Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dragons’ Den lie fuels beauty con ‘Free’ skin cream trials will defraud you of £80 a month
A BEAUTY products scam is snaring victims by claiming to have won Dragons’ Den.
The online headline trumpets: “£4.95 Moisturizer That Removes The Signs Of Aging Gets Biggest Deal In Dragons’ Den History.”
The blog goes on to say that the episode, featuring sisters Anna and Samantha Williams, was “the most watched episode in Dragons’ Den history”.
Exactly the same claim is being made for numerous skin creams.
Total Age Repair has apparently also won Dragons’ Den, its website urging you to send for a “risk-free trial bottle”.
Claire Hydrafirm anti-age cream is billed as yet another winner, its website gushing: “Limited time offer, you only pay for postage!”
Dermagen iq claims to be “Hollywood’s newest best-kept secret” – although it can’t be that well-kept if, as claimed, it too won the most watched episode of Dragons’ Den.
The only bit about any of this which is true is that the two women pictured are sisters. But they are not Anna and Samantha Williams and they’ve got nothing to do with these creams.
Their real names are Shelly Hyde and Kara Haught, and they triumphed on the US version of Dragons’ Den, called Shark Tank, with a women’s swimwear business.
“We haven’t ever given anyone permission to use our images and have no affiliation with these companies or products,” they told me. “We would love to get them to stop – not sure how though. It’s so frustrating.”
Online forums are awash with people who say they saw pop-up ads for these products on social media, applied for a trial offer and then found themselves being stung for monthly fees of around £80. It’s known as a subscription trap and it’s a global scam, with different versions of the same rubbish claiming to have won Dragons’ Den or Shark Tank all over the world.
The epicentre of the scam appears to be the United States, where these products are churned out with everchanging names.
In Canada, it’s called Oveena – “Don’t get left behind” urges the website. In Australia, it’s Pure Natural, which claims “Sell Out Risk: High”.
In the States, there’s Bella Rose RX with a “limited time offer”.
The US consumer watchdog Better Business Bureau says that victims thought they were paying a nominal amount for a sample but ended up paying hundreds of dollars for skin cream “with little or no value”.
It pins the blame on two businesses – Vital Global Marketing and Beauty & Truth – saying they are behind dozens, “perhaps hundreds”, of skin cream scams.
“People need to understand that there are many businesses that offer free trials in order to hook unsuspecting consumers into monthly charges,” said Bureau president Michelle Corey.
“It is critical that potential customers of these businesses read everything, especially the terms and conditions portion of the agreements, to make certain they are not going to be charged for merchandise they did not intend to order.”
Trouble is, as the Bureau points out, these sites discourage consumers from doing just that by urging you to act quickly, and sometimes even using a countdown clock ticking off the seconds remaining to complete an order.
Beauty & Truth has not responded to me or to the Bureau.
Last year, the Bureau did get a reply from Vital Global Marketing, which is now dissolved.
A spokesman blamed unrelated skin cream businesses for many of the complaints and then, with incredible cheek, blamed the victims themselves, saying many consumers “are just massive scammers and essentially stealing the product from us so they can sell it on”.
you’re the victim of sharp practice I want to hear about it. Email investigate@mirror.co.uk or write to Penman Investigates, Daily Mirror, One Canada Square, London E14 5AP. I can’t respond to every letter but can promise to read them all. Please, no SAES or original documents.