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scams

FTC Acts To Stop Acai Berry Scams…and Pigs Fly

by Dan-N on August 24, 2010

Well, it finally happened. The FTC has finally taken action against Acai Berry companies that make bogus claims such as: endorsed by Oprah, lose 30 pounds in a month and receive a free trial! In other news, pigs have started to fly!

FTC We Say Thank You and What Took You So Long?

For over 2 years we have been writing about Acai Berry Scams and begging the FTC to take action. Everyday we hear from countless consumers who have fallen victim to these scams (take a look at all the comments on our Julia Milller Acai Berry Scam post). Well, it took a while but the FTC has taken action.

“Too many ‘free’ offers come with strings attached,” said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “In this case, the defendants promised buyers a ‘risk free’ trial and then illegally billed their credit cards again and again – and again. We estimate that about a million people have fallen victim to this scam. As if that weren’t enough, there were fake endorsements from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Rachael Ray for a product that didn’t work in the first place.”

- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Press Release 8/16/2010

AcaiPure – We Couldn’t Be Happier to See You Go

The FTC named Central Coast Nutraceuticals, Inc. (CCN) and their products AcaiPure and ColoPure in the complaint. The FTC has frozen the assets of CCN and basically put the company into receivership as the court actions move forward. This is great news as we have received numerous complaints about the AcaiPure brand and the FTC believes they scammed consumers out of $30 million in 2009 alone.

Consumers Still Need to Be Aware, Other Sharks Are in the Water

Clearly removing AcaiPure and CCN from the marketplace is a major step in the right direction, but consumers still need to be careful. There are still plenty of companies out there that are pulling various acai berry scams and resveratrol scams. Our advice remains the same, avoid any “free trial” supplement deals – as they are never free. If you want to try Acai, go with a 100% Organic and Freeze Dried Acai berry product like the Perfect Acai.

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Colorado Thinks Charging $40M for Free Acai Trials is a Tad Deceptive

by Dan-N on March 25, 2010

I wonder if Attorney Generals from all the different states ever get together and swap stories? If so, they could have a great time debating who has the biggest acai berry scams going on in their state. We have already reported on the Attorney Generals in Florida, Texas, Illinois and Arizona taking action against acai companies that were deceiving the public – well you can now add Colorado to that list.

Same Acai Scam – Different State

I think we all know the game by now – consumer signs up for “free trial of Acai”, but then finds out they will be sent products each month and billed $80 a month. Consumer tries to cancel, but gets the run around. Here is the quote from the Colorado Attorney General John Suthers…

“The Office of the Attorney General learned through its investigation that Bezoni’s Arvada-based company, which has operated under the names Golf Nutrition Sciences and GNS, used so-called “free-to-pay conversion” marketing since 2005, which resulted in consumers unknowingly incurring ongoing payments for products that they initially believed were free. Consumers, according to court filings, signed up for free trials of products, such as Acai Berry Edge, Acai Berry Elite and Slim Seduction, and believed at the time they placed their order that they were authorizing only the shipping and handling charges for the free trial. When the free trial arrived, however, consumers also received a two-month supply of the product and were given a limited amount of time to return the product or face a nearly $80 charge within 30 days.”

- Attorney General announces Settlement with Arvada-based Nutra Pills, Inc.

Who Knew Giving Away Free Acai Could be Worth $40 Million a Year?

We are not surprised that companies will try to deceive consumers, what did surprise us was how successful they were!

The company generated $40 million in sales in 2009, nearly all of that was a direct result of its free-to-pay conversion sales.

This is just one company – doing over $40 Million a year in Acai sales with a “free trial” product. There are many more companies, operating in different states (and outside the USA) who are bringing in much more per year. Anyone who thinks this is not a major problem just needs to follow the money.

What is The Penalty for Deception?

