Earlier today, we posted a really hot Tree Hut sugar scrub deal. The deal was only up for a short while as we discovered that it wasn’t a legit site. We wanted to alert you to this and let you know what to do if you tried to get the deal.
What Happened
The deal we posted was on a site that looked identical to the real Tree Hut site and even had a believable URL, so it slipped past our usually very keen eyes. These types of sites that mirror a legit site are becoming more and more prevalent. We try our hardest to always do our due diligence to make sure what we post here is 100% legitimate, but this site didn’t have the usual red flags (weird URL, misspelled words on the home page, offers too good to be true, etc.) so we missed that it wasn’t legit.
The deal was only up for a short while before we realized something was off when a reader messaged to say their order wasn’t going through. Upon further investigation, we discovered it was not legit. We immediately deleted the post off of the blog and Facebook. We value your trust as our readers, so we wanted to be honest and upfront about what happened and let you know.
What You Should Do About It
If you gave your credit card info to the “Tree Hut” site today, please immediately call your bank and request to cancel your card and get a new one. We don’t know for sure what the scam site was doing and/or if they were stealing bank information, but to be on the safe side, that is what we suggest you do.
The majority of people who we heard from who tried to get the deal weren’t able to get their card to go through, but we still feel like it would be wise to cancel your card. If you have further information on what happened if you tried to order and/or if your card was charged or anything else weird happens, please let us know.
What We Are Doing About It
We are so sorry we messed up and didn’t catch that this wasn’t a legit site before posting. As always, we vigilantly research every deal we post and would never intentionally post anything that is not 100% legitimate. We talked as a team today about having even more in-depth processes in place to catch something like this in the future.
At the end of the day, we are only humans behind this screen and sometimes we mess up. Thank you for being here. Thank you for trusting us. And thank you for your grace!
Rita says
I was scammed by this company as well . They got 3 of my cards and they did all 3 get hit with fraud on them.
Thank you for all you do to get us good deals. Sorry you have had to deal with the fall out of this as well.
Jordan says
Thank you for being so understanding and we are so sorry that they got three of your cards!! -Jordan, MSM Team
Plain Marie says
Hi, We also had a negative experience with Tree Hut, very similar to the other experience described.
My teen was also excited about a sugar scrub “deal” she’d found with them. It took me more than a week to attempt to buy the advertised product. My payment kept getting “rejected,” which was weird since all other transactions with other companies had gone through with no problem.
So, a week later, our credit union called us about suspicious activity on our card. Someone had made a couple of “zero balance” purchases on that card, indicating someone testing the card to see if it worked without our noticing. The bank immediately canceled the card and expedited another one.
My mind immediately went to the purchases that went nowhere despite collecting all my credit card and contact information. I now think that the Tree Hut website was to blame for collecting my card info.
At the same time, I’ve been getting persistent spam emails about some company claiming to sell scents. I think those are part of the same lure. It’s Cupid Fragrances, long with wild tales of prowess at office parties. *rolls eyes*
They invite me to “unsubscribe.” No way. I’m going to report and block them.
Thank you for helping keep people informed! The credit union was telling us that these kinds of scams are even more aggressive around the holiday season with so many people wanting to buy gifts online.
Stay alert!
Jordan says
I am so sorry that you fell victim to this too! I am glad that your credit union was proactive in protecting your financial liability. Thank you for sharing your experience! Have a very Merry Christmas! -Jordan, MSM Team
Melissa Jordan says
My daughter sent me a link to their site. Not sure where she got it. I tried ordering with same issues. I went ahead and cancelled my debit card and reported the sitr to the Federal Trade Commission.
Jordan says
Bummer! I’m so sorry that you got taken in by this too! -Jordan, MSM Team
Monique says
This happened today and yesterday so maybe it’s not related but the site is the only thing that both my mom and sister both did but I guess it could be a coincidence.
Monique says
My mom and sister were frauded one on an Apple Card and the other on chase card as I forwarded this deal to them luckily both institutions covered it or didn’t let the charge go through.
Jordan says
We are so sorry that that occurred! -Jordan, MSM Team
Grace Wybraniak says
Hi! Thank you for posting this. I just went shopping on this site for the ‘too good to be true” deal. Tried 2 different cards which didn’t go through so I googled and found your blog and this information. I would have been none the wiser without your post, so thank you. I had to cancel both of my cards that I tried.
Do you know if there is a legit site?
Jordan says
I’m so glad we could help you figure this out and am so sorry you got pulled into this issue like we did. I’m unsure of what the original website is and don’t want to misdirect you. If I find it I will be sure to let you know! -Jordan, MSM Team
Lisa says
I just saw this message and checked my credit card. Someone did try to check if venmo would work on my card….. I appreciate you posting this message but wish you would have contacted me personally since I was one of the people who left a message yesterday so you had my email.
Crystal Paine says
Can you let me know where you left a message? I don’t see one from you anywhere in the comments and I answered all of the messages that came through to me personally and I know our team did, as well.
Julie Smith says
While I, too, wish something had been said sooner, I appreciate the honesty. My sister in law realized it was a scam when I sent her the link. All credit cards here cancelled (I tried to use 2 🤦🏻♀️😂) and just know that we are all human. It speaks highly of this website that we assume it’s legit because Money Saving Mom is a trusted source!
Happy Holidays!
Crystal Paine says
Thank you for your patience with us as we took the time to investigate and figure out what was going on yesterday! And I appreciate Meg on the team staying up late last night to help me draft a post about it after we had investigated and figured out it wasn’t legit. I was offline for four hours at my son’s basketball games yesterday afternoon/evening otherwise I would have been able to post the update sooner!
Thank you for being a follower here! We’re so grateful for you!
Banni says
I was one of those who saw the deal and knew my tween would love it. When she got home from school we got on your site to link to Tree Hut through there and couldn’t find ANYTHING on your site about it. Thinking I may have seen it somewhere else we just googled the site and did our shopping.
After two tries with my credit card being denied I realized something was off.
In the future, it would be much more helpful to leave it on your site with a note that it isn’t legit. Personally, if I had seen a note on your site when I checked back before trying to order I never would have tried to get the order to go through, and wouldn’t now have to cancel my card.
I’m in no way blaming you for posting it. It was a very convincing scam! But, by not posting immediately when you realized it wasn’t legit more people probably tried to get the deal and ended up being scammed by the site.
Meagan says
I’m really sorry we disappointed you in this way. We’ll do better next time! -Meg, MSM Team
Crystal Paine says
Hi, Banni! I know that we live in a world where people expect everything to happen immediately… it’s the nature of social media. We wanted to take a bit to investigate and talk amongst the team and talk with people who had tried to get the deal to figure out what was going on. We’ve found that it’s better to not jump to conclusions or rush to post something without doing our due diligence and being careful and thoughtful in our response. We try very hard not to be alarmists or to post something when we only have half of the facts and it took some time to investigate this one and figure out the best way to proceed and what we would do to make sure it didn’t happen again. That said, you are always welcome to leave a comment or write in (multiple people did this yesterday!) asking about a deal if you thought you saw it on our site and couldn’t find it later. We were able to let people know who wrote in that we were looking into it and to not purchase it because it appeared like it wasn’t legit.
Thanks so much for your grace and understanding and I’m so sorry your daughter wasn’t able to get the deal! I hope you’re able to get things resolved with your credit card asap and that there are no further issues.