Consumer Products and Reviews

Key takeaways

• Deceptive marketing exposed: YouTuber and self-proclaimed "scambaiter" "Ben Dover" investigates online ads falsely claiming to sell "handcrafted" leather bags by using buzzwords like "authentic" to imply quality.

• Fraud uncovered: Through reverse image searches and online sleuthing, Ben said he found that the women in the ads are AI-generated, customer reviews are fake, testimonials come from Fiverr actors, and the bags are mass-produced in China.

• Scambaiting caution: While the video is both informative and entertaining, viewers are warned that scambaiting should be left to experienced individuals to avoid personal risk when dealing with scammers.

Marketers learned long ago that consumers – especially certain segments of consumers – respond favorably to certain descriptive words. Words like “authentic” and “handcrafted.” These terms imply quality and value.

However, some unscrupulous marketers employ these buzzwords to sell consumers things that aren’t exactly high quality. A YouTube poster who uses the alias “Ben Dover” spends much of his time scrolling through the web looking for misleading and downright fraudulent pitches.

“Ben,” a self-described “scambaiter,” engages these marketers in a prolonged interaction until he can expose them. He recently posted the video below, describing how he saw numerous ads that had remarkable similarity.

‘When they’re gone, they’re gone’

The ads were all for “handcrafted leather bags,” made by a woman who was ending her decades-long career by liquidating her inventory at discount prices. Consumers were urged to buy quickly because “when they’re gone, they’re gone.”

Remarkably, “Ben” found other sites offering the same merchandise, but showing a different woman, with a different name, who made the bags. “Ben” used a software tool to discover the woman’s image was generated by AI.

“Wait, what, there’s no Grace,” Ben said in the video. “Who, then,  is making these high-quality, handcrafted leather bags?”

“Ben” went down that rabbit hole until he discovered the glowing reviews were fake and the video testimonials were by paid actors on Fiverr. Also, the products were anything but “handcrafted.” Spoiler alert: they were mass-produced in China.

Be sure to watch the video – it’s entertaining as well as informative. And one final note, it’s best to leave “scambaiting” to people like “Ben,” because it’s easy to make a mistake when engaging with a scammer.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued an urgent warning to consumers regarding the Crasts 5-in-1 High Power Multi-Functional Curler and Straightener hair dryer brushes.

These products pose a significant risk of electrocution and serious injury due to the absence of an integrated immersion protection device, which is a violation of federal safety regulations for hair dryers.

The hair dryer brushes, which have been available for purchase online through various e-commerce platforms, including us.shein.com, from July 2024 to October 2024, were sold at prices ranging from $6 to $455. 

The products are identifiable by the "Crasts" branding on the handle and packaging, and the model number MD-11 is printed on the packaging. The hair dryers feature a navy blue color with brass accents and are marketed for both family and salon use, offering functionalities for drying, straightening, and curling hair.

Despite being notified by the CPSC about the non-compliance with U.S. safety standards, the manufacturer, Guangzhou Crasts Hair Equipments Co. Ltd. of China, has not responded to requests for a product recall. As a result, the CPSC strongly advises consumers to immediately stop using these hair dryers. To ensure safety, users should unplug the devices, cut the cords, and dispose of them properly in the trash.

Consumers are also encouraged to report any incidents of injury or product defects related to these hair dryers on the CPSC's website at www.SaferProducts.gov. The product was manufactured in China and represents a serious hazard to users due to its design flaws.

The CPSC's proactive warning aims to prevent potential accidents and ensure consumer safety by eliminating the use of these hazardous products from households and salons.

A number of consumer products produced in other countries would likely cost more if President Trump imposed tariffs on the countries where they are produced. That could include some popular items sold by consumer products giant Procter & Gamble.

 P&G’s chief financial officer Andre Schulten held out potential price hikes during a conference call with reporters when commenting on the company’s latest quarterly earnings release.

"Whatever the administration decides to do, we will be able to deal with," Schulten told the reporters.

But Schulten said raising prices would be a last resort. It might be possible, he said, to cut costs, reducing any price increase. And if P&G does raise prices, Schulten said it would be done on an incremental basis.

Some of P&G’s products

Here are just a few of the consumer products produced by P&G:

• Tide detergent

• Gillette razors

• Head & Shoulders shampoo

• Dawn dish soap

• Pampers disposable diapers

• Crest toothpaste

• Charmin toilet paper

Some of these products are produced overseas and imported into the U.S. However, P&G has invested heavily in U.S. manufacturing since 2019. The company also reportedly has the flexibility to alter some product ingredients should tariffs drive up production costs.

