Off Topic Public Service: Dr. Oz, Rachael Ray, Oprah-Acai Berry Scam Information
I am going to stray WAY off topic here, but there is a very good reason. Thousands of people across the country are being scammed by unscrupulous fly-by-night Internet vendors of Acai Berry products, and one of them is my own mother.
Hopefully when people do their research online about Oprah and acai berry this post will pop up in search engines and inform them to run the other way from all of the paid advertisements that get shoved in front of their face.
TAKE NOTE: If a link saying “Oprah’s flat stomach diet” or some derivative of this, or a paid advertisement in Google, takes you to a site that looks like one pictured at your right or below, DO NOT SIGN UP!
(Update: Viewing this post I just realized that when the Google Adsense ads rotate through on MSF, an ad for “Diet of the Year” pops up. I am not allowed to click through it, per the terms of service I have with AdSense, but it looks like another Acai Berry site. Be careful if you click-through to this website as it could very well be one of the sites that is the subject of this acai berry scam post.)
(By the way, do you notice the similarities of these two sites, which are at different URLs A little curious isn’t it And just try leaving the websites. You will be inundated with more pop-ups trying to assuage your legitimate skepticism.)
MAIN POINT: Do not sign up for the “risk-free” trail from any of the multitude of online vendors of acai berry claiming that the product was explicitly endorsed by Oprah, Dr. Oz., Racahel Ray, or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
If you want some explicit examples of people being taken by the Oprah-acai berry scam, follow the link to this post on a forum at Oprah.com:
Oprah-acai berry scam
And it’s not just Oprah. As I just mentioned, these websites offering the “risk-free” trial of acai berry products also claim endorsement by Rachael Ray, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and Oprah’s pal Dr. Oz.
There are two huge problems:
Neither Oprah, Racahel Ray, nor any of the people cited on these websites endorsed that particular acai berry product or company. In fact, if you look at the fine print, it says that none of the celebrities or sources that they cite actually endorsed product. But many people, like my mom, do not realize that they have to scroll to the bottom of the page to read the terms and fine print. The “risk-free” trial is not risk free at all. You are required to opt-out within 21 days or you will receive future shipments of acai berry products (at around $90 a pop) and be signed up for other services like “Ultra-Slim” that are only mentioned in the fine print.Another thing I noticed is that on every one of these sites, there is a disclaimer saying that none of the claims about weight loss and wellness benefits have been authorized by the FDA.
Here are a few examples of the websites to which I am referring. If you go to any of these websites, run the other direction as quickly as you can:
Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie acai berry scam Oprah acai berry scam - (each of the sites listed here) Dr. Oz acai berry scamDon’t even think twice about this, I’m telling you. When you go to Oprah.com and visit the pages that mention acai berry, the paid google AdSense advertisements do not bring any of these supposed Oprah- and Dr. Oz-endorsed products up. Doesn’t that seem a little ironic If the products were legitimate, don’t you think they and Oprah.com would want the obvious click-throughs they would get from advertisement for acai berry free trials on Oprah.com That fact alone makes no sense at all.
Well, when you consider that Oprah and Dr. Oz never officially endorsed these products, it actually does make perfect sense why there would be no ads for these companies.
Again, for all of our loyal sports fan readers, my apologies for straying off topic, but this kind of stuff just pisses me off.
My mom thought she was getting a legitimate free trial of a product endorsed by Oprah. Neither is true, and judging by the recent forum posts at Oprah.com, my mom is not the only one. Sure, more savvy Internet users like me and many people my age would not have been taken in by something as obviously scammy as this — but a lot of people in the generation before me are still relatively new to the Internet and not as savvy at sniffing out scams.
This Oprah-acai berry scam is absolutely designed to capitalize on the timeliness of these supposed Hollywood endorsements (all they said was that the berry itself had anti-oxidant qualities) and prey on people who do not know everything they need to know to look for in an Internet scam.
Please, if you have been caught in this web of acai berry deceit, leave a comment and feel free to leave links to the sites that tried to or succeeded in sucking you in. Let’s expose as many of these frauds as possible.
And before you decide to just give it a shot anyway, understand that when you want to cancel your acai berry “free trial”, or if you have questions about use, your phone calls are routed to outsourced calling centers in India. I have no problem with this practice per se, as many companies do it; but the specific call centers for this product are instructed to give you misleading information and read from a very strict script — meaning that they try to outlast you and get you to stay signed up or not issue refunds. How do I know I just listened to my mom talking on the phone with them for over an hour.
Okay, I’m done venting now. Time to go watch basketball. Hopefully the right people see this post and refrain from getting suckered by this and future scams.
