Other LanguagesSorry, but açaí pills aren't going to make you magically drop 10-15 pounds in a month. And while we know you love Oprah and Rachael Ray, those gals aren't endorsing them.
We’ve warned you about “free trial” offers for açaí berry supplements. The products are pushing on social networking sites and by phony news stories. Hundreds of Washington consumers hoping to shed pounds have complained that their credit cards were charged for additional shipments or for other products they didn’t know they had bought.
Earlier this week, a U.S. District Court ordered Central Coast Nutraceuticals, which pushes AcaiPure and Colopure, to stop selling. The order imposes an asset freeze and appoints a temporary receiver over CCN and several related companies.
The Federal Trade Commission believes that consumers nationwide were scammed out of $30 million in 2009 alone.
“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.”