Fighting Fraud
By Better Business Bureau® Serving Greater Cleveland
Whether you want to work on your mental or physical health, focus on your financial wellness, or learn a new skill, it is the time of year that many start to set goals for the New Year. In 2021, about half of Americans set a new year’s resolution to get healthy/get in shape, and it’s likely that trend will continue into 2022.
With new products like topical creams, dietary supplements, workout gadgets, and appetite suppressants constantly flooding the market, it is no surprise that consumers turn to free trial offers promising consumers “dramatic” weight-loss results. However, consumers who want to get in shape or lose weight could be at risk of being deceived by products that do not work as advertised, come with a host of unwanted side effects, or trapped into paying hidden monthly subscription fees.
These allegedly risk-free schemes often start with an ad for a free product or with an article that seems to appear on a credible news site. Consumers just need to enter their name, address, credit card number, and the product will be on its way for only a nominal shipping and handling charge. With the low cost and supposed miracle product, the deal sounds too good to be true — something that has allowed fraudsters to turn these offers into a global multi-billion-dollar industry… one that grows every year.
While free trial offers can be a legitimate way to try products, credible companies don’t hide pertinent information, and they make sure consumers understand what they are signing up for. Under the Restore Online Shopper’s Confidence Act, companies must clearly lay out the terms of free trials or other subscriptions before consumers give their account information.
Better Business Bureau® Serving Greater Cleveland wants to help you reach not only your health but your financial goals, by offering the following tips to lose pounds, not your paycheck.
- Be wary of free trial offers. These deals can become “subscription traps” that hook consumers into expensive shipments of products they did not explicitly agree to buy.
- Read all the terms and conditions of any free trial offer. Know if there is a cancellation period and return policy.
- Look out for fake celebrity endorsements of products and supplements. Research the celebrity claiming to endorse the product to see if they are really backing it. Read more about phony endorsements in BBB’s 2018 study, “Subscription Traps and Deceptive Free Trials Scam Millions with Misleading Ads and Fake Celebrity Endorsements.
- Don’t rely on product images. Most scams use images without a company’s or a celebrity’s consent. By using a celebrity’s name or image they add a phony sense of creditability for items like skincare lotions & weight loss pills, and supplements.
If you see a fake ad call your BBB to report suspicious, confusing, or misleading ads to BBB Ad Truth to report it or visit our BBB ScamTracker. Additional questions? Reach out to your BBB at 216.413.5232 or email [email protected]. Have a scam to report? For more news and tips, visit BBB.org.
Photo courtesy pexels.com