Moral of the story: If a site that you do not know is trying to get you to sign up for a “risk-free” trail, do your homework first. Online commerce is very safe and practical, as long as you buy from sites that are legitimate and trustworthy. Sites that look like the ones above, and that make bogus claims about “risk-free” trials and celebrity endorsements, are just trying to capitalize on the naivete of unsavvy users.
Bastards.
Don’t get suckered by the Oprah-acai berry scam. If they don’t have links to vendors on Oprah.com, rest assured that the product is not officially endorsed by Oprah and that your “risk-free” trial will result in plenty of unnecessary and unexpected charges and headaches.
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Thanks for writing this article, but it comes too late for me. I only decided to try it because it said that Oprah and Dr. Oz endorced it. I thought, what could it hurt for $4.95 Well it hurts in many ways. First, It gives you horrible diarrhea for days, and that was only taking 2 pills the first day. Second,they charged me $83.80 for the past two months. All I did was order the free trial for what I thought was $4.95. Now I find out I signed up for a membership, and am being charged $83.80 a month. When I called to question the charges, I was told from a rep in India that I SHOULD HAVE READ everything on the website. Going back to the site, I guess I missed the tiny print at the bottom of the page outlining that I was now a memeber that would pay $83.80 if I did not cancel my membetship within 14 days. ARE YOU KIDDING ME I am trying to get the credit card company to take the charges off. What a pain!!!!!!!!!
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JRod Reply:March 22nd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
@Jordan, sorry you didn’t get the information before being taken. That’s how these companies get you. They bury the truth about the “risk-free” trial deep in the terms and conditions, and put up pictures of celebrities who have merely mentioned the words “acai berry” to give the impression that they endorsed the product.
Let us know how it turns out with the CC company. This type of stuff really needs to be sniffed out and stopped. I am sure that many, many other people are going through the same thing you are.
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Jordan Reply:March 22nd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
@JRod,Thank you for getting this information out there. I have learned my lesson!!!!!!!!!!
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Leah Reply:April 27th, 2009 at 11:43 am
@Jordan, You are not alone!!! I feel like such a sucker!!
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I guess I am another unfortunate gullible who fell for that ad. I received free bottle of acai pills however I suppose I didn’t read the ad thoroughly because I was billed for $78.61 onmy credit card and it is not refundable because I did’nt call within 14 days to cancel caveat emptor. I feel like a jerk and the pills did not live up to their promo
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Jordan Reply:March 23rd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
@pat mcmenamin, call your credit card company and put a dispute through on the amount. I did and they sent it to the ‘fraud dept’. This is fraud because you did not aurthorize the charge. They have been getting complaint after complant I was told today. You can fight the charges, and get your money back. That is what I am doing. I NEVER scrolled down to see that there was a 14 day period. They don’t expect you to. These people are hoping that you don’t. This is a fraud and a scam. you can buy these pills for 7.99 on any vitamin site
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Everyone should RUN, not walk, away from anything that ever claims to be endorsed by Oprah- regardless whether she actually endorses it or not. I’m amazed at the number of people who assume “endorsed by Oprah” means something special.What formal training does she have to endorse anything Is she a physician a nutritionist a psychiatrist and physicist no! She’s got a degree in speech & drama from TSU. Simply because of her status as a TV personality, we are to believe she is some kind of expert on whatever topic comes out of her mouth. That’s just what all the scammers who sell Acai juice and other hoax products in the internut are counting on…
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amama Reply:May 28th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
@Old Muley, Amen to that. Look who we got as a President because of Oprah’s endorsement.
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when ever i go to my favorit recipe websites now there is a photograph of a woman, different each time. the stories are identical though, and often they are from (GUESS WHERE) my own city! it is so obvious, at least after a few name and photograph changes, that something is not right here. i don’t understand why they can’t at least come up with a different script.
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I have now had $350 worth of pills billed to my credit card account, and all I signed up for was a free trial for $4.95. I have 3 bottles sitting on my kitchen counter that I never opened and don’t plan to open. I just got a new charge added from a company called PRIMETIME SAVINGS. NEVER heard of them, but according to them I signed up for their membership. My credit card company is investigating it all. I had to fill out 6 pages explaining over and over that i only signed up for a free 30day trial for 4.95 S&H. Be carefull out there. There are scam artists all over the place.
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Nathan Reply:June 2nd, 2009 at 9:14 am
@Jordan, Come on dude….get a brain and CANCEL YOUR CC just like you would if someone got your info any other time…thats one sure way to stop the charges in thier tracks…I am actually shocked that the CC company didn’t do it for you on report of a single unauthorized charge…
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So for all of you who ordered it, is it or has it worked for you
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Jordan Reply:March 30th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
@Wondering, NO NO NO I tried the Acai berry, and after taking ONLY 2 capsules, it upset my stomach so much that I was in the bathroom for hours and could not leave my house. I tried it again JUST TO MAKE SURE it was the Acai berry a few weeks later and had the same result. I only want to lose about 10 pounds, but it is not going to be with the Acai berry i can tell you that. Had a pharmacist tell me that it is not good for you because it dehydrates you someting wicked. Oh yea!!!!!!!!!
