The acai berry has been causing a storm all over the world as health-food junkies discover the numerous advantages of an acai diet. The acai berry (pronounced aa-sai-ee) contains high levels of antioxidants, fiber and fatty acids. There are a large number of acai berry products on the market, including everything from juices to powders.

With the increase in popularity of these products has come a surge in the number of con artists looking to exploit the situation. Scammers set up websites offering “risk-free” trial period of acai berry products, but rather than finding themselves a great deal, thousands of people have ended up out of pocket after being stung for products they didn’t order.

“The number of scammers out there has certainly made it harder for legitimate businesses like ours, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t still want to get their hands on acai products. Although some people have been ripped off, the companies people should avoid have now been widely publicised,” said Bryan Nettles of Pure Acai Products, which markets acai berry supplements in America.

Celebs such as Oprah Winfrey and Rachel Ray have featured acai berries on their talkshows. However, with many people turning to the Internet to order these wonder-berries, many shoppers have fallen victim to the scammers.

“People who want acai products need only do a bit of research to find out that there are companies out there that aren’t going to rip them off,” said Nettles.The Better Business Bureau (BBB) issued a warning about acai free trial offer scams on January 6. Online fraudsters tempt Web surfers with offers of free trials, but when people try to cancel their orders, they find themselves having inadvertently signed up for more acai products than they bargained for.The dodgy dealers put up and take down new websites every day, making it virtually impossible to keep track of them. Shoppers who sign up for these free trials have within an allotted period to cancel or else they end up with monthly deliveries of bottles and credit card bills of $85.90 each time. The trial period typically lasts only 10 to 14 days from the date the order is placed.Canceling an order isn’t as simple as it sounds, however. Try phoning one of the companies involved and you will find yourself on hold indefinitely, if not cut off altogether. How can you cancel an order if you can’t get through to the company?”These companies are simply abusing general acai berry endorsements from well-known, trusted celebrities by using it as a tacit endorsement of their company and products specifically,” said a BBB spokesman.Acai berries are big business. Last year, sales of acai berry products were close to $15 million, while in November, Google recorded more than 1.5 million acai-related searches.Acai products are sold in health-food stores and many regular grocery chains. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that drinks giants Coco-Cola and Pepsi are planning to launch a range of sodas containing acai.Acai products come in various forms – juices, powders, capsules, jams and so on – and their popularity is showing no signs of slowing, despite the presence of fraudsters.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have been ripped off by companies who claim to offer free trials, tarnishing the good name of what is still a wonderful health food. As a general rule, people should stay away from any company offering free trials. We see these scammers putting up dozens of new websites everyday offering the free trial offers. Of the hundreds we have looked at, we have yet to find a single one that is a legitimate business,” said Nettles.

Although Pure Acai Products has never offered free acai trial, the company receives dozens of emails every day from people who have been scammed by tricksters. Many of these emails are mistakenly directed at Pure Acai Products because buyers have been unable to contact the companies they originally made orders with.

“These people email us thinking that we are the ones who stole their money because there’s no way to contact the con artists,” added Nettles.

One bemused customer wrote, “I was charged $89.31 for renewal on the acai berry vitamins and I never even received the sample of vitamins I had requested. I want my account refunded and I want nothing else to do with your company.”

The acai berry is touted as being the world’s newest superfood. Native of Brazil, the berries are said to contain high levels of fatty acids, fiber, antioxidants and other nutrients. The popularity of acai berry products is partly due to stars such as Rachel Ray and Oprah Winfrey featuring acai on their shows. Interest levels spike after each mention on television, but unfortunately the scammers are always aware of this.

On January 6, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) issued a warning about acai free trial offer scams. Tricksters tempt customers with offers of free trials, but problems ensue when people find out they are signed up for all sorts of products and subscriptions they don’t want.

Steve Cox, spokesman for BBB, said, “Many businesses across the country are using the same selling model for their acai products: they lure customers in with celebrity endorsements and free trial offers, and then lock them in by making it extremely difficult to cancel the automatic delivery of more acai products every month.”

There are hundreds of company names that people have filed complaints about. One of the most common is FX Supplements, which supposedly offers risk-free trials that involve buyers paying for nothing but shipping.

Customers have until the end of their trail to cancel their subscription or else find themselves lumbered with monthly charges of $85.90. What most people miss is that the trial begins from the day of the order.

Another company in the firing line is Central Coast Nutraceuticals, which again offers free acai trials of everything from acai supplements to acai tea. Buyers who don’t act quickly enough to cancel their subscriptions are then charged $40 a month.

So why don’t people just cancel their subscriptions? Likely they would – if they could ever get hold of the companies they ordered from. Customers who phone the hotlines are put on hold for anything up to 75 minutes – and even then there is no guarantee that they won’t be disconnected.

Dozens of new acai websites are unleashed on the Internet daily. Scammers move from one domain to the next, using pay-per-click advertisements to generate traffic. In November 2008 Google recorded more than 1.5 million searches for acai products. Sales of acai products were more than $15 million last year.

Nettles continued, “Sales of acai berry products are still growing. People haven’t been dissuaded from the actual products, but now they understand they have to be a bit more careful where they order from.”

Any offer of a free trial of acai products is likely to be a scam and hundreds of thousands of people have already fallen victim. Acai products come in various forms – juices, powders, capsules, jams and so on – and their popularity is showing no signs of slowing, despite the presence of fraudsters.

If you want to order acai products, find a reputable source that doesn’t push any too-good-to-be-true offers on shoppers.