Posts tagged: Acai Scams

What You Should Know About Free Acai Berry Trial Offers

If you are interested in acai berry and have perhaps done some digging up on what these supplements can do, it’s likely that you have come across sites that are promoting free acai berry trial offers. It’s easy to get lured with these free trials especially if you just want to give acai supplements a try. Before you take up these seemingly attractive offers however, you should know that these may simply be scams in disguise. If you are not careful of what you sign up for, you could end up paying a considerable amount instead of the free products you expected.Every time a new, popular product hits the market, there are always a number of scam companies that spring up to grab a share of the potentially millions of dollars being spent by customers. That ?free trial? that seems so harmless is just bait; pick it up, and you step right into their trap.Not so long ago, a very popular company was sued by irate customers for swindling them out of their money. When the buyers signed up for the free trial they were also signed up for numerous subscriptions to other products. While the acai berry was free, these other offers certainly were not. Customers were being charged huge amounts of money and when they tried to cancel the subscriptions they were put on hold or delayed for months. The charges just kept coming in while e-mails were ignored and phone calls were put on hold. In the end, the company was forced to pay out $350,000 back to customers they had scammed. But not all victims are so lucky.The chances of a scam company being able to pay you back are quite slim so your best course of action would be to avoid these types of offers altogether. If something in your gut tells you a deal seems too good to be true, it’d be wise to heed it because in most cases, it is. The truth of the matter is, a high quality supplement like acai berry pills, can’t be just given away for free. Unless an outright condition is given like a free bottle with a 6-month order, it’s likely that a caveat is hidden in the fine print.However, you should not let a few scammers spoil your opinion of acai berry supplements. Legitimate companies sell an amazing product that can help you get a great boost out of your healthy lifestyle. Acai berry itself is the real deal and if you are serious about checking it out, it would definitely be worth the price of a bottle of supplements. When it comes to your hard earned money, it just isn’t worth the risk to try taking one of those free acai berry trial offers.

Acai berry diet supplements can be very beneficial to your overall health and general well-being but don’t be taken in by those free acai trial offers! A “free” offer may sound attractive, but you’ll pay for it dearly in the long run. Just like mom used to say, “If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.”

Beware of the Acai Scam

Are you considering trying acai? If so, you need to know about the multitude of acai scams that are all over the Internet.Acai (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) is a fruit that grows on the acai palm tree in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. The acai berry is dark purple in color and about the size of a blueberry. About 90% of the acai berry is seed and about 10% is skin and pulp. Only the skin and pulp are edible.Acai has plenty of nutritional benefits. It is loaded with antioxidants, contains essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, is high in fiber, and is a good source of vitamins and minerals.Acai got a jolt of publicity in 2008 when Dr. Mehmet Oz included it among tomatoes, blueberries, broccoli, and other healthy foods in a segment on Oprah. A guest on Rachael Ray also mentioned acai. Since then, acai has received quite a bit of media coverage and it continues to grow in popularity. Many companies have sprung up to try and capitalize on this popularity. Many of these companies are selling weight loss supplements that contain acai, and their websites make incredible claims about how much weight you can lose by using their products. But there are two major problems that you need to be aware of.The first problem is that there is no scientific evidence that acai has any special weight loss properties. Acai has plenty of health benefits, but it is not the secret to weight loss.The second problem is even more troubling. Many of the companies selling acai weight loss supplements are scamming people.These companies are using websites and blogs that contain fake personal weight loss stories and fake before and after pictures. They are using websites and blogs that contain fake celebrity and fake doctor endorsements. They are using bogus review websites and blogs that supposedly “review” acai products and recommend the “best” ones. They are even using websites and blogs purporting to warn people about acai-related scams that are themselves perpetrating scams.The scam works like this. If you sign up for the “free trial” offer on one of these websites or blogs, you have to provide your credit card information to cover shipping and handling for the “free sample.” You are then enrolled in an “automatic shipment program” where you are sent cheap, overpriced acai supplements and your credit card is billed $80 or more every month. The details are usually spelled out in the website’s fine print, but most people don’t read that. Thousands of people have had trouble stopping these recurring credit card charges.Acai is a very nutritious fruit and taking an acai supplement is an easy and effective way to experience acai’s nutritional benefits. But you should only purchase acai supplements from a reputable company that sells high quality products. If you have any concerns about a particular company, check that company out at the Better Business Bureau’s website (www.bbb.org). It also helps to search various consumer complaint websites, such as complaints.com and and ripoffreport.com. Lastly, but most importantly, avoid all “free trials” of acai supplements.

