Expensive ads cleverly masquerading as newspaper stories are reporting soaring demand for a "newly approved diet pill," which closer examination reveals to be neither new nor a government-approved drug being marketed under the name PatentLEAN.

PatentLEAN is a so-called fat burner commonly referred to for short as 7-Keto (3-acetyl-7-oxo-dehydroepiandrosterone), a downstream metabolite of DHEA. Under various names, this active ingredient has been around for more than a decade. It is promoted as a weight loss aid for its supposed thermogenic effect.

Animal studies have demonstrated that 7-Keto can enhance thermogenesis, which may translate into weight loss. The theory behind this supplement is that DHEA levels decline as we age, and 7-Keto replaces declining DHEA, resulting in increases to an individual's metabolism.

According to the latest ads, which announce a "12 hour deadline" for readers to get "free pills approved in the ConsumerLab test featured on NBC, Today Show, CNN, and Oprah Magazine," two clinical studies showed that people taking PatentLEAN together with proper diet and exercise lost three times as much weight those who tried diet and exercise alone.

No information about these trials is provided either in the ads or on the website of PatentHEALTH, LLC, the promoter of PatentLEAN. Very sketchy information about the trials is provided at PatientLEAN.com. From what we have been able to determine, these short trials do not appear to have been well designed, and provide relatively weak support for the weight-loss claims.

Notwithstanding either the name, or the claims in the ad that PatentLEAN has "four U.S. patents pertaining to weight loss," we have found no evidence that any patents exist under the name PatentLEAN. The only patent number provided on the site, PatentLEAN.com, refers to a DHEA patent issued in 1992.

Our bottom line is when companies feel the need to try to fool newspaper readers into believing that they are reading a news story about a product, and not a paid ad, that's probably a flashing-signal for the warning: Buyer Beware.