Marketplace

Free Trial Scams: Don’t click that link! (45x4)

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Hundreds of viewers have flooded our inbox demanding we investigate skin care products that seem linked to legit companies and celebrities: Costco,Rogers, Dragons Den, Ellen, Oprah, Celine Dion. It’s an online scheme that uses free trial offers, bogus endorsements, and surveys to trick people into paying for products and subscriptions they had no idea they were signing up for. We uncover a network of at least 371 different suspect company names, 312 merchant accounts from over 80 different banks in 14 different countries. This episode features Arlene Dickinson from Dragon’s Den. She’s asked her lawyers to stop these companies from using her image to sell this scam..no luck…. When we get our own “miracle anti-aging cream”, the trail leads us to a man from Calgary living in San Diego.