Mary Berry endorsing cannabis oil? No, it’s a Great British rip-off
WHEN Anne Wiles saw an image of national treasure Mary Berry promoting pain-relief products, she felt confident placing an order.
The 71-year-old had been scrolling through Facebook on her laptop when she found an article about the TV baker.
It claimed the Great British Bake Off star had launched a line of cannabidiol (CBD) products, which contained parts of the cannabis plant but were legal in the UK.
One click took Anne to the Bionic Bliss web page, where she was urged to place an order before stocks ran out that day.
She thought the oil might help her 88-yearold husband, Geoffrey, with his knee pain and, using his credit card, paid £55 for a buyone-get-one-free deal.
Anne says: ‘I knew that Mary Berry wasn’t the sort of person who would endorse something without vetting it.’
But Bionic Bliss took a second payment of £119, then a further £71. It also set up an arrangement that would allow it to take more cash from Geoffrey’s account in future.
But it has emerged that Mary Berry had no connection with the product whatsoever. About 50 Mary Berry fans have now raised concerns about Bionic Bliss’s fake articles, in which the 84-year-old TV star is quoted describing the oils as a ‘solution’ for people who don’t want to ‘resort to opiates’.
Mary Berry is said to be ‘appalled’ by the use of her name to push the product.
The pretend articles are headed with the MailOnline logo and feature other false endorsements from stars including Dame Judi Dench and Ed Sheeran.
All those who have taken up the special offer say the company has charged further unauthorised payments.
It is not uncommon for scammers to use famous faces to lure people in.
Each month, Action Fraud receives up to 50 reports of investment schemes that use fake celebrity endorsements.
Images of both Deborah Meaden, from the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, and MoneySaving Expert founder Martin Lewis have been used without their permission to tout unscrupulous schemes.
Mr LEWIS issued High Court proceedings against Facebook, which had promoted the fake adverts on its platform, in 2018. But he settled with the social media giant last year after it agreed to donate £3million to a new anti-scam project.
Anne, who lives on the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent, rang NatWest as soon as she realised something was amiss with her order.
When she said the money had been taken without her permission, a bank employee told her she would have to wait for 30 days to be reimbursed.
Anne found a phone number for Bionic Bliss on its website and, when she rang it, a man answered and introduced himself as ‘Agent 007’.
She told him she had not agreed to the extra payments, but Agent 007 told her the CBD products she had paid for were ‘marvellous’ and ‘very good’.
Anne, a retired shopkeeper, continued to complain and the man finally agreed to return 25 pc of the money. The refund has since arrived in her account.
She eventually received five bottles of CBD oil and three jars of CBD capsules, which she had not ordered. ‘I’m so upset, as it was a lot of money for us,’ she says.
A NatWest spokesman confirmed the couple had raised a dispute in relation to the charges and that the bank was investigating the case.
Geoffrey has not yet tried the oil, as he is concerned about what may be in it.
Companies House records show Bionic Bliss has an office address in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland, while its website says its headquarters are in Belfast.
However, when Money Mail called the number on its website, another ‘agent’ said they worked for a third-party call-centre based in Temple Terrace, Florida.
retired gift shop owner Jane Monk was sent a link to the Mary Berry article by a friend, who saw it while she was playing solitaire on her phone.
Jane, 69, who lives in Somerset with her husband, Mike, 75, had been thinking about buying CBD oil for her eldest daughter, Lucy Bacon. The 41-year-old suffers from fibromyalgia, a condition that causes pain all over the body.
Jane clicked on the link while she was browsing on her iPad before she went to sleep.
Like Anne, she thought she was signing up to the ‘buy-one-getone-free’ offer but, after she confirmed her payment, another page flashed up to say she had also bought two more products for £119.
The message displayed on her screen for only a few seconds, then disappeared.
Jane had paid on her M&S credit card, so she made a frantic call to the bank at about 10pm.
Like Anne, she is claiming back her money from the firm through a process called chargeback, where your bank requests the company’s bank for the refund.
It is not a legal protection, and is done at your bank’s discretion
It is understood that, once this claim has been made, the £119 payment will be returned and a subscription she unwittingly signed up to will be cancelled.
Jane says: ‘I’m so angry that I’ve fallen for something like this.’
Continuous payment authorities (CPAs) allow companies to take money from your account when they decide you owe them money.
But if you sign up to one without realising, you have the legal right to cancel the payments.
Even if the company refuses to cancel a CPA, banks and card providers must do this if you ask them to.
If further payments are taken from your account after you have requested a cancellation, the bank must refund you.
If you order something and don’t receive it, or if the product is faulty, you may be able to claim a refund through chargeback.
Experts say that reporting these kinds of payments as fraud can sometimes slow the process down because they are not technically fraudulent.
A spokesman for Mary Berry says: ‘Mary has been appalled to learn of unaffiliated companies using her image to advertise products such as CBD oil and face cream.
‘We have reported it to Facebook and our lawyers are working to get these adverts removed.’
A Facebook spokesman says: ‘We have already removed several ads featuring this scam and banned the accounts behind them.’
Bionic Bliss did not respond to requests for comment.