Scam CBD Companies You Should Probably Stay Away From

CBD Scam #1: The “Free Trial” Scam

Get a free bottle of CBD! All you have to pay is the cost of shipping!

It sounds like a great deal… but this is almost always a scam.

A lot of people fall for this one because it seems like an honest attempt to gather some brand loyalty. Additionally, CBD is expensive. A bottle can cost anywhere from $30 to $300 depending on the size and potency of the oil. This can make it hard to resist a “free” bottle of oil just for getting started.

Some CBD companies offer samples for their products — however, these samples are never free. They’re essentially just a smaller bottle of the company’s regular CBD oils that you can purchase at a lower price — but you’re still paying for the oils. 

There’s a key difference between a “free sample” and paid CBD samples from reputable CBD brands.

Virtually all the companies offering this “free trial for small shipping fee” deal are complete scams and should be avoided at all costs.

Here’s How the Scam Works

When you sign up, you enter your name, shipping address, and everything else as you normally would. The CBD oil is discounted to $0, and a small shipping fee (between $1 and $10) needs to be paid via credit or debit card.

If you check the fine print, the terms and conditions include a section where you agree to pay $70 – $90 per month via credit or debit card if you don’t cancel your subscription within a couple of days (the trial period).

As you may have guessed, canceling your trial is not an easy task — these scams are designed to keep you subscribed (and paying) for as long as possible.  

Many victims caught in this scam say they signed up for the free trial, but couldn’t get through to the company to cancel the subscription.

There’s nowhere on the website, or email thread to get out of the contract, and they received no response from the company after multiple attempts.

Adding insult to injury, the CBD oil you receive in the mail is almost always shockingly poor quality stuff.

You’ll get 100 mg of CBD in a 30 mL bottle, or something made from hemp seed without any active CBD at all. You can expect these oils to be made from very low-quality hemp, which may be full of chemical additives and contaminants.

These products are definitely not worth the $90+ you end up paying.

What To Do if You Fall For This Scam

First of all, relax — people fall for this scam all the time. These companies have gotten very good at building trust.

You’re not alone, and there are ways to fix the problem.

If you’ve fallen for a scam like this and had your credit card details charged from the company a month or two after the “free trial”, you’ll need to first try and get in contact with the company.

Try to call the company a few times, send emails, or whatever other contact information you can find.

Be firm with them and tell them if you don’t receive a refund immediately to your credit card, you’ll be filing for “fraud chargeback” through your credit card company and contacting your state or country’s attorney general for further action.

If the money isn’t refunded, follow through with the threats above.

You can file for a “fraud chargeback” by calling your credit card provider. It may take some time, but if the company is indeed a scam, you should receive your money back in a few weeks or months.

Additionally, it’s recommended that you cancel your credit card once the dust settles, or as soon as you receive a refund from the scam company. You can then order a new credit card with a new number.

Some Examples of Brands Using This Scam

• Assure CBD
• CBD XRP
• Divine CBD
• Isolate Direct CBD
• Miracle CBD
• Optimal Choice CBD
• Organix CBD
• Pure CBD
• Pure Med CBD
• Serene CBD
• Serenity CBD
• Sky CBD
• Star CBD
• True CBD
• Zen Labs CBD

You may also find variations of each of these companies. Sometimes when a company gets caught with a scam like this, they just change the name slightly.

CBD Scam #2: Copycat Brands [Fake CBD Companies]

This is the most blatant model for a CBD scam.

A copycat scam will take the name and branding of an established CBD company to confuse people into buying products from their website instead. They usually go for people who accidentally misspell the brand name after hearing it from a friend or other verbal source.

Most of the brands using this model are completely fake and will simply make charges to your credit card each month until you cancel it.

Other companies will ship CBD oil as promised — but it’s usually very low-quality or contain inactive hemp seed oil instead.

How This Scam Works

Copycat scams leverage the trust built by what we can call a “host” brand. So in order for the scam to fool people, the name has to resemble the host brand’s name.

Customers will search for the host brand’s name and mistakenly land on the scam company website. Usually, the URL for the scam brand will be very similar.

For example, we’ve found scams hijacking the popularity of Royal CBD that use names like “Royall CBD”, “Royale CBD”, or “Royal Blend CBD”.

Many high-level CBD brands have copycats operating this way.

When you first land on these pages, everything feels legit. You can add products to your cart (usually), and go through the checkout process.

A week later, when your CBD oil never arrives you’ll start to realize you’ve been ripped off. You can try and reach out to the company that sold you the oil, but you won’t get through. We tried to get ahold of a representative for several of the scams listed below and had a 0% success rate in getting in contact with anybody.

Most of these companies use an automated message program that takes you in endless loops, each time returning to the main menu after selecting an option.

How to Spot a Fake CBD Company

It’s not always easy to spot fake CBD brands — especially those that make an effort to look like some of the more well-established CBD companies (copycats).

The best thing to do is enter the company name into Google, and check the top three results for the official company.

If the brand doesn’t appear at all, or the index is dominated by low-quality review websites instead of the actual company — it’s probably a fake CBD brand. Here are some of the other ways to tell the difference between a legit CBD company from a fake CBD company.

1. Check the URL (Website Address)

A lot of fake CBD companies will try and mimic other brands. They’ll use a variation of the target company’s name to confuse people into mistaking them for the real brand.

