Acai Berry Scam
You’ve seen the fake personal blogs pitching the “dynamic duo”, usually it includes an acai berry “free trial offer” and a colon cleanse “free trial offer.” Here are a couple headlines which are littered all over the advertising networks including google, yahoo and msn.
Nadia’s Weight Loss
I Lost 32lbs with these two amazing products!
Hi! I’m Nadia Williams. I’m a single, working, hockey, guitar and ballet (whew!) mom to two wonderful kids…
How I lost 35 pounds with 2 FREE Products!
Renees Diet Success
My weight loss blog.
My Name is Renee Mitchell. You’ve heard stories like mine hundreds of times, but this one has a happy ending….
These fake blogs are actually very well crafted and can be very convincing. What many unsuspecting consumers don’t realize is that these “free trial offers” are not free. You are put on an auto-bill and auto-ship program so your credit card is being charged every month and this can easily add up to over $150 a month!
The Acai berry Google slap
Back in January the acai berry issue was beginning to be a big problem and the folks at google took noticed. There was a google acai berry “slap” in January. Suddenly over a weekend in January you could not find a fake blog on the google network. Google had taken all these fake acai berry blogs off the network . However, I have a feeling the folks over at the googleplex either gave up, or watched their ad revenue go down, or both.. because the acai berry fake blogs are back up and in full force on the Google network.
So what’s the bottom line?
You probably already suspected this was coming. Acai berries will not help you with weight loss. Think about it. When was the last time you ran into someone who actually lost a significant amount of weight on an Acai berry product. How about never?
The Miracle Fruit?
Even though acai berries are touted as the miracle fruits with the highest concentrations of antioxidants, think again. The antioxidant concentrations of acai berries in pulp form actually rank LOWER than mangos, strawberries, and grapes. In juice form, acai berry antioxidant content ranked LOWER than pomegranate juice, grape juice, blueberry juice, and red wine.
But at the end of the day mangos, strawberries and grapes don’t have the appeal of a miracle berry from the Amazon rain forest.. so don’t expect all these fake blogs to be pitching mangos, strawberries and grapes as a miracle weight loss food. The great irony here is that these fruits are great for weight loss. In fact all fruits are great for weight loss. However, these acai berry products are processed and calorie dense so if anything they will cause weight gain!
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14 comments
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JC { 02.18.09 at 10:58 pm }
They look like blueberries, and I wonder if acai means blueberries.
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Angela W { 03.04.09 at 12:18 pm }
It is a scam. Do not order any free trials on the web. you will be only loosing money not weight. Please listen I was was ripped off by acai berry. They use different names for the free trial. you pay the 4.95 shipping and then bill you 100.00’s of dollars later on your credit card! please do not use these free trials. I am out the money but I can help you save yours
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Bob E { 03.29.09 at 8:25 am }
Don’t get sucked into the scam! My wife got ripped off repeatedly but luckily we disputed the charges and finally closed the credit card account. We learned our lesson though and now will use a card that generates a one-time only account number and then changes it so we can’t get ripped off by any hell-bound business shysters. If you really want to try these acai berries, you can get them at kmart for about 6 bucks.
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JC { 03.29.09 at 1:40 pm }
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Acai pills have been touted to “shed pounds, flatten tummies, cleanse colons, enhance sexual desire…” Apparently, it’s a big scam, and alot of people have fallen for it.
Acai berries were first introduced to the vegetarian society about five years ago. Back then vegetarians were already crazy for this stuff because some “infomercial people” were touted this as a superfood. I tried samples but didn’t notice any effect.
The craze for acai berries took off was when Dr. Mehmet Oz on Oprah included acai as a superfood and when a guest on Rachael Ray touted about the “super” benefits of acai.
Acai berries contain more antioxidants than cranberries but less than blueberries. So why bother buying this stuff? You can’t buy it fresh. It’s grown in a foreign country where the FDA cannot regulate the integrity of this product. You have no idea how it’s grown or what it’s grown with. Brazil nuts, which are not grown in the US, contain high levels of barium, radium, and selenium, which means people can only eat a max of 1 or 2 Brazil nuts per day.
cspinet.org/new/200903231.html
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Billy { 04.20.09 at 10:29 pm }
Weight loss is such a confusing game. One group praise the weight loss benefits of a product and others disagree. Acai Berry is a good example: At OptimalBodyWeight.com (a site I trust) they have this to say: The Acai Berry weight loss scam
Personally my biggest concern is the money and time we invest into these products just to end up with nothing.
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Erica { 05.08.09 at 1:47 am }
Don’t be fooled by this “super” pill. I to got a “free” sample AcaiBurn with the ad saying I only had to pay $4.95 for shipping and try it for a month. I called weeks before the month was up and was told my credit card would still be charged the full amount even though I was returning the product 2 full weeks before the charge would even take place and I had to fight with them to even get off their auto delivery. Its going to take 2 months to get my refund, if I ever do.
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Vague Rant { 06.07.09 at 4:45 am }
I was curious whether any of you had taken a look at the source code for one of these blogs. I found they use javascript to set a few variables to make the idea sound more attractive. I found a version aimed at Australians which stated the following: “I am Sandra Williams, an Aussie mother of two from Oslo, and I want to share my weight loss story with you today.” Now I’ve been out of school a while, but last I checked, Oslo was in flipping Norway, which, it just so happens, is the same place the proxy server I use is located. Checking the source, “Oslo” is being plucked from geolocation of the IP visiting the page. Also being modified by javascript is the expiry on the free trials; “ThermothinPlus with Acai Free Trial, (expiring on June 07, 2009)”. The date is simply detected from your computer’s system time: the free trial is always ending today!
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cynthia { 09.20.09 at 12:29 pm }
Wow, i almost fell for it and bought it. They had ads that britney spears used it for her quick weight loss, then i read that she used no pill, she just worked out alot. This page is what REALLY convinced me not to buy it. Thanks a bunch!
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Dr Marc Twitter: @celebdietdoc { 10.08.09 at 3:47 am }
lol
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Liz { 10.05.09 at 7:39 pm }
lol its so funny at the bottom of this page there was an add for acai berry loll =]
Great article
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Terri { 12.08.09 at 7:17 pm }
Hah. Maybe the FDA could learn something from Google.
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