Due to the deceptive practices of the marketers of the popular Acai Berry Fruit products, Visa Inc. has closed 100 merchant accounts. As with many products that are offered to consumers as a free trial, consumers are not aware at the time of the offer, that they are in fact committing themselves to more than just the shipping and handling charges that the scams ask for. In fact they could find themselves paying up to $90.00 or more monthly. This type of marketing is known as” negative option” or “forced continuity”. In the past, consumers were given the option at the time of signing up for the free trial period, to continue buying the product or cancel after 30 days, if not satisfied. In fact many companies still offer that option, while attempting to “upsell” into a “forced continuity” option. At least the consumer is aware of what is happening with the “upsell” attempt.
Visa has joined the BBB (Better Business Bureau), as well as the Federal Trade Commission in the fight to protect consumers from scammers who make phony promises in order to make the sale, as a result of the Acai Berry Scam. 1 out of 3 Americans have fallen victim to this type of scam, usually occurring through e-commerce sales, myself included.
The issue is not with the producers of the Acai Berry, which has received lots of recognition as the number 1 superfood, which is high in antioxidants, healthy Omega fats, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. The issues lie with the companies that market the product.
One of the many tricks that were used by marketers of this product particularly was to use unauthorized photos of famous people, such as Oprah Winfrey and others, to give a false testament of endorsement of the product. Another trick used is the phony testimonials of how the product was discovered by a “local mom”, near wear the potential consumer lives.
Once hooked, the consumer is then locked into a payment program that begins when the trial period is over, and they notice unauthorized deductions from their credit cards, and several unsuccessful attempts to cancel the unauthorized membership. There are however, details available regarding the membership or club offers, located in very tiny print, somewhere on the website, usually to be viewed only after the consumer has click the option to pay for the product.
Consumers can protect themselves from such scams, by checking with the BBB, www.bbb.org or to purchase only from companies that have a Consumer’s Bill of Rights.
Comments on this entry are closed.