You’ll find extra letters, dashes, or separate root domains from the industry-standard .com (.de, .net, .in or others). If you’re looking for a specific company, search the name in Google and double-check the top three listings.

Examples:

• royallcbd.com — instead of royalcbd.com (extra “L” after royal)
• purecanna.com — instead of purekana.com (slightly different spelling)

2. Does the Checkout Page Look Fishy?

Have you ever noticed that most checkout pages look and feel the same online?

This is by design.

Processing credit card information requires a lot of high-tech security to prevent people from being able to intercept and stealing your sensitive information. As a result, many e-commerce companies use the same companies to manage the checkout process.

These companies have clever measures to prevent scammers from being able to use their service and will ban any companies found to be operating scammy or unethical activities.

To get around this, scammers need to use obscure overseas credit card companies in order to charge your credit card. The checkout process involved with these processors usually feels unfamiliar compared to what you’re used to.

One of the easiest ways to spot this is to look at the URL when it’s time to pay for your order. If the URL changes to something completely different — you’re likely dealing with a scam and should avoid entering your credit card details. Legit companies won’t use a separate website address for their payment gateway.

One of the most common scam checkout page URLs is tamiasherbtincture.com. This scam has a large network of sites that redirect customers to this page at the time of checkout. You’ll find this website mentioned a lot on our list of scam companies below.

Additionally, if the company you’re trying to buy from ONLY accepts Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, or asks you to send a cheque in the mail this should trigger some red flags. There’s probably a reason the company can’t accept credit cards.

3. Does the Website Feel Legit?

Reputable CBD companies didn’t get to where they are by being lazy. Most CBD companies spend a fortune keeping their websites in mint condition. This means high-resolution photos, sales writing without typos or grammatical errors, and a clean user interface.

A lot of the scam companies we’ve investigated are using shockingly low-quality websites to shill their fake CBD oil. These websites are full of misspelled text, pixelated photos, and an interface that’s poorly designed and hard to navigate across the site.

4. Check for a Listing on the Better Business Bureau

BBB.org provides a database of complaints and reports against different companies. If people have been ripped off, they can submit a ticket to the BBB.

A lot of the CBD brands on our updated list of CBD scam companies show up in these reports as having ripped somebody off.

To find this information, enter the following string into a Google search — site:bbb.org [brand name]

For a list of fake CBD companies, keep reading — we have a whole section below with over 50 known fake CBD companies.

CBD Scam #3: Unrealistic Claims (Too Good to Be True)

Some CBD companies operate scams by selling oils online using nefarious or false claims for the quality, potency, or benefits of their products. 

While some may dispute whether this is a true scam or not — we consider this a scam because it uses dishonest methods to sell a product.

The most common form of this marketing tactic is to use unrealistic health claims for its products, or claims that the product is organic has 100% availability, or uses some special undisclosed process for extraction that’s somehow better than what everybody else is doing.

Any claims that sound unrealistic, or too good to be true probably are.

You should never trust a company that says its product has 100% absorption or has the ability to cure diseases like cancer or diabetes. This simply isn’t true.

In fact, these claims are actually illegal in most countries.

A common trend we’re seeing is that a few scammy CBD companies are using misleading marketing terms to make it seem its products contain more CBD than they actually do. The below example comes from Diamond CBD.

The problem is that the CBD industry is very new, so regulators are struggling to keep up with all the new problems in the industry. By the time the FDA or other regulators catches on, the company has already earned millions and cashed out — never to be seen again.

Red-Flag Marketing Terms to Avoid

There are a few terms you should steer far, far away from unless the company has the means to back them up.

1. “Our CBD Oil has a 100% Absorption Rate” — This is simply not possible, no CBD product has 100% absorption (yes, including those nano CBD oils).
2. “Made From Organic Hemp” — Although there are some companies selling organic hemp, most are lying. If a company is truly organic, they will have the certificates from USDA or other officials to prove it.
3. “CBD Can Cure Cancer, Diabetes, and Heart Disease” — CBD cannot cure any of these conditions. It’s merely supportive when combined with other lifestyle changes and medications. It’s illegal to suggest otherwise.
4. “Our CBD is 100% Natural” — Natural is not a regulated word. You can literally add this to anything. Many of the products using this language are not what you might consider “natural” — some even use harmful synthetic ingredients.
5. “The Purest CBD In the World” — What does this even mean? Pure CBD is very common (see CBD isolates). Stating that the companies CBD is somehow purer than everybody else’s is a lie.
6. “No Side Effects” — Nothing has no side-effects, including CBD. Any company promising a complete lack of any risk or any side effects is false and misleading (read: what are the side effects of CBD?)

CBD Scam #4: Multilevel Marketing Schemes (Ponzi Schemes)

Multi-level marketing (MLM) — also known as network marketing — has been around for a long time. No matter what an MLM associate may try to tell you, most of them are total scams.

MLM companies exist in all industries, including CBD.

How This Scam Works

Brand ambassadors for an MLM company will try to sell oils to their social networks and attempt to get new ambassadors to sell CBD products under them. Although some may be legitimate businesses, most are considered pyramid schemes.

Here’s how it works.

Scam MLM companies grow by acquiring new ambassadors that are forced to buy expensive stock for themselves (with the idea that they will sell it to others in their social network later).

Others force new ambassadors to take expensive training programs and product knowledge courses to be certified to sell their products.

