There is a loophole marketing technique that many so called “gurus” are using these days in attempt to take advantage of folks 
online.
The process in my eyes is quite abusive and it leads to people getting sucked out of $1,000’s of their hard earned money when all they wanted was a free book. And for this reason, I present you with the Free Plus Shipping book scheme.
You have likely seen many of them, all you have to do is go to your Facebook feed and scroll through a few items and you will likely see one of these offers on there. Such an example would be:”Get my free book, all you have to pay for is the shipping?”
If you have seen offers like this, great. I am going to fill you in. If you haven’t perfect, I am going to offer you insights to guard yourself from potentially losing a lot of money as a result of these. If you have succumb to one of these offers, chances are this post is going to be something that you are really going to be able to relate to.
Just the shipping, seems like a good deal right?
Well usually you end up paying $10 or so for shipping (or more), this covers the cost of the production of the book. This removes the entire idea of the owner of the book capturing a loss every time he or she gives one of these away. In fact, often times you are not just paying for the product + shipping costs, there is a positive ROI being generated from the “shipping” costs.
The problem is that these free books are typically completely worthless and if they have a hint substance, were they worth the price of a normal soft copy book that you could have gotten from your local book store? Highly doubtful. Could you not have gotten a better book by going through Amazon and searching for a “credible” author, one with clout within a given industry and the business world that could have offered you insight.
The point is, there is no risk for the creator of these “free ebooks” because you are actually paying for the product when you send them money for the shipping costs. Free is not free after all.
A Quality Book, Or One That Lacks Substance?
As I have already briefly touched on, the free books are just a tool for these marketing companies to “sink” their teeth into your wallet. Perhaps a little nibble at first, but there is much more to come.
The actual value you get with these books is going to be limited. These books are often times written over a weekend or in a few weeks time. They are almost definitely going to be full of continual company branding or in some cases, complete sales pitches. The ultimate goal is not going to be leaving you with value, it is to get you to sign up for their other product and services.
Not ALL are horrible, but any legitimate author is going to charge for their “books”. You see the likes of Timothy Ferris (the guy from 4 hour work week) creating incredibly insightful content, content that people are willing to pay for even though we are residing within a digital world.
You see Seth Godin charging for his books, he always writes wonderful and very useful content. You see Warren Buffet charging for his books. You see Malcolm Gladwell charging for this books. (These are a few of my favourite authors by the way).
They charge because they offer value and insights within the actual book. The book is not a marketing ploy that is going to lead to other incredible upsells and costs. Which is what I want to discuss.
The Free Book is Just the Start
You will find that the internet is rife with complaints about people that have gotten sucked into these offers. They have been sucked out of several $1,000’s within back end offers, be it through live “seminars”, webinars, expensive digital products, or directly into an MLM scheme.
When you buy the book, YOU instantly become a marketing tool for this company. You are a buyer, they have your credit card, they have your address, and now they are going to be able to promote other stuff to you. In the world of shady marketing, you have become an ‘object’ of further revenue for the company that is offering the free ebook offer.
The free plus shipping book is their slimy way of exposing your personal details, which they will then utilize to commoditize you.
Are People Falling For The “Free Book” Trap?
The answer is YES (unfortunately).
Someone operating their business in this way would say, “well this is just marketing”. I would argue that. There are ethical ways to sell and to build revenue and there are unethical ways to do this. When you are misleading your customers through a complete illusion or a facade (which the free book plus shipping is), then you are operating your business in an unethical way.
I hope that those that read this, that are seeing these offers and may even be intrigued by them truly have an appreciation and understanding what is going on. I hope that those of you that have been sucked into a resulting scam or scheme from these sorts of “free book” offers will share their experiences below.
And I hope that those that have taken part in a free book offer recently have the knowledge now to protect them from additional costs that are instituted often times by various forms of pressure marketing.
I would love your feedback, questions, or insights you have into the “free book…plus shipping” offers. Please leave your comments below!
I just feel for one of these. I bought a book from Russell Brunson that was supposed to be free but then I was immediately moved into a sales process where I was asked to purchase things like click funnels and there were also other expensive coaching offers.
How can this be appropriate behaviour. I have to admit the content was quite good within the actual book itself but I also don’t like to be treated as a piece of meat.
Good to hear the book was at least offering some quality information, sorry to hear that you are being used as a pawn to make a company money. Nothing that is typically advertised as free, is free. If you have to pull out your credit card, even for shipping, means it is not free and they use the fact that you have a working credit card as qualification to sell to you even further.
