THE victim of an internet scam offering free face cream is warning others not to be caught out, after it actually cost £90.

The victim from Liskeard, who does not wished to be named, said her husband signed up for the deal when on the internet.

The free trial offer came up as a pop-up advert and it appeared that you only had to pay £4.95 to cover the postage and packing for the free sample. She said: 'My husband was logging onto a well-known supermarket site when the pop-up appeared and he thought the free offer was linked to them.

'He told me that he had ordered some free face cream for me, and just paid the postage and packing as required. A few days later three small pots of cream arrived.'

However, a month later the couple received a credit card bill for £90, and on looking into the payment discovered that in the small print it said the cream, which claims to use Dead Sea minerals, had to be returned within 14 days or a monthly subscription kicks in.

'There was no documentation in the box about returning the products after 14 days if you were not satisfied. It was not until a month later when the £90 bill appeared on my credit card statement that I discovered it was actually linked to a company abroad and that my husband had inadvertently signed up to a subscription.

'He was devastated. He thought he was being really nice by getting these products for me, only to be conned.

'The supermarket said the pop-up was not connected to them, and we also contacted the credit card company, but due to the clever wording of the small print there was nothing we could do and had to pay up.

'On the internet, I discovered there were hundreds of people who had been caught out in this same way. My husband is very careful about scams and he cannot believe he was fooled.'

Cornwall Trading Standards has received complaints about the offer and is warning consumers to be on their guard at Christmas and beyond.