Online Supplement Cash Grabs You Should Always Avoid

by John Esposito
Supplements are getting more expensive every year, and it’s getting out of hand. Prices have gone up more than 30% in just the last 3 years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. This big of a difference in supplement prices are not just influenced by inflation, but also the clever and oftentimes shrewd marketing schemes by supplement companies. The supplement industry is now a multi-billion dollar business in the United States and around the world, and everyone wants to have a slice of the pie. The unregulated nature of dietary supplements attracts shady individuals who only want to make a quick buck off of someone who has yet to discover the dark side of the supplement industry.  

Why are supplements getting more expensive?

There are two reasons for the rise in supplement prices in recent years. The most obvious reason is the advances in supplement technology, which makes sense considering that premium supplements today are safer and more effective. You can always distinguish which supplements are better than the average products in the same segment by simply comparing the labels. Premium supplement brands offer higher-potency ingredients, such as standardized extracts, which cost more to procure, process, and manufacture. These kinds of supplements also have in-house research and development teams that work to make the product better. Marketing has become more competitive as well. The increased cost of advertising could also affect the prices. All of these factors add up, which explains why prices have gone up in the last few years.  

Online Supplement Cash Grabs

Unfortunately, the increase in prices also benefits shady supplement companies that are only after your money. These companies trick customers into thinking that they have a premium supplement when all they have is a generic supplement product that will never beat the results you get from a premium supplement brand.  

Re-branded supplements

Online Supplement Cash Grabs You Should Always AvoidIn the past few years, we’ve seen a rapid increase in fly-by-night supplement companies that disappear after only a few months of selling their product in the market. Many of these products have overwhelmingly negative reviews coming from customers and critics who expose these companies for exploiting the naivete of their customers. These companies buy generic supplements from supplement manufacturers, and all they do is slap their label on the bottle, and sell it 10 to 20 times more than the manufacturing cost of the product. They release their product as a “new” supplement to trick consumers into buying their product, and then disappear after a few months of selling their re-branded supplement. In the testosterone-boosting supplement segment, many supplement brands have the exact same formulation, down to the microgram. This only suggests that the same generic formula has been rebranded multiple times, and the company producing these supplements are selling their generic products to different companies, only to be sold to the same customers. Make it a point to review and compare labels before making a supplement purchase. Supplement products containing similar formulas with another brand is a major red flag. What you’d want is a supplement that has a unique formula that gives you more value than other supplements. These may cost more, but at the end of the day, you’re still getting more than what you paid for.

Free Trial Offers

Online Supplement Cash Grabs You Should Always AvoidHave you ever been a victim of free trial offers? Supplement companies entice consumers into signing up for a free trial offer, and all they need to pay upfront is the cost of shipping. The customers would then get a full month’s supply of their product in the mail, but many of them are unaware that they have signed up for a monthly recurring charge that costs significantly more than the average supplement in that category. These companies use the card details you have submitted to pay for the shipping cost to charge you monthly for a subscription that you may not want in the first place. The problem with this scheme is that it’s technically legal to charge for a monthly recurring fee as long as it’s included in the fine print, but if you’re not careful with your transactions, you can easily miss the fine print in these transactions. trial offers have an expiry date, which is usually 14-21 days after submitting your order, and if you don’t cancel within that timeframe, your account will be charged for the full amount of the product. if you really want to try a supplement product, choose one with an ironclad money-back guarantee instead. You’d be paying for the supplement upfront, but at least you have a guarantee in place in case you’re unsatisfied with the product.  

Copycat products

Premium supplement brands have made it more difficult for counterfeiters to copy their pill and bottle designs by using security marks, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be copied. Counterfeiters moved on from creating counterfeit supplements to copying the entire label and creating new products of their own. Instead of copying the design of the bottle, counterfeiters now try to pawn off their knockoffs as a new and improved product carrying the same formula as the products that they are trying to copy. One example of a product that is often copied is Male UltraCore, the #1 male enhancement supplement. Back in 2019, counterfeiters tried to copy Male UltraCore by selling fake Male UltraCore pills on eBay, but since Male UltraCore is exclusively available on their online selling platforms only, it’s easy to spot the counterfeit Male Ultracore pills. They tried to copy Male UltraCore’s patented formula under a different brand, but this attempt was short-lived as they failed to trick new customers into buying their fake products.   The only way to avoid these scams is to remain vigilant and do your due diligence before buying supplement products. You don’t have to be a supplement expert to spot scams and fake products. All you need is a watchful eye, and a few minutes of your time to research, compare labels and read reviews. That’s all there is to it.  

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