Good information on the books, the just pay for shipping clam is crazy I know that a lot of people go for these scams that is why their are so many of them. I always go through Amazon when I do online shopping. I try to stay away from the online scams that promise you the Moon but you pay for it with the sky. Anyways thanks for putting the information out I myself posted it on Facebook.
There’re a lot of programs implementing this strategy these days and they only continue to grow. Unfortunately a lot of people are getting ripped off through social media, and it’s about time is that Facebook and other social platforms really start to step in to prevent consumers.
If any company is offering the MOON to you, without explaining what you are going to be doing, then watch out (as you’re likely going to be sold into some sort of scheme).
Free plus shipping book offers are one such scheme, but there are many others. You will see others seen “PM/Message me for more details”, that is typically another sign that you’re going to get involved with a scheme/scam. Just be careful.
Hmmm, what are your thoughts on Russell Brunson’s free books though? He has these offers 24/7 with the free book + paid shipping, with the 108 Proven Split Test Winners, DotCom Secrets, and Expert Secrets, all of which I bought myself and have made reviews on, but the books were actually completely filled with value.
Have you read these, do you have any opinion on these books?
Although I haven’t read these myself, I know that Russell is an advocate of offering value. I have heard good things about these books.
The business model of a “free + shipping” offer though is something that is implemented to get much more money out of you than the initial offer. When you join such offers you will likely get hit with offers for mentoring, conferences, other products/services that can lead you to the outlay of $1,000’s. Just be careful as to what you are getting yourself into.
Lol… I always look for “FREE plus shipping books”… Because on Amazon, the same books are $20 and I’m getting them for $8…
All you have to do is check no to the rest of the offers if you don’t want them… Amazon actually is the “kING” of upselling but no one talks about that…
Everyone is upselling you… Your cable company, phone company…etc…
You just have to put on your Big Boy pants and say “NO”…lol
I got both DotComSecrets and Expert Secrets… Those books are awesome!
Ultimately, you have to be careful when purchasing online… Whether it be eBay, Free plus shipping, paying bills…
It is a lot different though Julius, you know what you are getting when Amazon upsells you on an additional product, another books, or film for your instant camera. That makes sense, it leaves you in full control as the customer.
Free plus shipping books, they often times lure people into very high ticket and expensive schemes, mentoring clubs/programs, and masterminds. People are basically selling rights to their personal information and contact details for the price of a “free” not-so-free book.
I have heard great things about DotComSecrets and ExpertSecrets. Kudos to anyone actually offering a book of this quality, but if this is followed up by $1,000’s in promotions I don’t agree with it.
Not everyone can put on what you say “big boy pants” because lots of people are vulnerable and desperate and get taken advantage of for $10,000’s that they don’t have as a result.
OMG! I have seen this around so many times but, thank God, never was intrigued enough to look into it further.
How sneaky and just plain wrong.
Thank you so much for your insight, it will not be forgotten.
Regards,
Philip.
Yeah, it is very commonplace to these free (not so free) book offers on Facebook. What they’re doing is turning you into a customer, and then from that point on they are going to solicit you much more expensive items. They make no money on the sale of their book, this is just used as a vehicle to get you to buy much more expensive things down the road.
Many of these so-called “great” books, are often times 300+ page promotions for other products and services.
I haven’t been scammed by the free book offer, but have got scammed by the free gift offer on tv – just pay 9.99 for shipping. And the gift turns out to be a 99 cent item. Sigh. Is Amazon a good place to go to for reviews on a book if we are trying to figure out whether a free offer is worth it?
As a rule of thumb, if the book is “free” there is another motive behind it. So if it’s free, avoid it altogether as you are entering a “marketing scheme” and your personal details (email, phone number, etc) are going to be utilized to try to sell you much higher ticket items.
Great post Kyle!! I think I have become more savvy with spotting scams on the internet, thanks to this website!! I recently purchased a book and I also follow the author of the book on Facebook. I was surprised to see this author offering the same book for free. I thought, heck, let’s get another copy.
When I was going through to make the purchase, I was surprised to see a cost for posting and packaging!! I backed out – it wasn’t free after all.
This person is all over FB promoting events with well known speakers – you have a post about this too – and they’ve also created a sign-up website to ‘show you how you can create a website, get customers, have a presence” etc for a monthly fee!! I’m saying all this to say that the lengths people will go, to get your hard earned cash is unbelievable. Keep on posting as I’ll keep on checking – this website has definitely shown me ways to avoid scams online!!
