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 of Bryan Nettles Pure Acai Products.

"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emails are mistakenly directed at Pure Acai Products because buyers have been unable to contact the companies they originally made orders with.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.