How it works
The pitch offers you a high-value item to review and keep, a skincare device, a hair tool, a ring light, something worth a few hundred dollars. Because the unit is expensive, they say, they need a refundable security deposit to cover it while it is in your hands, returned in full once your video goes live. You send the deposit, maybe 50 to 150 dollars. The unit never ships and the deposit never comes back. In a nastier version a cheap decoy arrives so they can claim they held up their end, while the deposit, which was always the real target, stays gone.
The tell-tale signals
A brand sending you product does not need your money as collateral. They insure and write off review units as a cost of marketing. The words refundable and deposit sitting together in a first offer are the tell. The refund is always promised for later, after the video, after a waiting period, after one more step. The sender is usually on a free mailbox or a domain registered only weeks ago, and presses you to move fast before the offer closes.
What to do
Decline any deal that asks you to put money down to receive a product. Ask them to ship the unit outright the way every real PR team does, and note whether the offer evaporates. Do not send a deposit on the promise of a refund, that promise is the bait. Look up the brand independently and see whether it runs a real creator program at all, invented brands often have no footprint older than the email. Check the message with a risk assessment first so the deposit language and the domain age are flagged together.