These companies aim to make their money from brand ambassadors signing up and buying stock or starter kits — rather than from real customers.

People sign up to work for these companies because of the many case studies the company provides about people who reached financial freedom by selling oils through their personal networks.

However, this is rarely the reality.

Most people who sign up to work for an MLM company end up losing money — sometimes many thousands of dollars, while the people at the very top of the pyramid make a killing.

(Image Credit: mlm-scam.info)

The products these companies are selling usually aren’t very good, and it can be extremely difficult to get customers to buy the products a second time.

These companies rarely do any market research and spend most of their time convincing ambassadors to spend their own money building up a stock of products. They rarely offer any product buyback plans either should you decide to leave the company later on.

These companies are also notorious for their poor internal communication, high-pressure towards new ambassadors to buy product stock and/or pay for training packages.

Learn more about MLM companies via the r/antimlm subreddit.

How to Spot an MLM CBD Company

You can usually spot an MLM when someone from your personal network PMs you to either buy CBD oils directly or offers you a “chance to start selling CBD oils yourself and become rich”. They will often reach out to you via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media platforms.

Classic MLM marketing approaches will begin by asking you for “help to start their business”, or by sending you some ridiculous health claims about all the alleged health conditions CBD oil can “cure”.

They’ll usually try to take you for coffee or a meal so they can sell you the amazing qualities of CBD oil in person.

Some key qualities of MLM companies include:

1. They often sell poor-quality products
2. They usually offer unrealistic health claims for their products
3. They will try to get you to sign up as a brand ambassador for the company

What to Do if You Get Caught in an MLM Scheme

Much like the other scams above, the first thing you need to remember is to try not to be too hard on yourself. The vast majority of people who join MLM companies will lose money. This is how the scheme works.

Although you can leave at any time, most MLM victims say leaving was difficult because of the pressure from management above. They will try to use the same tactics to keep you with the company that brought you in to begin with — usually promising huge returns if you just keep pushing a little more.

The best way to leave is to do it secretly. Start winding down your business, trying to sell the stock you have, but DON’T buy any more. Avoid emails or contact from the company until you’re 100% ready to quit.

Expect them to try and keep you around. They may say things like “if you’re dedicated and take this seriously enough you can’t fail” — don’t fall for this language again.

Most people lose money in MLM schemes — remember this.

Once you’re ready, cut all ties with the company:

1. Block contact numbers
2. Shut down Facebook groups
3. Unfriend or bock MLM member friends
4. Leave Slack chats or other company chat groups
5. Cancel credit cards the company has on file (to avoid scammy cancellation fees or group fees)
6. Never — I repeat — never buy from the company again

Once you’ve left the company, you may want to reach out to old friends that may be avoiding you for having been advertised to so many times in the past by you when you were just getting started as a brand ambassador. You may have cut people off or blocked them for being “unsupportive” of your new business venture.

Whatever the case, it’s often worth reaching out to members in your circle to reconnect — everybody makes mistakes, it’s healthy to own them and make amends when necessary.

Scam #5: CBD Shark Tank Scam

This scam is similar to the fake CBD company scam, but has grown so large we thought it deserved a section on its own.

Shark Tanks is a famous television show in which entrepreneurs would pitch their company to a group of celebrity investors to earn funding for their companies. The whole event is televised as the contestants barter with the sharks (investors) about the value of the company.

Many of the products and companies to enter Shark Tanks have become very large, household brands — such as Scrub Daddy, Tipsy Elves, and Lollacup.

There are other versions of this show such as Dragon’s Den (Canadian and UK version), or The Tigers of Money (Japanese version).

Before I even start with this one, let’s be clear — a CBD oil company has NEVER been featured on a single episode of Shark Tank, Dragon’s Den, or The Tigers of Money.

How This Scam Works

Aside from using the popular television series as a way to suggest “reputability” for these companies — the basis remains the same as any free trial or fake CBD company scam.

Some of these scams use names similar to existing CBD brands to confuse potential buyers into thinking they’re buying from a well-known company, others are blatantly fake.

CBD scams are now using Shark Tank as a way to make their brand seem like some sort of “up and coming” CBD brand that’s set to be huge in the next couple of years.

You’ll find claims like “the most-watched episode of Shark Tank”, or “as seen on Shark Tank”.

It’s also common to see edited screenshots of various Shark Tank pitches with the products edited out and replaced with CBD oils. Some of the pitches that have gone on Shark Tank could be mistaken for a CBD company without any context — such as the image above where a man was selling essential oils (the screen on the television was edited to display CBD-related content).

Other episodes have featured hemp-based products like soaps or hand creams that are NOT in any way related to CBD.

The Bottom Line:

CBD has never been featured on a single episode of Shark Tank. If you see a company claiming their products to be from the show, or use any imagery from the show — stay far away — it’s most likely the brand you’re looking at is a scam.

List of Identified CBD Scam & MLM Companies

Allure CBD

Scam: MLM Scheme

Allur is one of the many sub-brands for ByDzyne. 

ByDzyne sells everything from FitBit lookalikes to CBD oils (the Allure brand) using the multilevel marketing approach. It’s one of the more legit MLMs on the market but still falls under the same scrutiny of any MLM-structured company.

