Acai Berry Scams and How To Avoid Them

You would have been hard pressed to go far recently without hearing about the acai berry. While some are shouting its praises from the rooftops, many are vilifying its existence since becoming victim to one of the many acai berry scams.

However, what’s important to note is that the acai berry itself is not a scam. It is a berry, a ‘superfood’ if you may, that contains very high levels of fibre in combination with huge amounts of valuable vitamins and antioxidants. Due to this it can aid in weight loss while undoubtedly, improving the general health.

Yet sadly, its popularity has inspired many unscrupulous scammers to use these benefits to their advantage, and to rip off unsuspecting consumers.

The most commonly used scam is one that lures consumers in by offering them a tempting ‘free trial’. While there are a number of websites that are offering genuine free trials, be sure to keep your wits about you because most of them are simply a fancy backdrop for acai berry scams.

What happens in the case of a ‘free trial’ is that hidden in the small print is a date for which you must cancel the product by, if you do not wish to continue with it. Often, this date will be before you even receive the product, making it impossible to test it and decide if it works for you. If you let this date surpass (which is easier than it sounds) you will find yourself locked into a very expensive contract, that is notoriously difficult to get out of.

The other most commonly found of the acai berry scams is one in which the product you receive has had little, if any, actual contact with the acai berry itself. Instead the products will be derived from other fruits, or just contain a mixture of sugar and caffeine, and in many cases, a number of unwanted and unidentifiable chemicals.

The problem with this scam is that it can often take the consumer a lengthy amount of time to realize what has happened, and sometimes, they may never become aware at all. What’s more, dodgy ingredients contained within these ‘acai berry supplements’ can cause unwanted side effects such as racing hearts and gastrointestinal problems.

So what can we do to avoid being stung by any acai berry scams?

Remember that the internet is your friend and nowadays, before we purchase anything of significant monetary value, we should research the reliability of both retailer and product. Well known, and trustworthy sellers of the acai berry should have by now, received a decent number of positive reviews from past customers. However, if a website has no reviews, or largely bad reviews, make sure to avoid them like the plague.

Also make sure to not trust any websites that make outlandish claims such as ‘lose 20 pounds in 20 days’ because this simply isn’t true, and if they’re willing to lie about the product, they’re probably willing to lie about other things too.

And of course, make sure to read the terms and conditions. While we’re all guilty of neglecting to scan the small print, in industries where scam sellers are rife, it is definitely worth your time. Avoid any sellers that speak about trapping you into monthly payments – if the product they are selling is high quality, that fact alone should be enough to keep people coming back for more.

And finally, ideally you want to only buy products that are ‘100% acai berry’. This should make sure you avoid any acai berry scams that involve sending out substandard products that at best won’t work, and at worse, will make you ill with side effects.