P.O.R.N. Diets

I am coining this term as I feel some of the diets out there are so radical they need to be discussed in one place.

We here from our favorite celebrities daily and some of us live for this. We follow them on Twitter, talk about them on Bebo and MySpace or e mail each other about them especially when a new diet is talked about.

There have been some over the top radical diets in the past like the 'Air diet', not a very popular one for obvious reasons unlike the 'Chocolate' diet. Then there is the more main stream 'Atkins' diet or 'The Dash Diet' or even 'The South Beach Diet'. All have there plus and minus points and their advocates and nay sayers as well.

The trick when it comes to diets if there is a trick in selecting one would be to thoroughly research the topic. The mere fact that there literally are thousands of diets commercially available shown on television, billboards or even your local Chemist shop.

Here will be many, many articles pertaining to the topic of P.O.R.N. Diets circulating our media and your opinion on them is most welcome. Maybe you have been on one and would like to praise it or maybe warn others away from it. Whatever you may like to share, diet related, please do.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Is Acai a Scam if They Offer Free Acai Berry?

By Travis Van Slooten

Many sites selling acai berry supplements are offering free trials, which has many people asking, "Is acai a scam?" The answer is more complicated than yes or no. Acai berry itself is a very nutritious super fruit with a great deal of potential as a health supplement. But its popularity means there are a good number of companies looking to make a quick buck, even if that means scamming you out of your hard-earned money. But if you know what to look for, you can help protect yourself from these scammers.

The Deceptive Offer

Is the offer for acai a scam? Well, the offer makes it sounds like a completely harmless gift. But do not be fooled by clever marketing tricks and persuasive writing. The offer itself is a dead giveaway. No company is interested in giving out free samples. And the bigger the gift, the bigger the chance that you are getting scammed. Even the largest grocery stores in the world only give away a fraction of a cent worth of samples to guests. And you're only a few feet from the item they are trying to sell you. So, reasonably, how could a small company afford to give you a hundred dollar free sample with no strings attached? They can't.

The Free Product

To establish their credibility with you and to keep their "name" intact, you will most likely receive what was promised in the offer. If it's a 30-capsule bottle promised, then you'll get just that. The question however is whether the free sample has any value at all. I wouldn't bet on it. Free acai capsules reportedly valued at $50? Maybe $15 would be nearer to that actual cost.

To keep their costs for their free acai promo low, it is very possible that the scam companies merely put in cheap-quality acai berry products which they pass off as real samples. It's unfortunate really, but what's worse is that this scheme actually works. If you are not aware of these things and believe that you have actually been given a free gift of this value, you would tend to believe that this acai supplement brand is sincere and can be trusted. Would you feel some changes in you with their free sample? Probably. This does happen when the mind is conditioned to believe in something.

So what is the catch?

Regrettably, that is only half of the story. Many people who have signed up for such a free trial ended up not only with a bottleful of inferior supplements (which isn't quite so bad as long as it's free), but also with a regular subscription they never even knew they signed up for.

The answer lies in the fine print. More often than not, there is a stipulation in the free trial that you have to cancel the trial subscription within a certain number of days otherwise they will have the right to charge you and send you a regular order every month. This is what most consumers fail to catch when they try the free offer. The only time they realize that they've been charged more than the shipping fee is when they receive their credit card bill. When they try to cancel, it would be very difficult even trying to reach a customer service representative of the acai supplement company.

How do they get away with making acai a scam?

What these companies are counting on is that few people would have the time and patience to go through the process of making a formal complaint or even argue and demand for their money back. Even though these companies are actually making acai a scam, they cover it up cleverly enough in the guise of fine print so the customer actually feels he is at fault. In the end, the deceived customer would even feel grateful that he was able to cancel the regular subscription at all and end up with just losing a few tens of dollars.

Free acai berry offers may be the easiest way to tell if a company is a scam, but they are not the only way. You have to be careful as scam artists can be very clever in their attempts to get into your wallet. For those asking is acai a scam, your best option is to simply stick with the well-known companies and reduce your risk to start.

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