Freebie Scam Offer. 10 February 2021 at 1:58PM edited 10 February 2021 at 3:39PM in Praise, vent & warnings 19 replies 1.1K views

Carlsdad

I was the recently the victim of an attempt to take money from my debit card after I ordered 'free' sample bottle of CBD oil on line. All I had to pay (with my card) was post and packing.The oil arrived as promised, but 10 days later, my bank contacted me to say there had been an attempt to withdraw £85 pounds from my bank account. Fortunately, bank security had picked this up and stopped the withdrawal. I have since seen 2 similar offers (fronted by well-known personalities' names). When I looked into the links on the sites, they actually went nowhere. Very cleverly done.

TadleyBaggie

I suspect the offer you signed up for had in the small print that you were entering into a subscription for the item and had to cancel within xx days. 

DCFC79

Carlsdad said:

I was the recently the victim of an attempt to take money from my debit card after I ordered 'free' sample bottle of CBD oil on line. All I had to pay (with my card) was post and packing.The oil arrived as promised, but 10 days later, my bank contacted me to say there had been an attempt to withdraw £85 pounds from my bank account. Fortunately, bank security had picked this up and stopped the withdrawal. I have since seen 2 similar offers (fronted by well-known personalities' names). When I looked into the links on the sites, they actually went nowhere. Very cleverly done.

Where did you see this offer ?

I bet the the 2 personalities didnt actually know they fronted the products, the people involved took a celebs photo and used it, just like Martin Lewis saying bitcoin was ok to invest in (or whatever it was) when he didn't say that.
Just because a celeb says its ok it doesn't mean the product is any good nor have they endorsed it.

You have got lucky here, in future buy CBD from a reputable seller and dont buy from Facebook.

powerful_Rogue

Facebook

In the T&C's

Only a scam if you don't read them.

George_Michael

Carlsdad said:

I was the recently the victim of an attempt to take money from my debit card after I ordered 'free' sample bottle of CBD oil on line. All I had to pay (with my card) was post and packing.The oil arrived as promised, but 10 days later, my bank contacted me to say there had been an attempt to withdraw £85 pounds from my bank account.

Once more people understand that reputable companies rarely, if ever give away £85 of products then these sorts of "promotions" will gradually start to vanish.

Carlsdad

I came on here with a view to helping others to avoid being ripped off, but obviously some people think it's smart to belittle me with derisory comments. Thanks.

mobileron

Never buy from facebook,to many scammers.

TripleH

Carlsdad, I don't think people were trying to belittle you. Its just that a lot of what people say are scams do actually list what 'you' are actually signing up to in the terms and conditions. The 'scam' bit is that they rely on people being lazy and not reading properly what they are agreeing to. There are a lot of people here (I am one) who find being blunt and to the point can work. Once burnt, twice shy as it were. 
I think the lesson is to always read the small print on these fantastic offers and always proceed with caution.
Its far easier to mislead than scam paricularly on facebook. Misleading will mean your adverts remain up because you are 'honest' in what you are selling in a way plus you can setup multiple revenuev generation lines easier. Scamming is more effort as you have the hassle of constantly trying to keep one step ahead of getting permanently removed from the site.

Pollycat

TripleH said:

Carlsdad, I don't think people were trying to belittle you. Its just that a lot of what people say are scams do actually list what 'you' are actually signing up to in the terms and conditions. The 'scam' bit is that they rely on people being lazy and not reading properly what they are agreeing to. There are a lot of people here (I am one) who find being blunt and to the point can work. Once burnt, twice shy as it were. 
I think the lesson is to always read the small print on these fantastic offers and always proceed with caution.
Its far easier to mislead than scam paricularly on facebook. Misleading will mean your adverts remain up because you are 'honest' in what you are selling in a way plus you can setup multiple revenuev generation lines easier. Scamming is more effort as you have the hassle of constantly trying to keep one step ahead of getting permanently removed from the site.

I didn't think the posters up-thread were trying to belittle the OP either.

I trust no website - unless I've fully checked out who they are, where they operate from, delivery terms and refund policies and anything else that might cause me problems.

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't take as good care of their money.

The OP didn't say the offer was on Facebook but there are so many threads about Facebook companies and disappointed consumers on here.

The problem with warning people is that so many people don't do their research before parting with their cash and only then do they check up and find the company is not as trustworthy as they thought.

I read about it all the time on the Air Travel board of Tripadvisor. There are countless threads and posts about shonky 3rd party ticket sellers but people still give them their money, encounter problems then post to warn others when they themselves didn't read the warnings. And so it goes on.

OP - could it have been some sort of subscription you unknowingly signed up to as per this post?

TadleyBaggie said:

I suspect the offer you signed up for had in the small print that you were entering into a subscription for the item and had to cancel within xx days. 

Carlsdad

The ad. is on again this morning, but URL won't copy on here for some reason. Using Phil Schofield today.

IvanOpinion

I see the problem, you believed something from the Daily Mail