These products are lower quality we expect from a CBD brand and disagree with the health claims this company is making for its products. We’d also like to remind people who may be interested in joining Allure as an ambassador that the vast majority of people who join these scams don’t make any money.

Assure CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Brand

Assure CBD is a clear scam. The company’s homepage is riddled with typos, misleading and false health claims, and aggressive sales pitches. 

When you go through the checkout process you’ll find the checkout doesn’t use a secure gateway and sends your credit card information through a separate domain — tamiasherbtincture.com. This is the first of many scams that make up the larger “tamias herb tincture” scam network. There are several other brands on this list that redirect people to the domain tamiasherbtincture.com to collect and steal credit card information.

There are other versions of this site that only accepts cheques as the form of payment. Never pay for your CBD oil by money order or cheque.

Bionic Bliss CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Brand

Bionic Bliss CBD is the second on our list that’s using the “tamias herb tincture scam network”. The template and structure of this site are virtually identical to several of the other scams on this list.

Avoid this company, it’s an obvious scam. 

Bioreigns

Scam: MLM Scheme

Bioreins is a classic multilevel marketing company. You can find the payout structure live on the company website which pays commissions based on your standing in the company and the number of sub reps you enroll. 

Boconnaco

Scam: MLM Scheme

The self-proclaimed “World’s Best CBD Oil” has been nothing but a disappointment to the unlucky people who fell for this MLM scheme. 

In order to even start referring these products, you’re charged $99 — this is a hallmark of an MLM scheme. Remember, the profits these companies make relies a lot more on the ambassadors than selling to actual customers.  

Nearly 95% of people fail when starting out with an MLM while earning the executives at the top a ton of money — Bocannaco is unlikely to be any different. 

Brizo Pure

Scam: MLM Scheme

Brizo Pure is one of the more low-key MLM companies in the CBD space. 

These oils are marketed for their nano-technology (higher water-solubility) but lack any of the other standard information we need to see from reputable brands. There’s no lab testing, and no total CBD content listed on the bottle. 

This company doesn’t appear to be an obvious scam, but the questionable products they’re selling, and the approach to marketing make them suspect for more nefarious business activities — we recommend you avoid this brand.

Cachet

Scam: Fake CBD Company

This is another member of the prolific “tamias herb tincture” umbrella scam. This company has several different websites with similar names, all leading to the same checkout page. 

This is both a free trial scam and a simple fake CBD company. If you sign up for the free sample, you’ll pay for shipping, and get charged for the oil indefinitely until you either cancel your credit card or let it expire. If you just pay for a bottle of oil, you’ll be charged but never receive your order.

Cannablend CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

This is another “tamias herb tincture” scam with the same “free trial” claims, and fake CBD product order page as the other members of this scam. 

Like many others in this scam group, there are multiple different versions of the site, with slightly different URLs (cannablendcbd.com .org, and .net).

Having multiple sites for this scam is important because as soon as search engines like Google or Bing discover the scammy nature of the company, they remove the brand from search rankings. If the scam has separate websites they can sidestep Google’s efforts for longer periods of time and scam more customers.

Canna Organics

Scam: Free-Trial Scam

Canna Organics is targeting people with medical conditions such as chronic pain, hypertension, insomnia, and anxiety to get them to sign up for their “free trial”. Compared to many of the other scam companies on our list, this page is a lot more involved and the content itself isn’t quite as obvious that it’s fake compared to the common “Tamias Herb Tincture” templates.

The site is one of several in a series of sites using the same template, but different CBD oil company names — we’ll call these the RMT Group for their shared use of the words “Rush My Trial” as their call to action.

The site features a lot of language like “clinically validated”, “doctor approved”, and “#1 doctor recommended”. The site also claims these oils have been featured on NBC, The Discovery Channel, Time, and more — which, of course, it has not.

This company is in fact a fake CBD brand using the free trial scam to collect payments from your credit card.

CBD Hive

Scam: MLM Scheme

This company isn’t necessarily fake — but they’ve proven to do a shockingly terrible job with their customer service. 

There are some reports of people getting their oils in the mail — several weeks past the promised shipping date. Others have reported the company for fraud to the Better Business Bureau after never receiving their order. 

There has been very little activity on the company’s Facebook page since late 2019 and the website appears to no longer accept credit cards — it seems this MLM has been forced to close their doors.

CBD XRP

Scam: Fake CBD Company

CBD XRP is another member of the “tamias herb tincture scam”, this website is full of misleading claims (such as no-side effects), and grammatical and spelling errors. 

This scam is part of a large network of scams that use the same tactics to funnel people to the checkout page, which can change over time as the domain gets flagged. Currently, this scam will take you to tamiasherbtincture.com. Once you enter your credit card you’ll be charged repeatedly for every month until you cancel your card. 

This redirect could change to another checkout page in the future but the concept is the same.

Avoid this brand like the plague.

CBDX4

Scam: MLM Scheme

CBDX4 was a CBD oil Ponzi scheme that was shut down by regulators in late 2019. 

Country Naturals

Scam: MLM Scheme

Country Naturals is an MLM company selling a variety of CBD-infused products. While not all MLM companies are a scam, we’re skeptical about any business using this model — especially when the company can’t meet any of the minimum requirements for transparency on the products they’re selling.

CTFO

Scam: MLM Scheme

CTFO stands for Changing the Future Outcome. They’re an MLM brand with a few red flags to watch out for. 