First, Nutra Pills claims they did nothing wrong as part of the settlement. Still, they have agreed to refund money to consumers who have filed a complaint since December 2006. In addition, they have to pay a $100,000 fine – but half of that is suspended if they do not deceive anyone in the next 5 years. To date the company has refunded $9 million dollars and ceased doing business.

So There You Have it – Crime Does Pay!

Let us first legally state something – Nutra Pills does not admit to any wrong doing as part of the settlement. Nutra Pills reached a settlement with Colorado before a legal proceeding could determine if laws were broken.

So, you can draw your own conclusions if you think that Nutra Pills did anything wrong. We would ask – why shut down a business that is doing $40 Million a year in sales if you did nothing wrong? If you do believe they did something wrong, you have to ask if the punishment fits. We say NO!

The company made $40 Million in 2009 alone. So far, they have refunded $9 million and paid a $50,000 fine. The penalty is just not strong enough to stop others from doing this same form of deception. In fact, we would argue that this just gives acai scam companies a blue print of how to operate. Make as much as you can – then settle and close shop when the Attorney General comes knocking.

Let us know what you think?

Additional Resources:

The Julia Miller Health News 5, News 6 or News 7 Acai Berry Scam Exposed

Click Here to Watch A Screen Capture Video Exposing These Julia Miller Acai Scam Health Sites.

Oprah and Illinois Attorney General File Suit Against Acai Scam Companies

Oprah Writes, then Throws Book At Acai Scammers

How I Lost $90 in 30 Days Using the Acai Berry

What Did Oprah and Dr Oz Really Say About Acai

Acai Berry Scams – How to Avoid Them

Acai Berry Maxx named Texas Lawsuit

Free Black Belt Course in Spotting Acai Berry Scams

How Do You Stop An Acai Berry Scammer From Scamming?

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The Most Disgusting Acai Scam We Have Ever Seen

by Dan-N on March 12, 2010

We tried to come up with a clever, funny headline for this post – but we were too depressed to be funny. We have reported for so long about acai berry scams that it takes a lot to surprise us – but this latest acai scam surprised us! We have seen the fake acai review sites, been through the fake diet blog sites and of course all the free trial scams. But creating not one – but at least two fake news networks – that is incredibly disgusting.

Health News 7 – Bringing You The Best in Fake News

We recently got an email that linked to a “new report on the Acai Berry”. The news network is Health News 7 and here is a screen shot on their “story” -

Click The Image To See The Enlarged View

You really need to click the above image to see it full size. Here are a couple of things we want to point out -

Site is News7Health.Com and clearly looks like a real news site.
The reporter is shown in the photo and identified as “Health and Diet writer, Julia Miller”
The story goes on about how the reporter was skeptical, but some free trial Acai Berry helped her lose 25 pounds in 4 weeks.

This looks like a very impressive piece. We have a news reporter who tried Acai and saw amazing weight loss. There is just one little problem – IT IS ALL MADE UP!

Exposing News7Health.Com for the Scam It Is

The site looked strange to us and we had never heard of News 7 Health – so we decided to read more news stories from the site. We started clicking on the links on the top of the page – things like US, World, Business, Politics, etc – they are all dead links! This is a completely made up news site that uses affiliate links to try to trick people into buying a “free trial acai product” that will actually cost you $90 a month!

Don’t Be Disgusted Yet – It Only Gets Worse

I hope you have more disgust and outrage inside you – because it only gets worse! We did a little digging on the internet and we found this site -

Click Above Image to See Full Size

Again, click the above image to get the full disgusting view. Wow, looks like there is another “news network” called Health News 6. Guess what, they also did a story where their reporter took Acai and lost tons of weight. Let’s get a close up of these competing Health Reporters from New 6 Health and News 7 Health -

Julia Miller

Julia Miller ???

Wow – not only did Julia Miller lose weight by taking Acai – she also completely changed her appearance! Acai really is Amazing!

Stock Photos Allow Anyone To Create Their Own News Network!

