Before discussing the scam techniques used. For those not in the know, what is the rave about Acai Berry.  Acai boasts 10 times the antioxidant benefits of grapes and twice that of blueberries.  It is a small, round and black looking berry - similar to blueberry but smaller.  It is being used widely in energy juices, ice cream, energy bars, and various diet/health products. 

Some reported benefits of the Acai Berry, (short list): 

•  Boosts energy levels
•  Improves digestive function
•  Improves mental clarity/focus
•  Promotes sound sleep
•  Provides all vital vitamins
•  Contains several important minerals
•  Is an extremely powerful free radical fighter
•  Acai has very high levels of fibers
•  Cleanses and Detoxifies the body of infectious toxins
•  Strengthens your immune system
•  Enhances sexual desire and performance

Most the benefits probably comes just from the mere fact of it enhancing one's nutrition, thus helping the body to function better.  But like all things, it is not a miracle food or product.  It may be providing what are regular diets are depriving us of. 

It all starts off with looking good.  Acai Berry, the latest in the health food industry and diet.  Promoted by celebrities.

So what do they do?  Advertise the benefits of Acai Berry, put in some celebrity endorsements, promise of a far better health.  Work on maybe your guilt or desires to shed a few pounds.  Then to top it off they offer the product "free to try", or "first month free".  Irresistible.

What you don't see is that they are going to do monthly shipments and it is going to be hard to cancel.  Don't think it's just Acai they do, this has been going on for many forms of Health products and other services too.

For Acai lately the scams are rising, or being discovered more.  The first trip any consumer should do is consult with the Better Business Bureau.  Check the company out for complaints.  Also read the fine print. 

Here is what the crooks do.  Through the enticements of "free trial offers" and celebrity endorsements, they lock the customer into a monthly program and make it extremely difficult to cancel.  You continue to receive the products every month with hardly a way to cancel.

The complainants on attempting to cancel range from: phone number listed is found out of service, continually busy, or voice mail with no live operator.  Emails cancellations are difficult too, like the phone the address doesn't work, or there mail is ignored.  

Instead what they do get is to be continually billed each month.  It has been enough that some customers were forced to close their bank accounts, or cancel credit cards in order to stop the automatic charges.   Or pay extra bank fees to cancel the withdrawals.

As the old adage is: Read the fine print. Is there going to be a month shipment, cost, cancellation fees, so on. Next is any numbers listed where by you can contact the company besides there sales number, do they respond to emails from their customer support.

Above all else check with the Better Business Bureau.

Do your homework. Search engines can be your friend if you are online. Just type the companies name into the search bar along with the words scam. I.E. {"Acai Company" Scams}. The following sites are good bets: http://www.ripoffreport.com/ ,http://www.scam.com/, and http://www.snopes.com.

Unfortunately if the scam is fresh you could be it's first victim, as nothing is listed. In that case we need some more so called street smarts or "internet smarts"

Beware of anything that sounds too good to be true. IE. Fast weight loss, rapidly improving health, all natural cure alls, Celebrity endorsements (with our current technology is so easy to cut and paste, modify and use for any means).

A good proverb is this " A good lie is 99% truth". It's that 1% that is the snag, and it's hidden from view.

Another technique if the Internet is involved is do a whois search on the domain providing the product, to see who the parent company is. An example is my article on TST management, they are under Blue China group according to whois, and so are there 1000's of websites. Then check the parent company out.

Acai Berry sounds like a great product, there are probably a lot more goodies hidden out there in those far off places. Plants that would be of great benefit to us. Natural without all the poisons, antibodies, chemicals, and depleted soils we farm today. Plus the variety, and no genetic alterations.

But as always there bad apples out there to ruin it or make it hard for the good.

Recommendations:

Go with known businesses that are established. Buy locally is preferred and secondarily online from know companies. Subscription based health products are great for a constant monthly supply, but aren't necessary. Buy your products from those companies with a good reputation, and there shouldn't really be a need for a subscription. Go online, do comparision pricing, and check the whois for internet businesses, check BBB for any magazing ad, newspaper, online offers. Remember do your homework it's your money and health.