This company has an aggressive quota for brand ambassadors to meet, and sell overpriced CBD products. There are a lot of accounts of past ambassadors for this brand posting their story online. In order to maintain these quotas, ambassadors are pressured to buy extra stock, which can cost hundreds of dollars each month. 

Looking at the Google Trend data for this brand, it seems the company is heading towards failure. As with most MLMs, the company builds the empire off new signups. As soon as the new signups start to decline, anybody new to join the company is going to fail. 

Stay far away from this MLM.

Divine CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

We’ve covered “tamias herb tincture” scams several times already. You can tack this company onto the long list of sub-brands connected to the same umbrella scam company. 

What makes this one different is that it aggressively targets free-trial users — which is one of the main scam types we’ve mentioned earlier in this article.

Dose of Nature

Scam: Misleading Health Claims

Dose of Nature appears to have finally been shut down in the US. This company has been reported to the better Business Bureau several times for making misleading health claims about its products. It seems this action has lead credit card processors in the United States to ban the company from processing payments.

DR Green Leaves CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

This company is another sub-brand of the “tamias herb tincture” CBD scam. Never order from any CBD websites that redirect you to tamiasherbtincture.com.

This advice goes for any CBD company that redirects you away from the site to make your payment.

Dragons Den CBD

How to Buy CBD Products in Greece in 2020 (Legally) Fake CBD Company

Dragons Den is the Canadian equivalent of the American TV show “Shark Tank” — where entrepreneurs pitch ideas to celebrity investors. 

Dragons Den CBD appears to be leveraging itself off the popularity of the show by creating several different landing pages under different domains. Some of these landing pages imply the oil was pitched on the Dragons Den — which is completely false. 

All of these domains lead to the same scam checkout page at https://thepure-cbdoil.com.

EMRIS

Scam: MLM Scheme

EMRIS is a clear MLM company, but compared to many of the other companies on this list, it at least offers clear doses of CBD and provides third-party testing on the hemp extract it’s using.

The ambassador payout structure is a stereotypical MLM structure. There’s a lot of insinuation that by signing up to the company you can become independently wealthy. Meanwhile, the payout structure is exceptionally complicated — with plenty of different factors that go into determining how much you’ll make for referring new customers.  

First Fitness Nutrition

Scam: MLM Scheme

First Fitness Nutrition is a milder strain of MLM. You can order products from the website directly, though the cost of CBD products from this company is very high. 

The real business comes from acquiring new ambassadors for the brand — which promises financial freedom for all who join. In order to get started, you need to pay a startup fee and pay for your stock upfront.

This company even offers to buy their ambassadors a new Mercedes Benz, and 5-star dream vacations — but when you read the fine print this isn’t the case at all. You would need to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars in CBD products to even come close to reaching these incentives.  

As with any MLM, most people who join this brand will not be successful and may even end up wasting hundreds or even thousands of dollars on products that are too expensive to sell. 

Gemini — DynaMAXX International

Scam: MLM Scheme | Fake CBD Products

Gemini is an LLC network marketing company under the DynaMAXX umbrella. 

This product is a classic low-quality CBD brand. The oil offered inside is not hemp-derived CBD oil — it’s hemp seed oil. This product is way cheaper than a true CBD oil, yet the company prices each bottle as though it was a real CBD oil. 

The branding for this product is vague, lacks any clear evidence of testing, and mainly pushes people to join the ambassador program — rather than buy their oils as a customer. This is clear evidence the company is using the signup of new ambassadors as their main source of revenue (making it a total scam). 

There is no CBD in these oils — do not spend any money on Gemini products.

Green Compass

Scam: MLM Scheme

Green Compass is an MLM company that appears to be ramping up. Google Trends data shows search queries for the company name have been on an upward tick since December 2018.

All MLM companies will eventually crash and burn. People who got in before the bubble bursts are substantially more likely to make any money than those who join in the years following. 

Green Compass’ revenue comes from new ambassadors buying their $300 startup kit, and a $10 monthly “Advocate technology fee”. 

There are also training fees involved with the business, and you’ll need to pay for your own stock. 

This company fits the bill for an MLM structure that earns the majority of its money from ambassadors who ultimately fail and drop out — compared to selling CBD oils to customers that actually need them. 

Green HoriZen

Scam: MLM Scheme

Green HoriZen is an MLM company that also offers a simple storefront. From Google Trend data this company is on the way out and there’s virtually no traffic on the companies website anymore. 

Just getting started with the ambassador program will cost you $130 — which is basically just a bundle of their products with a cheap bracelet. 

Hale-Life

Scam: MLM Scheme

Hale is an example of a failed MLM company. They started in 2017 and had only a brief spike in traffic in October 2018. Since then the company has had almost no mentions and the branded social media accounts have gone dark. 

HBNaturals

Scam: MLM Scheme

“Radiant health, normalized body weight, and abundant joy are just a few of the amazing side effects experienced by members”. 

This is the call to action on the company website. 

If this doesn’t scream scam after reading this article, I don’t know what will. 

This is an MLM company using the same cliché hype and marketing most MLMs use to attract new ambassadors. They’re promised financial freedom, a chance to own their own business, and use an overly complex payout structure to earn commissions.

Hemplavate

Scam: Fake CBD Product

Hemplevate appears to be a real company, but its CBD oils are fake. 

