The Friendly Cup is Not So Friendly

Something that was huge for me when I was younger was being apart of a team. Baseball was my sport. It was something about working together for goal, that made the practices worthwhile.

As we know, we should not call everyone our teammate or our friend. There are people out there that will present is the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and bait us in. But they have that appeal about them that makes them seem so genuine. Underneath they are just wolves, ready to devour anything that comes near.

This past year I got into the coffee business. Starting off, we had some guidance but a lot of it we took the bumps and bruises by ourselves. Quickly we discovered that real scammers.

A place pretended to from the government and tried to make us pay for our IEN number. For those starting up a business, that number is free. On the government site they also have a notice warning entrepreneurs to keep their eyes open to this piece of mail.

After that I became a hawk. If I smelled a scam, I would shut it down quick. Trying my best to tap into my inner Denzel Washington.

While subbing one day at school I got a messaged from this company "The Friendly Cup." It caught me off guard because it was not a regular profile. It was from a person requesting to message me. So I accepted it and the person told me to follow the main account.

What had me interested was that they want me as a brand ambassador. I was fresh in the business world and this could be my break through. I studied the site thoroughly and thought to myself, this is legit.

So, I followed the page. Through conversations, they told me that I would receive discounts for whatever I buy. I was all in and ready to post their cup on my page. Hopefully, by helping them I would receive more traction.

I bought it! Yes now I'm officially a brand ambassador.

That was December 3rd. Weeks later, I messaged them and asked what was taking so long for my product. They respond and told me that because of COVID they had yet to get back to their supplies. Understandably I cut them some slack because the USPS was overloaded with packages.

One day I made a joke on Facebook. The date was a little after Christmas. It was a map of scribble lines, saying that USPS having priority mail 2-3 days looks more like six weeks. Others in the comments shared my sentiment.

I became curious and went back to The Friendly Cup page. All through the comments, I saw people talking about how the company is a scam. To this day many of them have yet to receive their products and the company are not answering their message.

The video below shows how this fake company is claiming another brand as its own. If you receive direct messages from them on Instagram report them and hopefully nobody else falls for their trap.

They answered my messages and I saw that the message they sent me weeks later was the same message from a pervious conversation. It had an automated system feel to it and I had to go to the bank. Got my money back and guess what... the product finally arrive.

I decided to keep the product but I'm not posting them on my page. For businesses out there even regular spenders, be wary of these pages. They have awesome pictures with these models, but they are not authentic. I do not know how they get these pictures but scammers are becoming more and more crafty. When you get a message, research them and look at the comments. If something feels off to you, the chances are that the company is not legit.