Yeah, this is quite prevalent in Facebook these days. Facebook Ads is still very much the wild west and they are letting people get away with a lot, including many, MANY folks are getting scammed and taken advantage of as a result of Facebook ads. My assumption is they are going to crack down on this very soon, this is something that Google a much more established and I believe ethical platform would never stand for.
Thanks Kyle for this illustration. on Free ebook.
Many times free is not really free, it is more like a Glue Trap. I am a victim to MANY types of online scam.
The catch is in the offer. and once they get hold of your payment information you are in for a bank account stripping.
These type are all over the Internet. Facebook is their Resort Town. Mind you Kyle, as we speak, I can attest that these Scammers sometimes will not be identified, until you enter into business with them. or the company they work for.
It could be that some of them are employee’s to the company they represent. As the company often wears a prominent business name. Names that are Globally recognized. It is sad to say this but it is truth.
I know because I am a victim. In more than one way. Should it be that you are told that Scammers are in WA Do not be angry. Check it out.
I was with a company. And within the company. I was Scammed in the name of: Bill Gates and Mark (I might not spell his name correct) The company is ASN All Solution Network. And this is only one of them.
Righr now. I am locked out of my websites shortly after, I post something about some of my experiences with scammers and get the first comment. As I reply to the comment I saw my picture shift from left to right.
Not knowing what took place I exit the site. When I return to the site. I found no home page, I cannot navigate my website anymore. I mean none of them.
Had I sought help from Support Yes. I receive no help at all. I am stuck. as community member try to enter my website and contact me that they cannot enter.
Thank you for this great post and I hope you will release some more like this soon.
I also have been “victimized” but luckily not sucked in.
As you mention the net is full of shady characters, experience eventually teaches us to avoid these scammers, their methods become more transparent as time creates awareness…
Quite an eye opener.
I have seen such adverts and on one occasion I was almost caught out but luckily for me, the marketers won’t take Paypal and I too had already resolved not to pay for the shipping cost if the option of paying through PayPal is not available.
I always knew there must be more to this free stuff than meet the eyes.
Thanks once again.
Well you probably saved yourself much more than the costs of the free book + shipping, in particular if they were able to convince you that you needed the upsells (which are often times in the $1,000’s). You become a victim of their funnel and ultimately it can be really hard to say “no” sometimes if you are receiving abusive and high pressure sales calls.
Once you give your information (phone #, email, etc), you are giving these unscrupulous marketers access to take advantage of you.
Useful insights Kyle about what to look out for with free ebook shipping offers. Nowadays when I see “free”, I check to make sure it really is free.
A similar thing happened to me with a 30 day Free Trial Offer. Free shipping was included for the trial product. They take your credit card details promising that if you cancel before the subscription kicks in they won’t bill you.
I had a nightmare experience, even though I cancelled 15 days into the 30 day trial. In the end, the only way I could stop the repeated billing, on my bank’s advice, was to cancel my credit card and get a new one.
Lesson learned: If they ask for your credit card details upfront on a free trial, forget it!
~Jude
There is lots of that going on as well, these free offers are one common place where these marketers are giving you a book for free (well, sort of), and then they are strapping you into a membership fee monthly without you knowing…as you didn’t read the fine print. Then they make it a nightmare to cancel and like you said, you end up either having to cancel your credit card or getting a chargeback.
This is quite common in the MLM industry with the “auto shipping” type schemes that they institute. The complaints about these being next to impossible to cancel is widespread online if you do some reading, so pretty much the same thing that you experienced here.
I don’t know man, I don’t feel like I can get scammed but I’ve spent quite a bit of money online now on products without making very much in return so maybe I’ve been scammed…but I just like to see what’s out there to see how other people live…but I think i’ve come full circle…I believe in myself stronger than ever and I know most of the tricks now and I’ve seen how things are structured.
I’ve bought some good free plus shipping books before and just now I was checking out another good looking book i know the guy has some good info…they are entry points to the funnel and it was worth it. A lot of people are structuring their business like that right now. They do it to see who is willing to pull out their credit card.
But in a lot of ways I feel like money in general is a scam especially the way it can be produced or what you can do to earn it isn’t necessary reflective of its worth…its like blood money…even things like seeding comments or interviews can be seen as collaboration like I get why people collaborate now…life is weird because I knew a lot of it was phoney and then you buy into it and see ok this is how its done but i still think its kind of phoney and I want to produce something real and of substance.
