I cannot speak to the product, but I would never purchase it after seeing multiple sellers' advertising tactics.
While checking the weather on www.weather.com, I clicked on a link called "Acai Berry, Side Effects" showing "www.acaihealthtests.com" underneath. It opened a page where "Melissa" was reporting the results of a "controlled, independent" 14-day test of the side effects of 20 acai products. The entity responsible for the testing, number of persons tested, and methods of testing are not disclosed. They do note that none caused side effects and state that "as a public service, they must warn us that only 3 provided real results, with Acai Berry Detox as the best performer." I'm no genius, but it was clear this was not like any other independent study I've ever seen. The site tries to further legitimize itself by including posts from people who've tried one or more of the products. (Lo and behold, the Detox works best when you add the Cleanse...)
These posts are intended to look real, of course. There are a few misspelled words here and there and personal notes from one poster to another (one poster agrees with a previous poster on the acai berry greatness and then comments that she likes the first poster's blouse shown in the picture). There's a pastor saying that with God's and this berry's help, he will lose the weight. Just to show how real the comments are, there are even two posts from skeptics testing the site ("Test - if this shows up, I'll know the comments are real"). One poster's nickname was even "Skeptic, " just so you'll understand the intent.
Because the comments (especially the skeptics') seemed contrived, I decided to test it with an easy post (just in case there was a moderator). As soon as I submitted, it appeared to show up, but I noted that only mine included a response from the site - "Thank you for your reply, Order here." When I tried to navigate away from the page, I was assaulted with messages offering a discount, telling me there was a live salesperson waiting to chat with me online about the product, etc.
The extra note in just mine made it fail the "smell" test. Could it be a trick? I retyped www.weather.com in my browser and it was still there. Maybe real people could post there? But that message thanking me for my reply and beckoning me to order with just a click was still there, too. Things were still a bit stinky...
I'm no techie, so I may misuse lingo here (please forgive), but it seemed that the sight had locked onto my IP address and knew to show me the page displaying my post. I had one more trick to try. I logged into my desktop at work using our virtual private network. Essentially, while I was using the same laptop at home, I had changed my IP address to my work computer. Back to www.weather.com, link to article... Wanna place a bet here? Of course I wouldn't be posting on http://usashameboard.com if I had good news. As I expected, my post did NOT show up. As the "independent" reviewer and tester of this site, my perception is that the posts are fake, and therefore I would expect no better quality in the advertiser's product.
While I'd love a pill to work, and acai actually may (as I said, I haven't tried it), I would never order any from a site like this. It's ironic that directly below the links to the various acai "scam alert" threads on http://usashameboard.com, are two more links: "Acai Berry Detox Scam, " and "Acai Berry Scam Exposed, " both of which take you into sites where other products are being hawked as the only ones that performed at all, beware of the others. Crazy - scam risk on the page where we're trying to warn others about scams!
All of our mothers told us, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Drats, but I'll keep my money, thanks.
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