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Health Fraud
URL of this page: https://medlineplus.gov/healthfraud.html

Health Fraud

Also called: Health scams, Quackery
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Summary

Health fraud scams involve selling medicines, supplements, devices, foods, or cosmetics that have not been proven effective. At best, these scams don't work. At worst, they're dangerous. They also waste money and might keep you from getting the treatment you really need.

Some of the possible dangers of scam products are that they could:

  • Be contaminated from being made in unclean facilities or without proper quality control
  • Contain harmful ingredients that are not listed on the label
  • Trigger a harmful interaction with medicines you are taking
  • Cause serious, even life-threatening, injuries

Health fraud scams can be found everywhere, promising help for many common health issues, including weight loss, memory loss, sexual performance, and joint pain. They target people with serious conditions such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, HIV, and Alzheimer's disease.

Just remember - if it sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scam. Some red flags to watch for are product claims that:

  • Have personal testimonials by "real" people or "doctors" played by actors claiming amazing results.
  • Say that the product can treat or cure a wide range of unrelated diseases. No one product can treat or cure many different illnesses.
  • Mention conspiracy theories like "This is the cure our government and Big Pharma don't want you to know about."
  • Include phrases such as:
    • Ancient remedy
    • Miracle cure
    • No-risk money back guarantee
    • Natural cure
    • Quick fix
    • Secret ingredient
    • Scientific breakthrough
  • Use scientific-sounding terms that don't make sense for the products, such as "molecule multiplicity."
  • Refer to prestigious prizes, for example "Nobel Prize winning technology."

Before taking an unproven or little-known product, talk to your health care provider, especially if you are taking any prescription medicines.

Food and Drug Administration

Start Here

  • 6 Tip-offs to Rip-offs: Don't Fall for Health Fraud Scams (Food and Drug Administration) Also in Spanish
  • How to Spot Health Fraud (Food and Drug Administration)

Related Issues

  • How to Buy Medicines Safely from an Online Pharmacy (Food and Drug Administration) Also in Spanish
  • Quick Tips for Buying Medicines Over the Internet (Food and Drug Administration)

Specifics

  • Beware of Illegally Marketed Diabetes Treatments, Fraudulent Pharmacies (Food and Drug Administration) Also in Spanish
  • Caution Consumers: Honey-Based or Honey-Flavored Syrup Products May Pose Health Risk (Food and Drug Administration)
  • Common Health Scams Video (Federal Trade Commission) Also in Spanish
  • Do Not Use: Black Salve is Dangerous and Called by Many Names (Food and Drug Administration) Also in Spanish
  • Products Claiming to "Cure" Cancer Are a Cruel Deception (Food and Drug Administration) Also in Spanish

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

  • Article: GDFGAT: Graph attention network based on feature difference weight assignment for...
  • Article: Innovative novel regularized memory graph attention capsule network for financial fraud...
  • Article: Examining older adults' vulnerability to online health scams: insights from routine...
  • Health Fraud -- see more articles

Find an Expert

  • Food and Drug Administration

Patient Handouts

  • Protecting yourself from cancer scams (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish

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Health Fraud

MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

  • Protecting yourself from cancer scams

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The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice. Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health.

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