I don’t like some ppl with money talking too much smack because i never chased money at all not until recently now I’m actually doing things for money that will make me money but i feel like i have a mission to achieve and its nothing to do with money. sSme of these ppl are too much they talk like its a luxury… actually i get sick because i got caught up with some of the hype it makes me sick to think about it but I just want to keep it real too many people are delusional about this. Your position doesn’t give you the authority over anything. You’re tripping if you get caught up in your own lies. God is in control.
That’s my rant….WealthyAffiliate for the win.. I want to get this money God willing and do something worthwhile.
Don’t get caught up in the hype. The hype and sensationalization of products/services is there to draw people in. They tend to imagine themselves like these rented gurus driving around their fake cars, showcasing their fake houses, and taking their last $1,000 out of the bank so they can “make it rain’ in front of a camera.
They are not teaching you how to build a long term, nor an ethical business. They teach you do the same thing they are doing, selling a whole lot of sizzle with very little steak.
There are absolutely ethical ways of building a business online and that is something that we teach in detail within Wealthy Affiliate, across any niche that you want. The thing is, the most successful business are the most ethical. It is tough to stick around and remain in business (unless you are operate in a very shifty way) if you are ripping people off. Help people as your primary focus in business and you will be in business for a very long time.
Unfortunately its not limited to ebooks. Its plastered all over social media as free money making opportunities, where you watch a ‘free’ video once you simply enter your email address which later gets spammed for “not so great” offers. Moreover Schemes and scams!!
I’m yet to come across one of these free book plus postage offers, but now I’m fully prepared when I do.
Do you think that some of these “free books” can contain some value, as long as you can resist the upsells?
Your post has actually reminded me of some retailers that do a similar thing. For example, TV infomercials that offer you a free trial, but all you have to do is pay the postage. More often than not, the postage would actually be more than what it would cost to post. Then, if you don’t like the item you have to send it back at your expense, or pay for the item in full!
Either way, the retailer would win. Very very sneaky and unethical marketing tactics indeed.
I wouldn’t doubt that some of the free books do have some value within them, but they are also going to be “pure pitches” in many cases ahnd contain very little meat. Unlike a book that is on Amazon or in stores that can actually be reviewed by the readership, you would never seen one of these books within this sort of marketplace as they would lack enough value to get a decent review.
Rather they are a mechanism to get you into their “funnel” so to speak. Once they have your details, they are going to hit you with a number of upsells, promotions, and in many cases, solicit to you until you reach the point where you find yourself blocking phone numbers or making complaints to the FTC about their practices.
Very good point. A few years back, I happened to be up way late at night. An infomercial for the new set of “Who Knew” books came on. I don’t even read but… I was sold. The books contained substance and were very useful. HOWEVER, during the order process I couldn’t complete the order until I listened to about 20 other upsell pitches. By the time it was all said and done (45 minutes later) I had accidentally purchased 2 sets of the books. Once they arrived I went to put 1 of the sets on eBay as I only wanted 1 to begin with.
HERES WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING:
Upon searching eBay I quickly found that there was only 1 other set listed and the auction (which still had 3 days to go) had jumped to well over 3X what the book were selling for. Holy Crap I thought, here’s a money maker… I quickly listed 20 sets. And posted all 20 sets immedi3. All 20 sets sold for between $80 and $100 per set. I paid $29.99 for the 1rst set and $19.99 for every set I ordered at the same time! Shipping was Free.
Turns out…. People were very eager to run the bids up to get what they wanted rather than spend 45minutes opting out of 20 more offers. I can’t say that I blame them really.
Myself? Well lets just say… I keep my eye on the final prize and now, when I have the time and money… I watch for those infomercials.
That was the week I turned $420 into almost $1700. Not a bad paycheck.
Hey Kyle,
thanks for sharing, I have unfortunately fallen for the “shipping” bait myself.
The way this happened with me was actually through a completely free e-book download on a guru website.
Sure the download was free, but the book itself lacked any useful substance and was full of sales pitches and other “useful book lists”.
As a complete newbie at that time I choose the “free” book from the included list, happy that I would only pay for the shipping.
The cost was a bit high, but I was consoling myself that It was coming from across the world directly to my doorstep.
Once I actually had the book in my hands, I finally realised my mistake and saw the scam for what it was.
