there was a rumor on the internet that Oprah Winfrey had endorsed an alleged “pink salt trick” for weight loss.
The story quickly spread through the web, which includes questionable websites (archived) as well as post on Facebook and other social platforms such as YouTube and X as well as allegedly paid ads. On Reddit one user expressed the anger of many people and asked, (archived) “Oprah is so rich, why is she shilling pink salt for weight loss?”
However, Winfrey hasn’t endorsed any of these products or recipes and this is one of the latest examples of a common online scam that makes use of her name, image and a certain amount of credibility to sell suspect nutritional supplements. We have therefore rated the claim as untrue.
False videos, false remarks false urgency
One story (archived) propagating the false story of Winfrey endorses the “pink salt trick” claim was headlined “Harvard-Trained Doctor Reveals The 5-Second ‘Pink Salt Trick’ That’s Helping Women Over 45 Finally Shed Stubborn Fat No Ipjestiops, No Workout.”
The term “Ipjestiops” contained the Cyrillic letter “p” instead of the Latin “n,” employing an anti-crawling strategy that involves visually replacing specific Latin letters with similar-looking characters from different alphabets. This technique reduces the article’s searchability using standard keywords and makes it more difficult to track its popularity. We’ve previously exposed the application of this method in an article published in July 2025 disproving claims that tennis player Coco Gauff gave $3 million to search and rescue efforts in the wake of devastating Texas floods.
The videos on websites that propagated the rumor usually contained deepfake videos of famous people like Winfrey, Adele, Kim Kardashian and Rebel Wilson. For example, Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector offered an example of Winfrey’s voice “Authenticity score: 1 / 100” that means “the sampled voice is likely a deepfake.”
(Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector)
In addition to false footage, these videos also included authentic images of the same celebrity A tactic that appears to give the frauds an additional credibility.
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Making use of institutions” credibility
In addition, the websites spreading the rumor contained emblems of prominent institutions like Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, Stanford Medicine, and The New England Journal of Medicine -despite having none of the authentic
In the same way, one site (archived) showed the logos and names from Harvard University, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Frontiers in Pharmacology and The Lancet Planetary Health. None of these entities had any connection with the claims.
In March 2024, an identical group of fraudsters hacked the websites of well-known institutions to market “miracle” CBD and keto Gummies.
From the ‘pink salt hack’ to boost sales
Although they were framed around an supposed “pink salt recipe,” the videos did not reveal a recipe and instead led users to sites selling weight loss products.
One time some of the video clips showed the message “up to $5,000 available to viewers who watch the video until the end.” The viewers who sat through the long video which ran for several hours and then were redirected to a fraudulent sale site (archived) of the supplement LipoVive.
(secretloophole.online)
If you were looking for information about Lipovive One of the most popular Google results was directly from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The link, shown as “forms.international.ucla.edu” with the school’s logo, did not work and had no real connection to UCLA. Another example of fraudsters trying to take the trustworthiness of domains such as “.edu,” “.org” or “.gov” to make their claims appear more authentic.
(Google results from a search )
A link on another website, salttrickrecipe.store, initially displayed a video about the “pink salt trick,” but eventually redirected to a sales page for a product called Slimjaro. Similar to the other article with the title, “‘If this were my last interview, I’d want every woman to hear this,’ says Oprah, after losing nearly 60 pounds using this pink salt trick” was located on a website that redirects to the sales page of HepatoBurn supplement
False statements as well as false claims of urgency
Additionally, the comments sections on a few of the websites (archived) which spread the news were fabricated. The majority of comments were tagged as posted less than minutes prior to the time a visitor landed however the time stamps have did not change, even after a few minutes of surfing as well as refreshing the webpage. Additionally there was no possibility to allow users to post the comments of their choice, suggesting that the comments visible on the website were not authentic.
(salttrickrecipe.store)
A few of the fake comments even attempted to fend off doubts by having discussions on it was the “pink salt trick” or advertised products were real. In one exchange in one thread, a user named Margy Peet posted “I don’t know… this might be a scam. What if I waste my time and it doesn’t work to help me with my weight?” Another person, Sandra Bryan, quickly responded, “I used to think the same thing, but it works. In just 15 days, my belly was visibly flatter and my pants were looser!” Peet replied “Thanks so much for the comment, I’ll give it a try too then.” The staged exchange seemed designed to convince customers of the legitimacy of the product and subtly pressurize users into purchasing.
The sites also used the use of high-pressure tactics, advising viewers to beware of messages such as “This video will be out soon. This is your last chance to watch the ending.”
(salttrickrecipe.store)
Sometimes videos implied that they could be removed in the near future giving an illusion of urgency, and urging users to act prior to having time to reflect.
This isn’t the first time Oprah’s face has been used to create fraud ……..
The “pink salt recipe” hoax is just one of a lengthy sequence of scams using Winfrey’s image to promote fake products. In 2022 she weighed in on Instagram against false advertisements claiming she was a spokesman for CBD chewing gum
Fraud alert! Don’t purchase any weight loss pills with my photo or name on them. There are social media advertisements as well as emails and fake websites being advertised and I would like you to know, straight from me that I am not associated with them. Don’t fall for the trap of and don’t provide your personal details to them.
“Pink salt trick” won’t help you shed weight
In addition to the false assertions regarding Winfrey’s endorsement “pink salt trick” wasn’t an actual trick.
In the middle of August 2025, we looked into posts on social media that claimed that the addition of Hawaiian pink salt in lemon juice can aid in weight loss. Experts in nutrition, however, claimed that the claim was bogus. Allison Childress, an associate professor of practice within the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Texas Tech University and a clinical dietitian, explained to us that the mix “will not do anything significant” in terms of weight loss, and could even lead to the retention of water and increase fluid levels. The doctor also advised that replacing iodized salts with pink salt may increase the chance of having iodine deficiencies and thyroid issues. Weight loss that is sustainable She said, it comes from established habits such as healthy diets regularly exercising, drinking plenty of water and adequate restnot quick fixes such as”pink salt trick. “pink salt trick.”