THE mystery sender of diet pill adverts to outraged women in north Kent has been unmasked. Recipients feared they were the victims of a cruel hoax after they received newspaper cutouts of the ads, showing before and after pictures of fat women apparently slimmed down by the tablets.

But now the Medway Today newspaper has discovered these were genuine mailshots sent on behalf of the makers, using a bizarre marketing ploy. A spokesman for Arizona-based Health Laboratories of North America, said: "We have been using this system to give the impression that the material comes from a friend. This is a method commonly used in the United States although we appreciate it is not very familiar in this country."

It had been assumed that the advertisements for the Berry Trim Plus pills were the work of a prankster because they were not sent in the usual form of unsolicited mail, brochures or headed notepaper, and also had the scribbled messages: "Try it, it works."

After Medway Today last week reported that six women in Rainham and Twydall received the cutouts for the Berry Trim Plus pills, four more women, from areas including Rochester and Cliffe, rang the newspaper to say they had got them too. One, Julie Stone, 34, of Catherine Street, Rochester, said: "I was quite upset to get this because I feel I could lose a few pounds. I thought the sender was someone who had nothing to do with the company and was taking a pop at me. No doubt other women have thought the same thing and been upset too.

"But then I decided to ring the freephone number on the advert to try to shed more light and they told me it would have come from them. It's a very strange way of advertising your business and very unprofessional. I wouldn't give them my money."

The adverts originate from an American newspaper, The Daily News, and the company is Platinum Nitruceuticals International. The postmarks sent to the Medway women have usually come from South Woodford in London.

HLNA explains that it is PNIL's parent company and it has mailshot companies all over the UK sending out the cuttings to women regardless of their size. Customers can order the tablets by ringing a calls centre in Shannon, Ireland, and they are shipped out from Holland.

The HLNA spokesman, based in Shannon, said: "We have had calls from members of the public enquiring about these adverts and we appreciate people have been concerned. But this is a very American method of marketing.

"We get people's names from supermarket loyalty card lists. We apologise if people have been offended and they can contact us to have their names taken off the list."