All of the reliable and credible scientific literature done on acai is related to the antioxidant capacity and the oil composition of the berry. Another red flag is that the companies promoting acai as a weight loss aid purposely conceals the contents of its product. They claim to provide a product in pill form that is acai. They fail to reveal what % of that pill is acai and whether it is made from freeze-dried or spray-dried powder. Acai does not possess the capacity to drive, create or stimulate weight loss. It is considered a superfood based on its nutritional profile. A superfood does not mean that it supports weight loss. The product being sold by this company does not work because it cannot work based on their claims.

If you try contacting any of the companies selling the miracle Acai diet pills, you will most likely be connected to an answering service. When you ask the service if they had a way to contact the company directly, you will probably be told that they did not have access to any phone numbers except for the toll number listed on the website. If you ask what the name of the company was for whom they were providing this service you will mostly likely find the business names to be unregistered, in other words, the company is hiding. They fail to provide a physical address, a reliable phone number to a company headquarters nor are they searchable via google or the state they do business in.

These companies all have the ear marks of organizations involved in scamming the public. There is no recourse. In their terms of service and privacy statements they are very clear about taking the customers private information with the intent to sell and resell. In addition to this they clearly state that they will use 'cookies' an internet term of describing the act of monitoring their customers' internet use. Essentially they say that when you buy a product from them they are not only going to sell and resell all of your private information but they say that the purchase in effect creates a contract with the customer that allows the company to monitor and spy on their customers so that they may gain more private information to sell and resell.

Here is what the Terms of Service on one of the websites actually states:

1.2 Third Party List Information. XXXX collects information from individuals when an individual provides information to a third party and XXXX subsequently purchases, licenses, or otherwise acquires the information from the third party (the "Seller"). Such purchased information may include, but is not limited to, an individual's name, email address, street address, zip code, telephone numbers (including cell phone numbers and carriers), birth date, gender, salary range, credit card information, education and marital status, occupation, industry of employment, personal and online interests, and such other information as the individual may have provided to the Seller (together, "Third Party List Information"). When acquiring Third Party List Information, XXXX seeks assurances from the Seller that the Seller has a right to transfer the Third Party List Information to XXXX and that the Seller has a right to provide offers from advertisers to the individuals whose personal information is included on the Seller's list.

The Acai Diet Pill "Free Trial" is a sophisticated "bait and switch" scheme. If you don't cancel the product after receiving it, you will be billed about $80 on your credit card for your "Free Trial". Not only that, they will bill you EVERY month about $80 until you cancel the monthly subscription. But since they promise you that you will lose 50 pounds of weight, a normal customer would probably give the product some time to see if it actually works before canceling. But by the time they see that it doesn't work, their credit card could have been charged $80-160. Some of the terms of service refuse any returns so the customer is stuck with the bill and the ineffective product. In other words, it's a perfect scam.

Here are a few of their sites:

Always check the terms of service and privacy policies of an online store before you buy anything. A reputable store should have trust icons such Hacker Safe, McAfee Secure or BBBOnline which validates a companies' physical address, phone number which should also be listed on their home page or in their "About Us" page. You can also use a free plugin for your browser by McAfee.com called SiteAdvisor to indicate if a website is safe while you are doing searches in google, yahoo or msn. If a website hasn't been validated, you will see a question mark, otherwise the site will have a green checkmark. Also, some sites have been flagged if they have been caught sending spam emails or using fraudulent schemes.

Don't be discouraged -- there are legitimate acai berry juice companies out there. Don't let a few fly-by-night companies give you the impression that acai is an ineffective product. If acai is taken in its original juice form, (not reconstituted with water or in pill form), it is a great natural energy drink rich with anti-oxidants.