Well, it seems we have another “winner” in the online health care credit card scam business. Advertising at Weather Channel websites online and using the clever website address, www.beautyuser.com, the company advertising a trio of anti-aging creams designed to rid your face of wrinkles such as crow’s feet, has come up with a new “wrinkle,” when it comes to online credit card scams. By now, the modus operandi of these unknown companies marketing miracle health care remedies for obesity and wrinkled skin is fairly common: offer a free trial in which you have ten or fourteen days, in this case fourteen (14), to try out a product, charge a fairly innocuous shipping and handling charge of about $5.95 or less, and make certain that the shipping and handling charge fetches the customer’s credit card number. Once the credit card number is obtained and the free trial period expires, the scammers start charging the customer for the product under the “contract” that the free trial recipient has established by way of furnishing their credit card, and challenge the customer to put a stop to the ongoing monthly charges, in this case, $99.95 a month, after an initial 14-day trial period expires.
The new “wrinkle” or twist in this scam involves “three choices” the customer can make to deal with wrinkled skin: (1) A $5.95 “free trial” offer of a product called Dermitage, (2) a $5.95 “free trial” offer of a product called Kumaara, or (3) an upfront $125.00 purchase of an Elizabeth Arden product known as Prevage.
The first question you should ask yourself if you’re serious about pursuing an anti-aging cream, is why you should pay a recurring “$99.95 per month charge for either Dermitage or Kumaara to an online company out of Ontario, Canada, when you can get the same products at www.amazon.com for about half the cost! While prices on these types of products are subject to change, the current prices listed at Amazon.com had Dermitage Anti-Aging Skin Care products listed for just “$49.95.” As for Kumaara, it was listed for just “$18.00” for a product known as “Luminizing Eye Treatment,” a picture of which was featured at the Beautyuser.com scam site and matched at the Amazon.com site. Assuming these are good anti-aging skin products, and my complaint is not directed toward the products, it would seem that Beautyuser.com is grossly overcharging for these skin care products at the very least. As for the Elizabeth Arden Prevage product, it appears to be priced correctly at $125 and had a comparable price at Amazon.com. The advertisement by Beautyuser.com, however, strongly urged you to buy either Dermitage or Kumaara. Under the pitch for Prevage, the ad says, “At the steep $125 price point for 1.7oz, we feel the previous products above offer much more and are a better value,” the previous products being Dermitage or Kumaara. A comparison of the “ingredients” of each of these beauty products is made at the top and makes it look like a consumer would be wasting their money buying the more costly Prevage product.
Even if the consumer decides to buy the Prevage product, thus depriving Beautyuser.com of the obscene profits they would make on the sales of either Dermitage or Kumaara, Beautyuser can still give your personal information out to a never-ending list of personal beauty and health aid solicitors such as GNC, Rite Aid, and a whole host of “brand manufacturers,” under their “Privacy Policy.” So in other words, Beautyuser can still make a fast buck off of giving out your personal information and selling it to other like-minded solicitors of these types of beauty products. Of course, with Beautyuser.com being based out of Ontario, Canada, and the company name being Impact Brands, LLC, questions still remain as to whether these beauty products would actually be shipped to you, and whether there’s any recourse available to you in case you don’t receive the products, or if you’re one of the unfortunate few who signed up for one of the “free trials” of either Dermitage or Kumaara, and you’re having trouble getting the $99.95 charges stopped on your credit card. Given that the identity of Beautyuser.com is difficult to pinpoint, that they do business out of Ontario, Canada, that they grossly overcharge for Dermitage and Kumaara, and that they require a monthly credit card commitment of $99.95 after only a 14-day “free trial period,” surely consumers can find a safer and more reliable vender for these types of products without putting their credit card at risk.
