Sunday 15 June 2014

Red Flags That Identify Medical Scams

By Kenya Campos


There is an old saying that states "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is". The myriad of cure-all products advertised in magazines, infomercials, mail order and most recently the internet surely fall into this category. Many desperate people who are concerned about their health become victims of medical scams every day.

A scam can take any form but the most common are promises of penis enlargement, restoration of hair, weight loss and fake online pharmacies. One common thread of these offers is a promise of miracle cures for diseases that have no cures. Many are described as all natural and have no side effects for people who are using them.

Losing weight is something that virtually every woman in this country has faced at one time or another. The diet pills seen in infomercials on television usually promise that the customer will have no diet changes and no exercises to do. These claims are false and when ordering the formulas you will be advised that it works much better if exercise and diet restrictions are employed. Another popular claim is losing weight from a specific part of your body by taking the pill. This claim is not realistic or true.

A serious danger to the public is fake online pharmacies. These companies take advantage of people by promising to provide their medication at reduced prices or without prescriptions. In truth the customer takes the chance of receiving drugs that are past their expiration date or manufactured in illegal or foreign labs. They may also be sent pills that look like the medication the need but in fact have no medicinal value at all.

Many fake online pharmacies will contact potentially new clients through spam e-mail messages. Some of them are simply fronts for criminal access to your credit information or for loading up your computer with malicious spy ware and key loggers. They target people who are seriously ill with incurable diseases such as diabetes, cancer, HIV or AIDS.

There are several ways to recognize e-mails from a fake pharmacy. The easiest way to prevent being targeted is never open mail from an unknown source but bear in mind there are a number of other tricks they can use to get past your spam filters. Misspelled words or extra spaces in the subject line is one way, unrelated subject matter in titles is another.

There are legitimate pharmacies online and they will have complete contact information listed on their sites. They will also not send prescription drugs without the proper paperwork required by law. Most fake pharmacies do not give out their contact information and will usually promise the drugs you want without a prescription.

There are so many ways that people are taken advantage of because they are gullible or too trusting. They want to find new or miracle cures for health issues and will believe individual testimonials from purported customers without following up with research through their doctors or pharmacists. Many times this practice can lead to far more serious problems for patients because they have delayed treatment in favor of some miracle cure that was found online.




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