The language on the website implies this product contains full-spectrum hemp oil — with CBD and other cannabinoids. However, digging deeper it becomes clear this product doesn’t contain any CBD whatsoever. You’re essentially paying $130 for a glorified cooking oil.

Hempworx

We’ve done reviews on Hempworx already and have been very disappointed in this company’s product lineup. 

The cost of Hempworx products is higher than average and the quality of each product is in the lower echelon compared to hundreds of other CBD brands we’ve tested. 

This is pretty standard for an MLM company since the goal isn’t to sell to customers — it’s to sell these products to the brand ambassadors instead. 

Just to get started you’ll have to pay anywhere from $40 to $600 for a starter kit, along with additional costs for the membership and training videos to help you move more products.

Hempworx appears to have lost momentum, which is all too common for MLM companies. We just hope too many people weren’t left high and dry by this marketing scam.

Hie Core CBD

Scam: Free-Trial Scam

Hie Core was a free trial scam — offering customers a free bottle of CBD if they paid for the shipping. Nobody who ordered from this brand ever received their oil, and the company would continue to charge their card until it was canceled.

This scam appears to have been shut down, but not until after they were able to swindle money from dozens of customers. 

Illuminent

Scam: MLM Scheme

This MLM brand follows the same template most other MLM companies are using — flowery language promising potential partners financial freedom by selling its products. To get started you have to buy an intro package which can range from $65 to $300 which is renewed every year. 

You’ll also have to pay $25 per year for administration fees to be a part of the company. 

Like most MLMs, the price of the company’s products are much higher than average. It’s going to be very difficult for you to push these products to your network after you signup — the vast majority of signups will fail. 

In order to be successful in an MLM, you have to join while the company is growing. This is because the profits rely on new ambassadors spending money on join kits. Google Trend data suggests this company is already tapering off.

Innov8tive Nutrition

Ever wonder how many times you can cleverly disguise the number 8 into sales copy? 

For a gr8 example, check out the inov8tion happening over at Innov8tive Nutrition!

Jokes aside, this is a clear MLM company — ticking all the boxes for a scammy CBD brand: 

• Spammy sales copy with misleading claims
• Complicated payout structure for ambassadors
• High-cost CBD products
• Yearly signup fee for ambassadors ($60)
• Vague language around the details of these products

This is one of the only MLMs we’ve seen that also shills its own merch and “promoter tools” like business cards, binders, and flash drives.

Isolate Direct CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

Isolate Direct CBD is part of the same umbrella scam company as many others on this list. It’s one of the “tamias herb tincture” scams, but instead of redirecting to tamiasherbtincture.com, it goes to an identical credit card capture page at magicleafsunlight.com/. 

When you place your order, you will not be receiving CBD oil. Instead, the company will charge your credit card each month for the same amount until you cancel the card.

Kanavance

Scam: Free Trial Scam

Kanavance is your standard free trial scam. This website is targeting customers in the UK by offering a free bottle of CBD oil for just £4.95 in shipping fees. 

The oil itself offers virtually no information regarding what it’s made from, how much CBD is included, or where the hemp came from. This is because there is no CBD oil. 

If you order from this company you will be unable to cancel your subscription in the 14-day window and will be charged £89.00 every month until you cancel your credit card manually.

Kannaway

Scam: MLM Scheme

Kannaway is one of the larger MLM companies in the CBD space. They’re currently getting about 32,000 visitors each month from organic search engine traffic. And this number is growing. 

Kannaway sells CBD oils, topicals, and some more obscure products like endocannabinoid system genetic testing (we’re very skeptical about these test kits). 

The company also uses the ProVerde lab for third-party testing — which is probably the least trustworthy lab in the US. Most of the MLM or scam companies we’ve reviewed here also list ProVerde lab results. 

In order to join this MLM, it will cost you $54.98 per year, and you’ll be strictly moderated on how much product you need to sell depending on your rank within the company. 

The Kannaway website is clean and concise, but the reviews for its products tell another story — it’s not hard to find entire threads of comments of people bashing the quality of these products and their DNA test kits.

Livlabs

Scam: MLM Scheme

Livlabs is an MLM company with some very expensive starter packs for new ambassadors. 

The Elite partner pack goes for $953 (alleged sales price). The VIP pack is listed at $431 on sale, and the starter pack is $226 on sale. 

Even the membership for this brand is scammy — you pay $1 but the renewal rate each year is $19.95. 

Probably the worst thing about this whole company is how painfully slow the website is. I probably wasted 20 minutes just trying to get through to see the companies payout structure — which is just as complex and convoluted as you’d expect from an MLM scheme.  

Mountain Peak CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

Mountain Peak CBD is an obvious fake CBD brand. When you’ve investigated as many fake CBD companies as we have, they start to jump off the page before you even begin to dig.

We believe this scam is just one of the several dozen brands we’ve explored so far under the same company responsible for the “tamias herb tincture” scam. 

This website will redirect you to an identical landing page at magicleafpeace.com. 

Never order any products from this brand. It’s a complete scam and your credit card details will be stolen. 

If you’ve already fallen victim, follow the advice listed under the “fake CBD company” scams listed above. 

Natures Ultra (Young Living)

Scam: MLM Scheme

Young Living is an MLM brand selling herbal essential oils. The company recently added CBD products to their lineup which combines essential oils like citrus and cinnamon with either 500 or 1000 mg of CBD. 

