I would guess the ads appeal to a lot of us.
They pop up on your Facebook page,
and are for getting rid of pesky belly fat,
relief from painful knees,
miraculously reducing wrinkles, eye bags, dark spots,
etc., etc., etc.
They have a lot in common.
They have been carefully engineered to draw you in.
They are usually very long,
and you have to keep going to the end to find out
"how much."
And...they almost always offer a "free trial."
WHOA! That is a giant RED FLAG, friends!
Mark my words and don't believe it for a nanosecond.
Although it pains me greatly to admit it,
I have fallen for Scenario #1.
It was for not one, but two "samples" of
miracle face products.
It was for a 14 day "free trial" of both--
for shipping charges only--$4.95 each.
I knew it would be risky,
but I had no idea just how risky.
When the products arrived, I thought them to be
remarkably big for trial samples.
And, before I knew it,
(and before I'd even gotten around to trying what I had)
I received two more bottles--
same size--of the products in the mail.
Sparing you all the details, I ended up paying for
the first shipments.
I'm too ashamed to tell you how much.
I had to stop payment on my credit card for the
second two.
The lady at my credit card company was
all too familiar with the scam.
She told me right away that those first two
were not "samples."
They were full sized products.
She had heard my sad song before!
The ad for my beauty products has now been suspended.
However, I had gone back and put in a fictitious name, etc.
on this site, and I realized you have to be
almost past the point of no return before you are
able to see the "small print."
The products I received were waaayyy too large
to use in a month, and yet they were mailing
them to me that often.
The "free sample" would have had to be returned
to them in 14 days--from order date to
date of receipt back at their warehouse.
In other words...impossible.
It was time consuming, frustrating, even infuriating!
Don't get fooled.
Today a new approach appeared on my Facebook.
Scenario #2 was called "Instaflex"
and is supposedly a miracle for knees like mine--they hurt!
You actually receive a 14 day supply--
for only the shipping charge of $4.95.
In the (fake) "comments,"
someone asked, "Why do you charge shipping?"
The answer (a big fat lie) was that
otherwise people might take advantage and order
under different names, etc.
The truth? You HAVE to give them a credit card
to pay the shipping charge.
And, guess what?
Then they've got you!
You've signed up for monthly, very $$$ shipments
unless you cancel before you even have a
chance to see if the product works.
I've been trying to make myself admit for about a year
that I, Linda Jane Lynn Stovall,
fell for one of these scams.
I wanted to try to keep it from happening to any of you.
However,
I convinced myself that no one else would fall
for such a thing.
But...that knee pill this morning would have looked
pretty tempting if I had not known better.
So, dear friends.
Forewarned is forearmed!
Don't think (as I did) that you will stay on top
of it and not be taken advantage of!
If you can find the small print, you'll realize that's where they've got you, and you will not win!
Besides, any company that would work that hard
to trick us probably has a no-good product anyway!
_____________________
I would surely appreciate it if any of you have
ever "experienced" one of these scams,
you would tell my kids.
Otherwise, I may be required to forfeit my computer.
