Get-poor-quickly schemes abounded in 2009, and Mark Huffman Consumer Affairs sifted through the best of the best to come up the top 10 scams of 2009. [More]
Search results for: acai
Visa Cuts Off Payments To Unrepentant Scammers
By 12.18.09
That “local mom” trying to sell you her secret formulas for weight loss and tooth whitening in Internet ads may need to find a new job. Visa cut off payments to 100 merchants. The culled companies were the fine folks behind the “free sample” negative-option scams that Consumerist has written about extensively in the past. [More]
Oprah's Dr. Oz Sues Resveratrol Anti-Aging Scam Companies
By 10.8.09
Amazing pills that will make me look younger and lose weight? And it comes as a free trial, you say? Of course I’ll try it! Here’s my credit card number. What could possibly go wrong?
Magic Diet Product Scams Invade Freecycle And Meetup Groups
By 7.14.09
Beware! Affiliate spammers have infiltrated innocent online groups, looking to take advantage of the people who haven’t yet heard that “free” trials of magic diet foods are a scam.
No, You Can't Get Rich Quick Via Twitter
By 7.7.09
The Better Business Bureau warns job-hunters and other money-seekers that no, you can’t earn massive amounts of money through secretive Twitter tricks.
Acai Berry Drink Company Agrees To Give $350k Back To Bilked Customers
By 6.26.09
One of the acai berry’s most miraculous powers is its ability to filch hundreds of dollars from consumers who are seeking new ways to lose weight and live forever. Now one company known for marketing an acai elixir has settled a lawsuit from the Arizona Attorney General over charges of deceptive practices.
Free Trials Can Be Trojan Horses For Sketchy Companies
By 6.23.09
“Free” is always an enticing proposition, but free trials that seem too good to be true often are. Conmen use such offers to lure in greedy customers hoping to get something for nothing.
Easy Weight Loss And Free Cash: A Dubious Product Online Marketing Empire Revealed
By 5.13.09
I started out looking at the advertising and affiliate practices of one company, CreditReport America, and learned that the company that owns this site apparently produces a solid majority of the ads on the Web that annoy me.
This Is Why You Don't Order From Fad Diet & Wellness Sites
By 3.18.09
Christina decided to give the famed acai berry a try. What the heck, she must have thought, it won’t cost me that much ($10) and the site’s refund policy clearly indicates when I can return the product, cancel the “subscription,” and move on. She knew the cancel-by date and was prepared to follow the rules. AcaiBerryUltimate.com had other plans, which are best summed up by this email they sent to her: “You can get your refund in hell. haahah.”
Snapple's Acai Drink Just Pear Juice And Corn Syrup
By 1.23.09
Of all the ridiculous Acai schemes we’ve seen involving overpriced miracle elixirs, Snapple wins hands down—their Acai Blackberry drink is high fructose corn syrup, pear juice, and “natural flavors,” which Consumerist reader LS points out could be “a spoonful of blackberry jam from Aunt Sally’s root cellar and a puff of acai-laced breath from the health food girl in accounting.” Or more likely, just some flavoring extracts from a company similar to this one.
Hasbro Casts Spell Of Greater Invisibility Over D&D Cancellation Page
By 1.10.09
You can’t cancel your annual membership agreement with Hasbro’s “D&D Insider”—at least not easily, and not at all for some frustrated users. Company admins keep giving out ridiculous instructions on the user forums, but those posts are followed by customers saying all they get are error messages, no matter what browser/OS combo they try. To make matters worse, their customer service department was closed over the holidays, so nobody was answering the phone numbers they listed. This is the kind of runaround we expect from scammers like the Acai resellers, not a national toy company.
Identical Fake Testimonial Diet Sites Spreading Like Herpes
By 1.9.09
On Monday, Meg alerted you to a BBB warning about Acai sellers doing scammy things to consumers. Now Donna has tipped us off to a slew of identical websites that have sprouted up online, featuring Everyday Women Like You And Me with names like Jenny, Sarah, Nancy, and Amy, and who all look like the same blonde model. They’ve all lost pounds, too! How? With “My 2 Step Formula,” that’s how!
Careful, Those Free Acai Products Might Come Attached To A Delicious Scam
By 1.5.09
The BBB is warning consumers about scams attached to the popular, yummy acai berry. Online ads claiming endorsements by Oprah and Rachel Ray are pitching acai-berry-themed weight loss products — and are generating thousands of complaints from angry consumers who say they’ve been scammed.
"The Purple Horror" Monavie Group Blog
By 10.23.08
Remember the Monavie Acai juice Multi-Level-Marketing scam Chris Walters told you about a few weeks ago? There’s a whole community blog set up where people can post their Monavie stories as moderator-approved comments at purplehorror.com. Here’s one from a frustrated salesperson: “Our upline said that we weren’t pitching it the “right way”. Their idea of the right way was to lie. They didn’t think of it as lying, but it was… They would ask people if they had any medical conditions and whatever they said, the answer was always “Monavie can definitely help you with that.” Note the word “upline.” That’s a common word multi-level-marketing schemes use to refer to the person directly above you in their modified pyramid scheme.
Just What The Heck Is MonaVie, And Should I Sell It?
By 10.6.08
I’ve been approached by a friend to join up with MonaVie acai juice—it’s a “superfood” juice that’s sold through “network marketing.” I actually do like the product, and this is a friend I trust, but my alarm bells are still going off. I don’t want to get sucked into a scam, obviously. There’s nothing about this company on your site, so I thought I’d drop you a line and see if you had any advice.
NYmag ‘Yupster’ Article Found Totally Lame
By 3.30.06
We were going to check this NYmag article on the “ascendant yupster” (yuppie + hipster, as they thankfully point out), but their site was down when we first saw the headline, “Up With Grups – The Ascendant Breed of Grown-Ups Who Are Redefining Adulthood.“
