BBB Update: Free Trial Offer Scams Complaints and Scam Reports Climb as Celebrities and Others Speak Out

Southfield, MI (April 21, 2020) – With many people staying at home due to COVID-19 and spending more time on the internet, chances are they will encounter bogus “free trial offer” scams. While celebrities, credit card companies and government agencies have increased their efforts to fight deceptive free trial offer scams, victims continue to lose millions of dollars to fraudsters after the release of a December 2018 Better Business Bureau® (BBB) study about the shady practices. 

“Subscription Traps and Deceptive Free Trials Scam Millions with Misleading Ads and Fake Celebrity Endorsements,” describes how free trial offers often use celebrity endorsement ads on social media and the internet to attract consumers to deceptive websites that charge a small shipping and handling fee, usually $4.99 or less, for a “free” trial of beauty or health products like skin creams or weight loss pills. The true cost of these free trials – ongoing monthly subscription plans – is buried in small print and behind links, if disclosed at all.

Free trial offers are not illegal. Video streaming services often offer free trial offers. Scammers now are using free trial offers to take advantage of the desire for streaming services. BBB has received Scam Tracker reports that scammers are using social media to offer bogus free Netflix services. To receive a fake pass, those clicking on a link may be directed to provide personal information and send the offer to friends. Scammers are likely phishing for personal and banking information or to distribute malware.

BBB® urges consumers to:

• Examine online free trial offers carefully
• Resist being swayed by the phony use of a well-known name
• Report free trial offer scams to BBB Scam Tracker
• Report losses to credit card companies. After the BBB free trial offer study, Mastercard and Visa issued new policies to increase transparency for free trial offers. Victims should call the customer service number on the back of the credit card used to ask for their money back.

Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Michigan & the Upper Peninsula received several complaints regarding free trial scams throughout 2019 and into 2020. One Detroit Area man told BBB he signed up for a free trial of a dietary supplement, in which he was only to pay for shipping. The company initially charged him the shipping fee and sent him the sample product, however, a month later, he was then charged $95.79 by the company even though he had not signed up for anything after the free trial and had read through the trial agreement carefully.

“Unfortunately, free trial offers, especially on products like diet pills and skin creams, can often be too good to be true,” said Melanie Duquesnel, BBB President & CEO. “These companies lure people in with, what appears to be, the use of celebrities and appearances throughout mainstream media when, in actuality, these are just scammers looking to charge you for something you thought you were trying for free.” 

Free Trial Complaint Trends

Although complaints to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) decreased somewhat in 2019, free trial complaints and reports to BBB for the U.S. and Canada increased. Since many victims don’t complain to BBB or to law enforcement, these numbers represent a trend rather than the total size of the problem. 

Free Trial Scams Reported to BBB

Consumers filed more than 58,400 complaints and Scam Tracker reports to BBB in the U.S. and Canada in the last three years. The median loss for victims dropped from $186 to $140 since the study.

FBI Complaints Regarding Free Trial Scams

Complaints to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) slightly decreased in 2019. IC3 found that the largest number of victims were over 60.

New Scam Tactics

Free trial offer fraudsters have developed new tactics. Previously, they usually sent shoppers to bogus generic consumer news articles or fake websites with familiar sounding names to make their pitch. Now they often copy the look of major media outlet websites, such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, and others, presumably to increase the credibility of the claims about the products.

Scammers also have expanded their efforts to use social media to draw in victims. An October 2019 investigation by Buzzfeed details one operation based in San Diego that convinced people to rent out their personal Facebook accounts to the fraudsters who used the accounts to place free trial offer ads. According to Buzzfeed, scammers used “overseas workers in the Philippines to manage its account rentals and legions of associated Facebook pages, and built up a network of stay-at-home moms in the US to recruit friends and family members to rent their accounts.” 

If you have come across a free trial scam, here are some steps you can take to help educate others.

• Complain to the company directly. If that is not successful, call the customer service number on the back of your credit card to complain to the bank.
• Report suspicious, confusing or misleading ads to BBB AdTruth at bbb.org/ad-truth.
• File a complaint about free trial offers with:
• BBB – bbb.org or bbb.org/scamtracker
• Federal Trade Commission – ftc.gov or 877-FTC-Help
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center – ic3.gov
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About Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Michigan & the Upper Peninsula
For more than 100 years, the Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands, and charities they can trust. In 2018, people turned to BBB more than 173 million times for BBB Business Profiles on nearly 5.4 million businesses and Charity Reports on 11,000 charities, all available for free at BBB.org. The International Association of Better Business Bureaus (IABBB) is the umbrella organization for the local, independent BBBs in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust is IABBB’s educational foundation.