Be Wary of Free Trials of Acai Berry Products

Online scammers have been setting up websites to lure consumers in with “free trial offers” of various acai berry products. With demand for acai berry supplements constantly rising, so has the number of people looking to cash in on the trend. The best way to avoid being scammed when it comes to acai is to stay away from free trial offers and stick with reputable dealers, said Bryan Nettles .

“Hundreds of thousands of people have been ripped off by companies who claim to offer free trials, tarnishing the good name of what is still a wonderful health food. As a general rule, people should stay away from any company offering free trials. We see these scammers putting up dozens of new websites everyday offering the free trial offers. Of the hundreds we have looked at, we have yet to find a single one that is a legitimate business,” said Nettles.

Although Pure Acai Products has never offered free acai trial, the company receives dozens of emails every day from people who have been scammed by tricksters. Many of these emails are mistakenly directed at Pure Acai Products because buyers have been unable to contact the companies they originally made orders with.

“These people email us thinking that we are the ones who stole their money because there’s no way to contact the con artists,” added Nettles.

One bemused customer wrote, “I was charged $89.31 for renewal on the acai berry vitamins and I never even received the sample of vitamins I had requested. I want my account refunded and I want nothing else to do with your company.”

The acai berry is touted as being the world’s newest superfood. Native of Brazil, the berries are said to contain high levels of fatty acids, fiber, antioxidants and other nutrients. The popularity of acai berry products is partly due to stars such as Rachel Ray and Oprah Winfrey featuring acai on their shows. Interest levels spike after each mention on television, but unfortunately the scammers are always aware of this.

On January 6, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) issued a warning about acai free trial offer scams. Tricksters tempt customers with offers of free trials, but problems ensue when people find out they are signed up for all sorts of products and subscriptions they don’t want.

Steve Cox, spokesman for BBB, said, “Many businesses across the country are using the same selling model for their acai products: they lure customers in with celebrity endorsements and free trial offers, and then lock them in by making it extremely difficult to cancel the automatic delivery of more acai products every month.”

There are hundreds of company names that people have filed complaints about. One of the most common is FX Supplements, which supposedly offers risk-free trials that involve buyers paying for nothing but shipping.

Customers have until the end of their trail to cancel their subscription or else find themselves lumbered with monthly charges of $85.90. What most people miss is that the trial begins from the day of the order.

Another company in the firing line is Central Coast Nutraceuticals, which again offers free acai trials of everything from acai supplements to acai tea. Buyers who don’t act quickly enough to cancel their subscriptions are then charged $40 a month.

So why don’t people just cancel their subscriptions? Likely they would – if they could ever get hold of the companies they ordered from. Customers who phone the hotlines are put on hold for anything up to 75 minutes – and even then there is no guarantee that they won’t be disconnected.

Dozens of new acai websites are unleashed on the Internet daily. Scammers move from one domain to the next, using pay-per-click advertisements to generate traffic. In November 2008 Google recorded more than 1.5 million searches for acai products. Sales of acai products were more than $15 million last year.

Nettles continued, “Sales of acai berry products are still growing. People haven’t been dissuaded from the actual products, but now they understand they have to be a bit more careful where they order from.”

Any offer of a free trial of acai products is likely to be a scam and hundreds of thousands of people have already fallen victim. Acai products come in various forms – juices, powders, capsules, jams and so on – and their popularity is showing no signs of slowing, despite the presence of fraudsters.

