Whilst innocently surfing today I came across one of those ‘I lost x amount – here’s my secret,’ websites. They everywhere, so I decided to Google ‘Acai Cleanse Scams’ and found the following link for a blog by a guy called Waffles.
He has listed many scam acai berry and colon cleanse combo sites which basically say you can lose a lot of weight, get a free trial then charge you a lot for shipping or worse still, keep on charging your credit card for other things you did not want or have knowledge of.
I know a lot of women and men are desperate to lose weight but please think about it very carefully before you fall for scam sites like this.
In my experience viewing these sites they consist of made up blogs with fake before and after pictures (normally taken from stock photo sites). They also contain fake comments to justify the so called, ‘amazing weight loss’. Or they can also come in the form of fake news sites with the logos of popular news portals such as CNN etc.
What’s also interesting is these sites get your IP and push you to a site that’s in your area. For instance I clicked on one and it sent me to a fake UK news site.
Many people have been duped and I think we need to spread the message. We can all say things like, ‘oh well, people are foolish for believing these sites,’ but when you are desperate to lose weight then it can lead you to trying everything going.
Waffles has also done a smaller list for the tooth whitening scam sites too. These sites are everywhere as well but not as prolific as the weight loss ones, which let’s face it is far more lucrative market to target.
FYI, if you see Oprah or Dr Oz or any of Oprah’s buddies on these sites then bear in mind she, nor they, endorse such products.
http://wafflesatnoon.com/2009/01/29/acai-cleanse-scams-update/
http://wafflesatnoon.com/2010/01/12/teeth-whitening-scams-2010-update/
Please lets try and get the word out to as many places as we can about these scam sites.
Also I noticed if you use Google Adsense you may want to rethink that because when you talk about dieting and weight loss in your keyword search terms these scams sites also come up. I’m pretty sure Waffles isn’t aware that next to one of his posts which is about natural weight loss there is graphic which directs you to a scam site he mentioned. This is another one of those reasons why I hate google ads – they will accept almost any sites onto their ad rotation as long as the advertiser pays their bill at the end of the month. It’s the poor site owners and genuine bloggers who just want to make some extra cash from these google ads who end up looking like scam peddlers.
Anyway that was a side rant I want you to be aware of – the main purpose of this post is to get you to try and help reduce the use of these acai cleanse scam and tooth whitening sites. In terms of the weight loss all I can say is it actually takes work and discipline.
Today I felt like crap and didn’t want to work out but I did. 45 minutes in the gym and 45 in the pool, swimming, and I was mindful of what I ate. Even though all I wanted was chocolate and sleep. The rewards of doing it the hard way are longer lasting in my opinion. Try getting off your sofa, first and doing something active. Follow Debra Mazda’s story here (the radio interview is very insightful) and here if you are in any doubt.
So folks, help stop these sites from taking advantage of people who are stuck or desperate to loose weight. There is no quick fix!
V x