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Thanks for this information. I almost fell prey to this after seeing the above website. I thought I was on something from Rachel Ray. I’m very sceptical about using my credit card online so right when I got to the pay segment and it didn’t allow for pay pal, I decided to do some more digging. Your article is one of many that popped up in the google search engine about this scam. What I found interesting is the same life changing story was on another site with a different set of pictures!
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They really got me because of the Oprah and Dr. Oz connection. I, too, didn’t realize I had to cancel within 14 days and am now trying to get the credit charge cancelled. If anyone has had success in stopping this scam, please let me know.
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Jordan Reply:April 1st, 2009 at 11:31 am
@Joan Jones, That was what ‘got me’ too. When I saw that Oprah, and Dr.Oz were recommending this, I jumped right in. I NEVER saw the 14 day automatic membership either. When I went back into the site to see how I could have missed it, I noticed that in very tiny print they tell you that Oprah and Dr.Oz are not affliliated with their product. The ONLY way they can sell this is by scamming people to THINK they are affiliated with it. The credit card companies are being bombarded with calls about this. Make sure you stay on top and put the charges through as UNAUTHORIZED.
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Complete fraud and when you call they will give you someone who doesn’t speak english and the supervisor is always NOT in. My credit card was charged $130.00 even before the items arrived for the 14 day trial. A constant fight to get these charges removed. Sorry I fell for this fraud.
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Hi there,
Thank you for this information, I was just about to purchase my free trial from one of the websites you mentioned. I’m glad I came across your article.
Thx
Sue
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JRod Reply:April 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 am
@Susan, you’re welcome. Glad it helped. That’s why I put the article out there, and luckily without any backlash from our usual reader crowd of sports fans.
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I wish I read this first too. I just got off the phone with these people, trying to get back the $89 from my “2 week free trial”. They refused to give me my money back. Apparently there is some superfine print that says the bottle isn’t actually free after 2 weeks. I talked to a barely-english-speaking supervisor who insisted that it was legitimate and there was no budging. What kind of real business does this As far as I’m concerned, no supplement is worth that much. Whatever you do, STAY AWAY FROM ALL OF THESE! Expecially when it lures you in by some local who lost weight from it. DON’T DO IT!
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Jordan Reply:April 4th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
@Stephanie, Call your credit card company and dispute the charges. They are aware of this scam and quite angry. Tell them the charges were not authorized. They will send the charges to the fraud dept and sent you a form so you can explain what happened. These people should be put in jail as far as I am concerned.
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Grace Reply:May 20th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
@Jordan, Hi: I did the same thing for Acai - NutraLane and also for MaxColon which is the other product that they said went with it. What a mess from my innocently trying 2 “risk free” “free trials”. Sure will know more and be internet savvy from now on. Read the comment from Cassie about purchasing a MasterCard gift card for $25. That’s a really good idea - IF I ever do this again, I’ll remember that. And I told my husband, if I ever do this type of thing again, shoot me in the legs!!! not literally, but he got the message of how serious I was!!!
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A post showing this is a total scam can be found at:
Acai Berry Scam
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Thanks for helping to expose these scams. If you do a search for Acai on complaintsboard.com there are nearly 8000 complaints and some of the complaints have hundreds of comments on them from other people who were scammed! http://www.complaintsboard.com/search=acai
There is even a web forum called warrior where some of these scumbags promoting Acai are bragging about how much money they made:
“I WILL ADMIT IT. I sold Acai berry products and made a killing in the process. If people are dumb enough to buy magic weight loss beans I say why not sell them. Weight loss products are like drugs. If you don’t sell them someone else will. I make a great living and I sleep well at night. ” From: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/67925-acai-berry-scam-2.html#post660875
“I have made a lot of money by promoting Acai and other cpa offers, but obviously I know it’s a scam…2 From: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/58021-death-acai-berry-products-video-proof.html#post537586
“I have definitely made a lot of money off it! because so called celebrities use it, it gives it a more perceived personal value! I ran a campaign from feb to march and banked $50, 000 from acai berry alone, which was cool! ” From: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/67925-acai-berry-scam-2.html#post670095
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JRod Reply:April 5th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
@Chuck Turner,
Wow, thanks for the links. Sorry it did not post immediately. We filter comments with more than one link as a safeguard against spam, but the links you provided are certainly very telling.
It is just amazing how much money these people have made scamming people. Unbelievable, but I’m glad that this post has helped to educate a few. Hopefully more people catch on and at least this scam gets nipped in the bud before more are taken.
