There has been a lot of hype lately about the Brazilian berry known as acai. This previously unknown berry was thrown into the spotlight when it was named the top superfood in the world on the Oprah Winfrey Show. With such powerful benefits possible from a simple berry, it was not hard to believe that everyone was desperate to get their hands on this little purple berry.

Unfortunately, some shady business men caught onto this trend early and figured out a way to take advantage of acai’s popularity, by starting what is now known at the acai berry free trial scam. They would lure people in by offering a free bottle of acai pills. You only had to pay shipping and handling. What most people did not realize is that when they signed up for the trial that they were also agreeing to have their credit card charged up to $100 per month in order to continue getting the pills. That little detail was hidden deep in the fine print.

The problem with the offer was that the companies running this scam have made it very difficult to cancel the trial before you were billed. This is a very dishonest business practice, and it lead the Better Business Bureau to list free trial acai scams in their top 10 scams of 2009. This is a shame because a few bad businessmen are giving a bad name to a fruit that has some very legitimate health benefits.

If you happened to fall victim to this scam do not worry, you are not alone. These scammers are very good at their job and know exactly what buttons to push to make people pull out their credit cards. If you have already given them your information, here are some tips to cancel acai berry free trial.

The first step should always be to try your best to talk to a representative at the company you ordered from. Go back to the original website that you purchased from and look for a phone number at the bottom of the page. It might be in very small print, but it should be there. Attempt to call that number and have your order canceled as soon as possible. You will most likely be billed 14 days after the order was placed, so do this step immediately.

Hopefully it is as easy as that, but this is not usually the case. If you ordered from a scam company you will probably be put on hold, or nobody will answer the phone at all. At this point it is time to call the fraud department at your bank or credit card provider. Most companies are aware of these acai scams, and have protocols in place for dealing with them. You might have to cancel your card, but that is a much better option than being charged $100 a month against your will.

The year of 2009 was full of dishonest scams during a tough year for the U.S. Economy. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) came out with its top 10 scams of 2009. Here is the Better Business Bureau’s top 10 list.

Top 10 Scams of 2009 (In no particular order)

Free Trial Offer Scams : This swept the online community and many legitimate companies suffered because of it’s bad publicity. Basically, the scam artists would promote free trial offers and then charge the consumer a recurring bill and make it very difficult for cancellations. Visa credit card company has gone to the extent of blocking over 100 dishonest acai companies that were implementing this scam. These scams were also prevalent with teeth whitener products and other diet products. The acai fruit was one particular consumer good that got caught in a whirlwind of negative criticism. It is unfortunate that acai got caught in this mess of bad publicity because it is one of the healthiest fruits on the planet.

For more information read:
What is Acai?
Benefits of Acai
Acai Berry Free Trial Scams
Acai Scams

Government Stimulus Grant Scams: Phone, email, mail scams offering assistance on how to get unachievable grants.

Robocalls: Fake telemarketing calls that dealt with car warranty, credit card expiration, and interest rates.

Lottery Sweepstakes Scams: These victims were notified that they had won thousands/millions of dollars in the lottery then would receive a bill to cover fake taxes and other false fees having to do with winning the so called lottery.

Job Hunter Scams: This scam targeted people looking for jobs. It would often try to get private information such as SSN and bank account numbers in order to access personal accounts.

Work at Home Google Scam: This was a pop up ad many people received that lured people into signing up for a free trial offer to supposedly make money from on working for Google. These victims ended up getting billed monthly for hundreds of dollars.

Debt Assistance Scam: This scam was targeted to people with credit card or other debt. They would be scammed to pay a lot of money to get the consolidation of their debt then never receive the benefit.

Mystery Shopping: This was a fake scam that had the victims believing they were evaluating stores by fake shopping for them thinking they would get reimbursed for all expenditures. In the end they were given fake checks and were out a lot of money.

Over Payment Scams: This scam would often target landlords. A potential renter would overpay with a fake check and then have the landlord wire wire the additional money overpaid back to the scammer not knowing the initial check was fake.

Phishing emails and H1N1 spam: This scam involves getting the victim to download unsafe computer programs that trick the user into giving out personal information. It would often infect the users computer with malware and computer viruses that would work to steal financial information.