“Free Trials” aren’t really free -. You are unknowingly signed up for a subscription that charges you $80 or more per month. And it is nearly impossible to cancel! These acai berry scams always push very cheap pills. Read more about free trial scams
Crappy products - Many online retailers like Monavie and nearly all supermarket brands sell a watered down sugary juice that often has less than 10% acai juice. They mix in cheap juices like grape, apple, or pear to cut costs and don’t care how well it works. They use deceptive advertising, but not as bad as the free trial acai berry scams.

Controversy Surrounding Acai Berry Scams

If you have done any other research on this berry, you may have heard about the controversy surrounding some acai berry free trial scams. These scams where running rampant across the internet for most of 2009. In fact, the Better Business Bureau listed it as one of the top 10 scams in America, for that year. These scam companies used the positive press being given to acai, high pressured sales tactics, and various forms of internet advertising to perpetuate their scam across the web.

It all started when a few prominent doctors started recommending this berry on national television. The word about the positive benefits of the acai berry started to spread from reports done on local news channels, and health segments during the big day time talk shows. At this time the berry was relatively unknown, and there were not many acai products available outside of Brazil. You cannot simply go out to the store to buy these berries at the grocery store, like you would grapes, because they are very difficult to import whole.

The demand for an acai supplement obviously skyrocketed after it received such promising reviews by some very trustworthy doctors. The high demand and low supply market for acai was the perfect situation for these scam artists. They quickly came up with a low quality acai berry pill, and started to sell it online. The fact that these supplements where low quality was not the worst part of the scam. The truth is, 90% of supplements you will find in a health food store are almost worthless. The worst part was, that they were using a free trial offer to trick people into paying $80-$100 each month for one bottle of their product.

The offer made by these companies was so irresistible, that it was no surprise that so many people got caught up in the scam. When you landed on their website you would be told that they were running a free trial promotion to get the word out about their product. All you needed to do was pay for shipping and handling. This promotion would only be given out to the next 100 people, and would only be available for the next couple of minutes. However, these restrictions where just a ruse, and they would never change no matter how many times you visited the site.

What most people did not realize was that when they signed up for the free trial they were also agreeing to be added to an auto-ship plan that would cost them up to $100 per month. They could end this by canceling the plan within 14 days of placing the order. The problem was, the companies involved would not pick up their phone or answer their email when you tried to cancel. Customers were no forced to cancel their credit cards, or be charged each and every month.

With this sort of serious credit card fraud, the companies crossed the line of being a legitimate business with a bad product, to being flat out criminals. It did not take very long for the Better Business Bureau to become flooded with hundreds of complaints each week about these scams.

Another way that this acai scam was perpetuated was by the use of fake blogs. Most people consider a blog a trustworthy source of someone’s honest opinions . They fly completely under the radar when used as advertisements. These companies would set up hundreds of fake blogs claiming to be a user review of their product. Most of the time it would be a story of how a mom lost 15-20 pounds in a month only by using XYZ acai product, which they got for free online. They would even go as far as to fill the blog with fake comments talking about how great the product was, and how others have also used it to lose tons of weight.

These blogs looked completely legitimate and did a good job in convincing people that these products were the real deal. I mean, who would not trust the honest review from a mother of two? If it were not for a simple mistake that these companies made, these blogs still might be up and running. It turns out that one of the companies used the same before and after picture on all of their fake blogs. Jenny in Michigan apparently looked exactly the same as Susan in Florida. The pictures were of a German plus sized model who was photo shopped to look much skinnier in the after picture. These fake acai blogs became so rampant that the FDA was forced to release new regulations that banned their use.

The Federal Government was not the only group of people after the acai scam companies. Many of the doctors and celebrities who originally praised the acai berry as the top superfood on earth, sued these scammers for using their images without permission. Many of the web pages that offered the free trials, were also made to look like a specific celebrity or doctor was recommending the product. This was just another technique these scam artists used to make people trust them enough to give up their credit card number. Obviously, these doctors and celebrities wanted to distance themselves as far away as possible from the criminals using their image illegally, and attempted to use legal action to get them to stop.

The combination of a government crack down and serious legal action caused many of these con artists to shut down, or move on to their next scam. However, as long as there are people looking for legitimate acai products, they will still pop up. The information given in this section should paint a pretty clear picture of what to look out for when you are looking for a place to purchase an acai product online, in order to avoid being tricked into becoming another victim of an acai berry scam.

Where Can I Find This Amazing Acai Fruit?

All of these remarkable benefits are the reason why this superfood has exploded in popularity. It is not often that you can find a natural supplement that is so healthy, and has no negative side effects. It is no wonder that so many people are clamoring to get their hands on this fruit.

Sadly, the acai palm only grows in the rainforest and the berries do not hold up well during shipping. This means that the only way for people outside of South America to get acai is through an acai berry juice or acai powder (either loose or in pill form).

Since this is such a delicate fruit, it is very easy for companies to completely destroy its nutritional value in the packaging and shipping process. This means it is essential to buy your acai from a company that uses the best preservation methods, and works with the locals to get the highest quality berries.  You can find most of this information on the manufacturers websites.  There are many organic acai products sold in stores near you.  In addition to acai products recommended here check your nearest super market.