By April Corbin

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

This “buyer beware” adage has never been truer than now, in the age of fine print and flashy Web sites. Unfortunately, hundreds of tea consumers across the globe are learning it the hard way from Web sites claiming their tea is a natural weight loss solution.

According to the Better Business Bureau of the Southland, 679 complaints were filed against Wu-Yi Source, giving the company a solid F rating. The business’s start date is listed as December 2007.

Wu-Yi Source’s Web site, www.wu-yisource.com, claims the natural green tea is “quickly becoming Hollywood’s hottest diet” and urges potential customers to buy soon before the product sells out. The site even addresses skeptics with a section titled “Seven bogus claims to watch out for” and targets several fake weight-loss scams.

Combined with a video of a man talking about how weight-loss scams make his blood boil, the pitch apparently gave many consumers enough confidence to skip over the fine print when buying from Wu-Yi Source.

This fine print states that Wu-Yi Source will begin billing $59.95 for each month of an automatic membership, if it does not receive the original products back within the 14-day trial period. It also states that, by agreeing to the free trial, customers have “unlocked” a free, seven-day Insider Secrets Tips and a 28-day trial to Comprehensive Weight Loss e-Book packages for $4.95 and $9.95 a month, respectively.

While the Web site claims customers can cancel at any time, customer reviews and the BBB Web site are flooded with stories of unreturned messages and difficulties in tracking down where the company is physically located.

WTN also was unable to reach the company, using its last available contact information.

While Wu-Yi Source has been the only Web site targeted by media investigations and listed with a bad review under the BBB, other Wu-Yi Web sites are directly or indirectly linked to Wu-Yi Source.

Directly linked to Wu-Yi Source is the Web site www.easyweightlosstea.com, which contains the same language as Wu-Yi Source, the same photos and reassuring video, as well as the same fine print with hidden automatic subscriptions.

Other sites, such as www.wuyitearesults.com, are blogs from apparent Wu-Yi tea users who found success with the weight loss system. However, the links forward to Wu-Yi Source’s original site.

Meanwhile, the terms of terms of conditions at www.instantwuyi.com, which sells the Original Wu-Yi Pixie , a Wu-Yi extract, states customers will be charged $69.87 two days after their 14-day trial period ends, and that they automatically subscribe to a monthly FitFactory membership. For potential customers just skimming the fine print for hidden charges, the price of the automatic FitFactory membership is spelled out – “nineteen ninety five per month” – and harder to notice than the numerical $19.95.

The same fine print is listed at www.wuyigreenextreme.com, which also sells the “pixie” extract. While this site does mention that the free trial includes a FitFactory membership, quick-to-buy customers may not see the fine print stating that canceling that membership must be done through a separate number than the original Wu-Yi weight loss system membership.

Such scams are nothing new. The BBB released a tip sheet titled “So-called diet aids will thin your wallet, not your body” that warned consumers to be wary of buzzwords such as immediate, effortless and guaranteed.