Like most MLMs, the products sold by Nature’s Ultra are overpriced, with discounts offered as part of their “wholesale” pricing. In order to become a member and get the wholesale prices, you need to drop at least $165 on a starter bundle, plus training materials and a yearly fee. 

You’ll also need to set up a monthly reorder plan that will basically just charge your card to resend products you think you’re going to sell. The company places a minimum amount of products you need to reorder each month regardless of how much of it you actually sell. 

NewYou

Scam: MLM Scheme

NewYou is the self-proclaimed “top CBD startup of 2019” and the creator of the first water-soluble full-spectrum CBD extracts on the market — neither of which is true. 

NewYou has yet to get over 1000 visitors to its website which is a far cry from a successful CBD startup. 

All you’ll find on the company website are inflated claims and empty promises for massive profitability by joining its ambassador program. 

Staying true to the MLM trend, this company charges potential ambassadors anywhere from $500 to $1000 just to sign up. The prices of the companies products are far higher than average, so it’s not likely their ambassadors are going to be able to move much product and make any money. 

Avoid NewYou as both a business opportunity and source of CBD oil — both are just going to disappoint. 

Nexcel

Scam: MLM Scheme

Nexcel is an MLM that never seemed to gain any traction. The company is a few years old now and seems to have peaked at the start of 2020 with just 200 visitors each month organically. 

It costs $15 per year to be part of the Nexcel ambassador program, plus the cost of stock. 

The products sold by this company are sketchy — costing roughly 30% of what competitors advertise. We’re very skeptical about the quality of these products as there are no available lab tests to prove they even contain CBD.

Nutralite

Scam: Fake CBD Company

Nutralite is another member of the ever-growing list of “tamias herb tincture” scams. This is not a real CBD company. When you head to the checkout page you’ll be redirected to magicleafstarlight.com — which serves as a credit card capture page. 

You will never receive your order and will be charged every month for a new bottle of CBD until you cancel.

Nuyugen

Scam: MLM Scheme

Nuyugen is a new MLM company operating in the CBD space. It combines several herbal extracts with CBD. While we like seeing formulas that combine other herbs and nutrients to support the effects of CBD — we’re skeptical about these products. 

First of all, there’s no CBD content listed anywhere on the site. Second, the added ingredients are mentioned, but we have no idea how much of each is included. It’s possible only tiny amounts are added to the formula just so they can claim it’s in the bottle. 

And claim they do — Nuyugen implies this product has been studied in clinical trials over 3000 times — which is absurd. They also imply the company has spent millions of dollars in research and development. This is insane if you compare this with utter lack of detail or information the company offers on what this product is made of and what’s inside the bottle. 

This brand is not well-known — getting under 300 visitors to their website through search engines each month.

Optimal Choice CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

Yet again, we’ve found another one of the “tamias herb tincture” scam websites. 

This one will redirect you to magicleafhemp.com when you hit the checkout button. 

Notice how the CBD oil on the checkout page doesn’t even match the oils pictured on the Optimal Choice CBD website?

Organix CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company | Copycat

Organix is a member of the “tamias herb tincture” scam network that appears to be leveraging the popularity of the Canadian CBD brand “Pure Organix”.

The Organix website displays all the hallmark signs of a CBD scam company — including redirection to a separate checkout page where scammers can steal your credit card information.

Peace CBD

Scam: Free Trial Scam

Peace CBD is part of the RMT Group scam — which also includes Canna Organics and Prime Green CBD.

The website for this brand is intended to trick viewers into thinking it’s reputable by listing images and logos of well-known brands like Time, NBC, The Discovery Channel, High Times, and National Geographic. None of these entities have every endorsed, or even mentioned Peach CBD or any of the other “brands” in this group.

The scam works by offering the first bottle of CBD oil for $5.95. Only a few people who have reported this brand ever received any products, and those that did report the potency to be completely flat. There is little to no actual CBD inside the bottle.

Additionally, as soon as you sign up, you’re added to a subscription that will charge $99.98 every month for another new bottle of oil. The fine print says you can cancel anytime and lists a number to call. We called this number to see if we can get a hold of a real human — needless to say, we couldn’t. The automated response system will take you on endless loops through different menu settings without ever getting to a point that allows you to cancel the subscription.

Prime Green CBD

Scam: Free Trial Scam

Prime Green CBD is another member of the RMT Group — a collection of identical scam websites using the same web template. Other members include Peace CBD and Canna Organics.

Never order from this company — you’ll either receive no oils at all, or an exceptionally low-grade, ineffective bottle of CBD oil (if you’re lucky). You’ll also be charged $99.99 perpetually until you cancel your credit card.

Prime Naturals CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

This is another example of the “tamias herb tincture” scams we’ve talked about in well over a dozen other examples on our list. 

Never enter your credit card information on this website.

PrimeMyBody

Scam: MLM Scheme

“Based on truly life-changing, incredible products” — says founder and CEO Paul Rogers. 

Staying true to the MLM style, the ambassador onboarding video makes some remarkable claims about the success of the brand — making it seem like the brand is already exceptionally successful. 

The truth is that this company is one of the smaller MLM brands we’ve reviewed — and they’re already on the way out. Check out the Google Trends data for the brand name.