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Deborah Reply:May 7th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
@JRod, When I ordered my free trial of acai, the promotional ad I clicked on said to take the Natures cleanse with it. So I ordered both. After receiving a second bottle of natures cleanse I called to cancel future deliveries and charges, and by the way ,I ordered both from one company, acai gave me directions on returning the unused bottle, but only because, they said that they were unable to charge my account. I don’t know why but I lucked out there. Then I told them I no longer wanted the natures cleanse and wanted a refund upon return of the unused bottle they sent.They told me that it was a different company and I had to call them and they had no # to call so I called the # on the bottle.With shipping I was charged over 95.00 and they told me I could not return or receive a refund for the Natures cleanse because I called after the 15 day trial. I made it clear not to send more or charge my account. They said they wouldn’t so we’ll see what happens. I will call my credit card co. and see what I can do to get my money back. Thanks for opening this forum.
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I agree with all the above messages. I used a debit card so I immediately knew when I was charged. I complained to the bank, but they couldn’t do anything about it saying when the next shipment came, to return it. I canceled the order, so I never got the second shipment for which I am grateful, but only goes to show that nothing at all was free. Here’s the rub. Your 14 days start when you order the stuff. By the time you get it you’ve already used up 5 days or so. Let’s face it, there is no magic pill. I didn’t lose weight only money. I too spoke to a woman with a very heavy accent who told me the 14 days were in the agreement I agreed to. A very expensive lesson. I am too old for this, I should have known better
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I had to call my bank and tell them that card was stolen and to issue me a new card with a different number. That stopped all charges altogether. I lot of inconvenience to learn such a necessary lesson.
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my friend heard i received this and told me about the whole nightmare with this horrible scam…..thank you, for sharing this with me….
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I too fell for it. Another one to watch for “Dr. Acai” anti-aging skin care. Also under the name of L’AVENIR Skin Care. Same deal: I didn’t read the small print at the FAR bottom. I did cancel the order but continue to be charged. I use my debit card (stupid move on my part) now in the process of disputing it and canceling the card. What a pain! Wish I had found this site before . . . thanks for sharing your info!
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Bev Bev Reply:May 15th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
@kat,ave you
I too, was scammed!! Have you been able to get any money back yet If so, how I used my debit card and am disputing the charge of $49.63. Have cancelled the card to avoid any other payments. Please reply! I’m considering calling my Congressman and any gov’t agency that might handle swindles like this.
thank you. Bev Bev Kit100Kat@hotmail.com
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I am very grateful for this blog. My mother is an avid Oprah and Dr. Oz fan. She saw the ad for Akai berry diete and signed up. I was supposed to sign up for it today, on her recommendation. I am very glad I did not.
Thanks again!
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Wow - I ALMOST signed up myself, but I do usually check things out before buying most things that “sound to good to be true on the internet.
I went on Rachael Ray’s website and found nothing. I also went on Oprah’s website and found nothing I definitely thought something was up!
Furthermore, there isn’t even a show on these websites acai websites that you can see Oprah or Rachael endorsing this product. I was pretty convinced this was a scam, but still did more research. That’s when I found this page…
Huge kudos to you for coming forward to what happened to your mom (by the way I feel bad for her).
Hopefully, this webblog gets to the fingertips of more people.
Thanks, Kim
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JRod Reply:April 20th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
@Kim, that’s the idea! I’m so glad it helped. I wasn’t really sure what kind of impact a post like this could have on a sports blog, but 3500 pageviews and 27 comments later, it looks like this post found at least a small portion of the people for whom it was intended.
Hopefully everyone decides to go online like you all have and research the product before signing up for the “free” trial. And now that this scam has been uncovered, unfortunately, the question becomes: what’s next
The lesson: always go online and research before signing up for anything. If it’s not legit, you’ll usually find something.
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I to got scamed and then found this blog. Im so angry I live in NZ and thought it sounded fantastic! I only purchased it yesterday. Can anyone her me wity info on how to cancel it I have called 800-6593588 for it says this number is now inactive!!!
PLEASE HELP
Natalie
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JRod Reply:April 30th, 2009 at 9:04 am
@Natalie, my best advice would be to read some of the comments above and how they have handled it.
If the number is inactive, my best advice would be to call your credit card company. There is a pretty good chance that no matter what card you purchased it with, they have heard about the scam and had other unhappy customers calling them. Unfortunately, there is not much else that can be done, but the credit card companies have more power to fight this than individuals do. Make sure they know that yet another person has fallen victim to the scam, and hopefully they will be able to take care of you.
Thanks for the comment. Sorry you had to join the unhappy community of people who have been suckered by these nefarious bastards. Hopefully as more people continue to come forward, this scam will be stopped dead in its tracks.
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And you will be spammed to death! This is nothing new of course, I was scammed by Boca Java coffee out of Florida the same way. I found out, $79 for 4 pounds of coffee.
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