So that was my (unfortunate) experience and I hope anyone reading this will somehow benefit from it.
Great post!
JT
Sorry to hear you have fallen for one of these free plus shipping bait offers (as have many). This sounds like it is an experience you learned from and being involved in marketing now, you can appreciate the difference between “slight of hand” unethical marketing and ethical marketing that takes place through the actual “help” of others.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience here JT.
Kyle,
Good info on another potential way of taking your hard earned money! I only download free ebooks, no shipping, but even those have heaps of sales ads in them.
These days, if you give out your email in return for a digital product, you expect up sells.lol When paying shipping for books, you would also expect up sells, but some have no ethics at all.
Free ebooks are fine. There is no cost to entry and you can usually just give your email and name and get instant access to it. If the book isn’t good or lacks substance, you can make a decision as to what you can expect down the road from this person (quality/help versus over promotions).
When you pay for something, that is when I don’t feel there should be surprise costs everywhere. In particular when you take up someone on a free plus shipping book offer and the next thing you know they are selling $5,000 mentoring to you, a mastermind, or expensive recurring program, coaching, or worse yet, trying to push you into a scheme.
Hey Kyle,
While looking over this we’ll put together website I quickly realized this has an amazing amount of thought and quality content involved. A major issue with the internet today is individuals scamming or misleading people into turning out their pockets and handing over their hard earned money
IF there is one thing everyone should know, it is exactly what you portray in this website.
Great job, keep up the good work!
-Chris
Most definitely, it has become almost normal to mislead people within the opportunity or “make money” industry and even worse is that it works. People are a lot of the times very desperate and are willing to chase shiny objects and they get sucked into such schemes as the free ebook ones. What started off as being “free” ends up costing them $1,000’s after they get hit with aggressive upsells and solicitations through the phone.
Tread carefully would be my advice to anyone that runs into offers like these.
Hello Kyle,
All I can say is thank you for the information. I did not know about these “free e-book scams” before. I have been lucky to not having been baited into these scams.
It sounds similar to telemarketing scams where you have to provide a deposit or pay some type of fee for a “free” grant by the government. These type of offers, including the ones you just mentioned, disgust me. It angers me, really. It is unethical as you disclosed.
Again, thanks for the info. I hope many other readers will get this info for their knowledge on these practices.
Sincerely,
Roman G. Rys, MSW, LCSWA
There are definitely many similar variants to the “free + shipping” scams out there, many of theme reside in the telemarketing world, many reside in the retail world, and many are actually through services that some of us have learned to be credible (Publisher Clearing House) where they work on the fringes of what is ethical.
Hi Kyle,
I’m not aware of this free book scam. But it’s really ridiculous to pay thousands just to ship for a Free book. I would have questioned the reason why the book was not available in Amazon? or Kindle.
If that book is as good as advertised, it probably has gone digital. Again, I suspect people are gullible at times, and some are just ignorance to the scams aplenty online.
Kenny.
The book is not as good as it is advertised, that is the thing. They are not sold on Amazon because they lack substance and they would quickly get low quality reviews.
The book is a complete PLOY to get your personal information, which is then used to sell you other stuff. To make more sense, this is what the process looks like with the free plus shipping offers.
Step 1: Buy the Free Plus Shipping Offer (Usually $5-20 for shipping)
Step 2: The Book is a Promotion for Other Programs (more expensive ones)
Step 3: You will get phone calls, emails, or physical mail trying to sell you other stuff (webinars, seminars, high ticket info products, coaching programs, mentoring programs, etc)
Step 4: If you are one of the people get sucked in, you spend $1,000’s (although you simply wanted a “free” book)
That is how these companies operate. They don’t care so much about the quality of the content within the book, they care more about what they are going to sell you afterwards.
And you know who sells these free books? All of the so-called business, mindset, and lifestyle coaches that get paid by suckering people out of thousands of dollars to listen to them talk in circles….
It is those that operate these with no moral compass on helping people, rather people have become a medium for them to generate as much money as possible. They could care less about your situation, they just want to maximize the income they generate off of any given customer.
And I agree, much of this is about talking in circles and showing people “the life” they could have, people envision it, then they get sucked out of $1,000’s that they often times don’t have, that they are using credit cards to purchase and in many cases, loans!
It’s amazing at which lengths marketers will go to get your money often in illegal circumstances.
I guess there really isn’t anyone to blame but ourselves, the internet go’ers.