The compensation plan for this brand is exceptionally complex — which is a common tactic for MLM brands. It’s designed to confuse their ambassadors while maintaining the hope that they can actually achieve the higher ranks in the company where much higher profits are promised. These profits are almost never achieved.

Pro Naturals CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

Pro Naturals is another one of the many “tamias herb tincture” scams we’ve covered in this article. 

Instead of using the standard tamiasherbtincture.com checkout page, Pro Naturals CBD sends users to magicleafpurity.com — which is identical to the original scam credit card capture page.

Pure Canna

Scam: Fake CBD Company | Copycat

Pure Canna is a copycat brand designed to confuse customers looking for Pure Kana or Pure Canna Organics — both of which are prominent CBD brands. This brand mostly captures people who hear about these brands from a friend, podcast, or another verbal source and misspell the brand name in their search bar.

Pure Canna is a confirmed scam company. If you enter your credit card details into this website it will be charged one or more times. You will need to cancel your card.

Pure Completed CBD

Scam: Free Trial Scam

This CBD brand is using fake celebrity endorsements to make the company seem reputable. In one example we found, the brand has built a website that looks just like People Magazine, which describes the company as being Willie Nelson’s new line of CBD.

This is a common method scam companies are using to get people to believe the company is reputable. However, with just a little bit of skepticism, it’s easy to tell this company is a complete fake.

There are several red flags on this page to look at:

• None of the links in the header work
• The URL is not People.com
• The page is covered in spam testimonials
• “Pure CBD” is linked to several dozen times throuhout
• The page promises a free trial at the bottom

Purium

Scam: MLM Scheme

Purium calls itself a “transformation company”. They aim to transform your health and your financial success through the MLM structure. 

The CBD products offered by the company offer vague and unclear language, don’t come with any third-party testing, and have a much higher cost than comparable products from other brands. 

To enroll in the ambassador program you need to buy the $200 launch pack. During the enrollment process, the company also tries to upsell you with other packs that tack on an additional $300 – $500. The company also tries to get you to signup to a subscription package where the brand will charge, and ship multiple product packs each month. 

We recommend you avoid this brand at all costs.

Q Sciences

Scam: MLM Scheme

Q Sciences is an MLM on the uptrend — which is about the only time when this business structure is profitable for anybody not sitting in the upper echelon of the company. 

With that said, 9 out of every 10 people that join an MLM lose money — if not more. 

Q Sciences products stay true to MLM style and appear to contain no active CBD — despite listing all the popular keywords associated with CBD. These products are made with a simple hemp carrier oil, and some added essential oils — definitely not worth the high cost of these products. Be careful about the use of the word hemp oil. This can refer to CBD products, but more commonly refers to hemp seed oil — which doesn’t contain any active CBD.

Ritza Life

Scam: MLM Scheme

Ritza Life is an MLM company that sells scented candles. The company recently added CBD oils to the lineup because what goes better than CBD and scented candles?!

This is one of the only MLM brands we’ve seen that doesn’t charge you to become an ambassador. Instead, this company works more like an affiliate company — giving kickbacks to the ambassadors for promoting their products. 

The actual CBD oil offered by this company is questionable in quality. With plenty of vague language around the health benefits of the oil and an utter lack of important transparency measures like third-party testing — we recommend avoiding this oil and go for something from a reputable CBD brand instead.

Royal Blend CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company | Copycat

Royal Blend CBD is one of the more legit-looking CBD companies on our list — but don’t be fooled, this brand is a total scam. 

The branding for Royal CBD Blend closely resembles a trusted CBD brand — Royal CBD. They’re trying to confuse customers who are looking for Royal CBD. 

After you place your order, you’ll never hear from the company again. You’ll be charged, but you won’t receive a confirmation email, and no attempt at contacting the company will be successful.

Vital Wellness CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

Vital Wellness is made by the same scammers running Assure CBD, and Prime Naturals as part of the greater “tamias herb tincture” scam. Each of these brands uses the exact same templates and leads to the same checkout page at tamiasherbtincture.com. 

This is a clear scam CBD brand you should avoid at all costs.

Vital Source CBD

Scam: Fake CBD Company

This CBD brand is a clear scam operating under the “tamias herb tincture” umbrella of scam companies. Never order from this website. 

Xip4Life

Scam: MLM Scheme

This is a cheap MLM company with some of the most cringy sales copy we’ve seen yet. The brand ambassador page even sports a header of solid gold bars — insinuating the wealth you’ll acquire while working under the Xip4Life brand (you won’t).

Final Thoughts

There are so many scams for CBD products these days, it’s no wonder so many people are skeptical about buying a bottle for themselves. CBD supplements are expensive, so it’s easy for companies to prey on people not well-versed in the CBD industry with unrealistic claims or “free trials”.

Additionally, with so much money involved in the CBD industry, there’s a vibrant MLM community operating in the space as well. As you can see from our list above, there are dozens of known MLM companies operating in the CBD space. And this is just what we’ve found, there are likely hundreds of others around the world ripping their brand ambassadors off to create insane wealth for the members at the very top.

Always remain skeptical about a CBD product or company. Demand to see third-party testing, and certificates for claims of being organic.

We highly recommend you read through our company reviews or reviews on other unbiased websites to get an idea about the credibility of a company before you buy it.

If you’ve got a story to share or see any companies or scams that are not on our list — please contact us so we can keep this page as up to date and inclusive as possible!