If you want to order acai products, find a reputable source that doesn’t push any too-good-to-be-true offers on shoppers.

Acai Berry – How I Lost $90 in Under 30 Days Using The Acai Berry

It was so easy – all I had to do was sign up for a free trial of Acai and they automatically pull $90 out of my bank account every month!  No annoying authorization necessary, no need to open my wallet and send them money – they just take it from me with no effort on my part.

 Some of the things Free Trial Acai Berry is good for:

Trying to shed your wealth and become poor – Free Trial Acai Berry Supplements will do that for you.  With the autobilling that never ends, you will be able to go from riches to rags in no time at all.

Is your wallet wrinkled from holding too much cash – Free Trial Acai will cure this problem!  By auto billing you every month, you will soon have no money to cause those wrinkles.

All around the world acai berry scam artist are having to make do with tiny 10 bedroom homes.  If you purchase their Free Trial Acai you can help these Acai berry scam artist upgrade to a proper 20 bedroom mansion.

When you have money, things can be complicated.  You need to decide what clothes to buy your kids, what food to eat and what medical insurance premiums to pay.  Free Trial Acai Berry is nice enough to take money out of your accounts so you don’t need to worry about making any financial decisions anymore.

 Okay, we are obviously being funny here – but these Acai berry scams are not a laughing matter.  By now you have no doubt received endless emails about using the Acai Berry to lose 30 pounds in 30 days.  To make the offer even better, there seems to be a “free trial”.  Of course, if you read the fine print the offer is not free and you end up getting billed $90 every month for a low quality Acai supplement that will not help you lose weight.

If you want to learn more about how you can avoid these acai berry scams, the Supplement Secrets Exposed Blog has some great articles:

The 9 Words You Never Want to See on Your Acai Berry Label

Free Black Belt Course in Spotting Acai Berry Scams

What Did Oprah, Dr. Oz and Dr. Perricone Really Say About Acai

Take a look at the above resources and keep your money where it belongs – in your wallet!

 

Thinking of Ordering Acai Berry Free Trial? Read This First

Acai berry is very nutritious and contains many great ingredients such as omega fats, minerals and vitamins. It’s also a very powerful antioxidant and is rich in fiber. Because of its excellent nutrition there are many products based on it on the market. Many companies, especially those producing capsules, are offering an acai berry free trial – which is a great thing, being able to try it before you buy it is always good. Unfortunately a few bad companies are using the “free trial” offers to scam people. How exactly does the scam work? Continue to read to find out..

There are two parts here – a none scam part and a scam part, however a lot of people seem to mix up the two. I’ll start with the none scam part.

All the companies offering those free trials, will sign up you for an automated shipping when you order the trial. That is to say should you not cancel your trial in the time period specified, the credit card you used to pay for shipping and handling for free trial will be charged some amount and you will receive your next shipment. A lot of people call this a scam. It’s not. While the ethical part of not highlighting important details (like the fact you’ll be charged if you don’t cancel) may be a bit questionable. This is how the “free trial” industry operates, doesn’t matter if you order online, from a tv ad or a magazine, that’s how it works – you don’t cancel you get charged.

The details of how much you will be charged and when you need to cancel to avoid it are clearly stated in Terms of Use section of the web site you buy from. As well as often being displayed on the order page where you input your credit card number. So if someone fails to read it or fails to cancel in time, it’s that persons fault, and not by any means a scam.

The scam part of it is that a few companies are exploiting this system by making it impossible to cancel – not responding to phone calls or emails. Some people people got charged hundreds of dollars and ended up having to cancel their credit cards to stop the payments. This is obviously something you want to avoid, so it’s important to do some research first on the company. Pay attention though to why people claim a company is a “scam” as I pointed out a lot of people claim they got scammed because they didn’t read that they needed to cancel. While it’s an unfortunate situation, it doesn’t make such a company scammers.

For more information you can read about: acai berry scams and how to avoid them. You may also want to check out a comparison between several companies offering acai berry free trials for acai capsules.