With articles like this, at least we can learn and be wary. Never give our your credit card details without GREAT reason. Make sure a site is secure, has https.
Even so, think twice before you do it. Most likely, if it is a free book, it might as well be an e-book so the author can save on all the hassle of shipping. Any sane person would do it that way instead!
That’s my way of seeing it.
The problem is exactly as you pointed out, many times these are “illegal” programs that are being promoted on the back end and vicariously, the folks that are getting involved in such schemes are then responsible for taking part in such activities.
If you are not quite sure what is on the other end of the transaction, then it is not best to take part in it. One of the things that I recommend you do is contact the owner if you are unsure or their support line and if you don’t get a response you are happy with, then you likely don’t want to be involved in such a product (as there are likely some unethical practices going on behind the scenes).
I once reacted to such an offer about 2 years ago going around on Facebook.
I am curious but also a cautious person in these “things” and I wrote back why I have to pay for shipping when it is “Free”.
Well, what can I say I never got an answer and my interest for this “Free Book” immediately died.
Great article!!!
Sylvia
The reason you have to pay is that you need to cover the shipping costs of the book as well as the cost of the product (with a decent sized print run these books can often times be printed for under $1).
It can be safe to say that you made the right decision and you dodged much further solicitation, often time shameless.
Yes, I see a lot of this going on. The worst is to buy something really cheap and then being bombarded with upsells. This almost makes you think that the product you bought is somehow lacking if you don’t purchase the upsells.
But sometimes you are not sure whether to give your email away or not when you see a free book offered, because more often than not it will simply be a reward to join somebody’s mailing list.
I suppose that would work in the same way because then that person that has your address can send you information on what he or she is promoting.
I don’t mind that, as long as they also send valuable content as well and not just sales letters.
This has become a proven business model for a lot of the schemes out there, but what has happened in recent years is that the upsells have moved from being $47 to $5,000. The idea is that it is much easier to rip one person off for a lot of money than it is to try to sell a legitimate product at a lower price. This is the logic instituted.
If you want a book, buy a book from Amazon.com or your local bookstore. You end up paying less typically than you would by these free book offers, you are not going to be given a book that is a pretty “act of branding” and you are not going to be ruthlessly promoted to.
Free plus shipping offers….never end up well for the customer.
I don’t usually go for stuff like that, but being of “certain age”, I fell for Christie Brinkley’s “amazing” wrinkle cream. Only $5. Well, long story short, it’s one of those negative billing deals. You are automatically signed up for automatic shipments. Cream ended up costing $350. A month! Heck, botox costs less than that, and lasts 3-4 months. Luckily, I was able to cancel simply by calling the 800#, and credit cards do not dispute those charges. Christie is well protected by her high powered lawyers. Never again!! I also don’t like the fact that FB sneaks in these ads that look like a part of your timeline.
Yeah, these sorts of free ship offers with all sorts of products were actually quite prevalent on the internet a few years ago across various industries. In your case it was skin care, but there were many scams taking place in the “diet pill” and “acai berry pill” industry that Google actually had to crack down on by removing the ability to promote this sort of thing through Adwords.
I am just wondering when Facebook is going to start to get some heat from those that have been taken advantage of by these free book plus ship offers. I think it is just a matter of time and these companies and schemers will have to move onto the next idea.
Been there done that 🙂
In 2007 I ordered a “free book” on making money online. Paid the shipping and was bombarded with about 10 up/downsells for different things. However, I was very careful to decline all of them, I also made sure that I wasn’t signing up for a recurring “book club” of some sort.
However, after a few weeks I started getting calls from marketers trying to sign me up for some $47 video training and $5,000 retreats and everything in between.
I had to block at least a dozen different phone numbers. Had to report probably 50+ different spam emails and I kept on receiving direct mail for years… I was lucky that I didn’t lose any money but I did waste a lot of time with this.
Never again.
This actually sounds very much par for the course. These free plus shipping book offers have been around for quite some time, but the means of marketing them have changed with the proliferation of Facebook ads.
It is littered with these sorts of offers and I hate to think how many people “unknowingly” are purchasing these products with the intention of just getting a book…but then falling into the $5,000 retreat trap or the $47 video training, or the $300 recurring membership, or worse, $10,000’s and that are taking loans out to pay for this.
These offers are a mechanism to capture personal data and just like your experience, they will solicit you until you buy something or have to block a string of 50 numbers to avoid the absolute invasive and overwhelming nuisance they become.