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Mar 7, 2024 · Capital One Gold Card Scam. In February 2022, a deceptive email scam was identified, promising a "$500 Capital One Gold Card" for completing a survey and/or subscription. Originating from a ...
- Shannon Sanford
- Scope of The Problem
- How Free Trial Offer frauds Work
- Anatomy of The Fraud
- Victim Narratives
- Upsells
- Efforts to Combat The Fraud
- Recommendations
How large is the fake free trial offer industry?
The problem is growing. Available data from the FTC shows that complaints about “free trials” more than doubled between 2015 to 2017, though not all people who complain actually lose money. Victims in 14 resolved FTC cases lost $1.3 billion. There may have have been more than a million victims just in those cases. BBB has identified 36,986 complaints and Scam Tracker Reports over the last three years, though not all involve monetary loss. Consumers reporting to BBB lost an average of $186. In...
IC3 Free Trial Complaints
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) examined free trials and subscription traps in April of 2017. They only received 54 complaints from 2011 to 2016, but from March 2016 to March 2017 they received 518 complaints, an 859 percent increase. Of the 518 complainants, 474 lost money, with a total loss of $192,419 Canadian dollars (approximately $146,812 U.S. dollars) and an average loss of CA$248. The CAFC also identified 371 company names engaged in free trial offers. The most common “gifts” or...
Who are the victims of free trial offer frauds?
An examination of complaints and reports to BBB found that 72 percent were females and 28 percent were male. This may be because so many of these products are skin creams geared to that demographic. Other products may be directed to a male audience and some, such as diet pills, may affect a general audience. In addition, victims appear to span all income and education levels. Ages of victims: The Internet Crime Complaint Center complaints are spread fairly evenly over age ranges, with a sligh...
An FTC case from 2010 may help illustrate how these free trial offer enterprises actually operate. The following contains the FTC’s evidence and allegations made in court before the case ultimately settled: Central Coast Nutraceuticals (CCN) sold a weight loss pill called AcaiPure, as well as a “colon cleansing” product dubbed Colopure. At the time...
Several components must come together for the fraud to be effective. These usually include: 1. A product 2. Enticing advertising 3. A website 4. Celebrity endorsement 5. Product shipping 6. Payment processing 7. Customer service operations While these functions could be done from one office, a variety of players often work in tandem to make the dec...
Rose, a nurse from St. Louis, reported seeing a social media ad on her phone for a skin cream product. It was sold by a company called Purely Organic Cosmetics, and the ad claimed that the product was endorsed by Shark Tank. Because it was just a few dollars to try the cream, and she said she believed Shark Tank was helping to market the product, s...
When buying things over the phone or internet, consumers also are often offered additional products or services - a practice known as an “upsell.” For example, someone may see an item advertised on television and call to place an order. After providing their credit or debit card number the company may offer to send an additional product, perhaps by...
BBB’s Role
Before doing business with any company it is a good idea to check them out with BBB. There are more than 100 BBBs across the U.S. and Canada, some also with regional offices, and all keep track of and list information online about businesses, not just ones that are “members” (known as Accredited Businesses). Visit BBB.org and enter the name of a company to learn more. Make sure to search nationwide, not just in your locality. To be accredited, businesses must agree to comply with BBB Standard...
Law Enforcement
Over the last ten years, the Federal Trade Commission has been very active in challenging bogus free trial offers. Many of these, but not all, have also included continuing monthly shipments and charges for products. The FTC has consistently warned consumers about this type of fraud. They even produced a videoon this subject. Products involved have included diet pills, tooth whiteners, offers of supposedly free government grants, colon cleansers and wrinkle creams. Most have involved advertis...
BBB urges credit card companies to do more to ensure victims receive chargebacks where key conditions are not adequately disclosed. Because this fraud is dependent on the use of credit cards, more...Additional criminal prosecutions of this conduct are needed. The FTC and BBB have done much to address the issue, but do not have the ability to bring criminal charges. Only criminal prosecutions a...Social media sites should do more to curtail such deceptive advertising.International cooperation is needed to combat this fraud. U.S. and Canadian law authorities need more information about victims from other countries. In addition, evidence and other key information...Mar 1, 2018 · The Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2017 is not a survey. It is a report about the people who contacted the FTC to report their experience in calendar year 2017. Approximately 1.1 million people reported fraud to the FTC in 2017. Almost half (49%) of the people who reported fraud also gave their age when they made a report.
Mar 15, 2024 · BBB Scam Tracker has received several recent reports about scammers impersonating different businesses through email. One consumer shared, “Received an email on 1/3/2024 that “my Sirius XM ...
Search our database to see if a similar scam has been reported. In 2023, alone, we estimate BBB Scam Tracker helped consumers avoid losing $24.3 million to scammers. Look Up a Scam.
Sep 21, 2016 · According to the Consumer Sentinel Network, an online investigative tool from the Federal Trade Commission, there were nearly 354,000 imposter scams alone in 2015, the latest data available. That ...
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