These scammers are so lazy that they don’t even make an effort to cover their tracks anymore. Why bother changing the fake reporters name – just throw in a different stock photo. If one fake news site makes you money, then 10 fake news sites will make you more money.

The Evolution of Acai Scam – Making the Jump From Deception to Flat Out Fabrication

Unfortunately, Acai scams are not new – we have been exposing them for over 2 years. What is so disturbing with this one is the jump from deception to fabrication. The “old” acai scam was to mislead people into thinking they were getting a free trial of Acai. Buried at the bottom of the Terms of Service, in font too small to read, was the fact that you will be autobilled $90 every month. This is completely deceptive, but the scammers try to walk the line claiming everything is there if people just read the Terms of Service.

This new scam does not walk any lines – it flat out lies and fabricates. Julia Miller is not a health reporter, in fact she is not even real! She is whatever stock photo they can find for their site. The News 7 Health or News 6 Health sites – also not real. Just fake facades for someone selling Acai. Of course the comments, testimonials and before and after pictures – all made up. I guess the scammers were not stealing enough money by deceiving, so they had to evolve into full out fabrication mode.

FTC – You Need to Take Action – NOW!

We uncovered this scam in about 5 minutes. To our fine hard working friends at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – how about you spend a few hours building a case against these guys? These scams are costing Americans millions of dollars a year. Could there be more deceptive advertising than this?

Drop us a comment, let us know what you think. Are you as outraged as us?

View The Scam In Action With This Video

Click Here to Watch A Screen Capture Video Exposing These Acai Scam Health Sites.

Help Us Get The Word Out on This Acai Scam

The more people who know the truth about Health News 6 and Julia Miller – the less people who will fall victim to the scam. Let’s get the word out and let everyone know about this. Please link to this article, put it on your FaceBook page, Tweet about it – do whatever you can to make sure people know that this is scam. We really appreciate your help!

Update on Julia Miller Scams and The Quest for Real Acai (3/31/10)

Since we published this article on 3/12 we have had an incredible response. Thank you to everyone who has linked to this article, together we have helped thousands of people find out about the Julia Miller scam before they wasted their money. There is still more work to be done, we have seen the scammers start to change Julia Miller’s name – but we will keep after them.

As our regular readers know, we try to keep this blog as non-commercial as possible. However, we have had so many readers ask us if there are any real Acai supplements available, we felt it would be wrong not the mention the brand of Acai we love and trust. Perfect Acai is a 100% Pure Organic Acai supplement that involves no free trials, memberships or other games. It is simply real acai, available for purchase without any tricks or scams.

Update on Even More Disgusting Acai Berry Scam (4/29/10)

Just when you think these Acai scammers can not get any lower… they do! Take a look at our post on the Denise Randall US Medical Journal Acai Scam – it is so bad you really need to see it to believe it!

Update The Fake News Acai Scams Keep on Going (12/3/10)

Thank you for all the incredible comments! We have had hundreds of comments on this post and appreciate everybody spreading the word so we can stop people for falling for these scams. Over the last few months, we have seen the scammers use a number of different fake news sites and fake health reporters – here is a partial list:

Other Fake Health Reporters and News Sites:

News 6 Reports and Jane Clark Health Reporter

Sharon Smith at Weekly Consumer Digest (WCD)
Cindy Anderson USHealthNews or USA Health News
Health and Diet writer, Alice Carlson of C1 Health News
Helen Cohen, Weekly Health News and WeeklyHealth News Health and Diet Reporter
Julie Ayers Channel 5 Health News
News 10 Reporter

Go ahead and read the fine print at the bottom of those sites, you will see the stories are fictional, they are not affiliated with any news network and the “free trial” will cost you hundreds of dollars a month!

If you have seen other names used for this Acai scam, please let us know by leaving a comment. The more we can let people know about all these fake health news reporters, the better the chances of stopping innocent people from falling for these scams.