Meanwhile, it isn’t clear whether tariffs will be increased or by how much. Trump has hinted that he might impose a 10% on Chinese imports within a few weeks. He has also threatened to slap 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, in an effort to persuade companies to return manufacturing to the U.S.

Who else but the consumer, the people who use the products and services, understands which companies are best?

In announcing its first-ever Buyer’s Choice Awards, ConsumerAffairs employed an advanced sentence-by-sentence analysis of high-integrity consumer reviews – posted at ConsumerAffairs – to uncover the brands that earned the highest rates of positive feelings from purchasers.

Each review analyzed for the 2024 Buyer’s Choice Awards was conducted by phone interview or detailed questionnaire in 2023. To calculate the winners, ConsumerAffairs then conducted “emotional decoding,” or sentiment analysis, of eligible reviews, using a customized Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool. Experienced auditors confirmed the accuracy of the sentiment analysis.  

 “We decoded millions of reviews to learn what aspects of each industry’s particular buying journey made the biggest emotional difference to purchasers,” said Zac Carman, CEO of ConsumerAffairs.

Of the five awards in the home warranty category, for example, three were pinpointed by review analysis as specific preoccupations of home warranty customers: Best Technicians, Best Coverage Options, and Best Claims Handling. 

“That’s what makes these awards unique,” Carman said. “Each award recognizes one super-important need for customers in that category and the companies that best fulfill it.” 

Each quarter in 2024, ConsumerAffairs will announce Buyer’s Choice Awards in new categories and use its website to flag the winning companies with a signature badge designed to guide consumers in need to trusted companies. The initial five categories with winners are:

Home Warranties

Industry pioneer American Home Shield was the only home warranty company to win all three of those Buyer’s Choice Awards plus the industry’s awards for Best Customer Service and Best Value for Price.  

Solar

In the Solar category, reviews of solar purchasing platform SunPower earned it the Buyer’s Choice Awards for Best Customer Service and Best Value for Price. But the company also was recognized for Best for Installation, which review contents revealed as the second most critical emotional difference-maker to solar customers.  

Debt Relief

In the Debt Relief category, Accredited Debt Relief, National Debt Relief and Freedom Debt Relief each won for Best Customer Service as well as Best Experience with Staff and Best for Transparency, two awards that speak to customers’ need for a high-touch, trustworthy relationship with their debt relief company.

Personal Loans

Among personal loan lenders, Best Egg, Net Credit, and Achieve Personal Loans each won for Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff, and Best Loan Process, an award triggered by how important that aspect is to personal loan shoppers.

Stairlifts

Among companies providing stairlifts, Bruno Independent Living Aids and Stannah Stairlifts, were singled out for Best Customer Service, Best for Installation, and Best Experience with Staff; and Arrow Lift, for Best for Installation and Best Experience with Staff.

You can check out the full results here.

Plant-based meat now has a new competitor at the supermarket. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved the sale of meat produced in a lab. 

Technically, it’s known as “cell-cultivated” meat, and two companies, UPSIDE Foods and Good Meat, will be the first to produce it for sale to consumers. The product is produced by using real chicken cells. According to UPSIDE Foods, its lab-grown chicken will be 99% chicken cells.

"I'm thrilled to share that cultivated meat will now be available for consumers in the U.S.," said Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and founder of UPSIDE Foods. "This approval will fundamentally change how meat makes it to our table.”

“It's a giant step forward towards a more sustainable future - one that preserves choice and life. We are excited to launch with our signature, whole-textured UPSIDE chicken and can't wait for consumers to taste the future."

It will appear first on restaurant menus

UPSIDE has processed the first order of its cultivated chicken, placed by Chef Dominique Crenn. The cultivated chicken will be on the menu in the U.S. in limited quantities through select restaurant partners, starting with Crenn's restaurant Bar Crenn in San Francisco.

The company said it will continue its work with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and USDA to bring its next consumer products to market, including sausages, nuggets, and dumplings.

Good Meat says cellular agriculture technology traditionally uses Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) as the growth medium to cultivate animal cells into the muscle, fat, and connective tissues that form meat. But the company says it has found efficient and economical methods to make its product without FBS.

Whether lab-grown chicken is a hit with consumers will likely come down to two factors – taste and cost. But some in the food and agriculture industries see the development as a pivotal point, changing the entire way food gets to the table.