Dodgy merchants have been luring people in with impressive claims about CBD oil. Have you seen these online adverts? Here’s what to look out for.
A member of the public contacted us when they saw adverts making impressive health claims about CBD oil – a legal product derived from the cannabis plant.
The online adverts led to websites that were offering ‘free’ CBD rubbing balms and bottles of oil for just the price of postage. Seeing these, they entered their card details and ordered them.
Guide: how to spot a fake, fraudulent or scam website
When the products arrived, they found that they didn’t work for them. That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t.
They found withdrawals amounting to more than £40 on their card. Bottles they hadn’t ordered started arriving, and more money was taken from their account.
Before they knew it, they were more than £200 down.
Lured into a trap
These scams work by luring you in with offers of free or cheap products, only for you to find out later that you’ve inadvertently authorised recurring payments for more items.
The facts of the transaction are often buried in the small print, or in the worst cases people aren’t told at all.
In this case, the victim spoke with their bank, which refunded them and replaced their card. Further payments to these dodgy merchants were also blocked.
Guide: how to get your money back after a scam
But even after you’ve got things sorted with your bank, it’s worth keeping a close eye on your accounts for the foreseeable future: if your personal details have been in the hands of scammers, be wary of any future unsolicited emails, post and phone calls.
Don’t click on any links contained within emails or texts, nor give out your personal details before first independently verifying the correspondence is genuine.
Have you been a victim of this type of dodgy advert?
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