Scam of the day – August 6, 2020 – FTC Sues Company Selling Phony Coronavirus Treatments

Steven Weisman, Esq.

6 years ago

The coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread both in the United States and worldwide with many people rightfully concerned about contracting the disease. I have been warning you about coronavirus related scams since February. In particular I have reported on the efforts of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to stop scammers from preying on the fears of people by selling them worthless or even harmful phony cures and treatments. Recently, the FTC filed a complaint against Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical, Inc. a California company falsely claiming that its $23,000 treatment plan would effectively cure the Coronavirus within two to four days. It is important to remember that the World Health Organization has stated that there are ” no known effective therapeutics” available to prevent or treat the coronavirus.

According to FTC Chairman Joe Simons, “There is a high level of anxiety over the potential spread of coronavirus. What we don’t need in this situation are companies preying on consumers by promoting products with fraudulent prevention and treatment claims.”

Selling phony medical cures, according to the FTC, is nothing new for Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical, Inc. which the FTC says also has sold a variety of bogus dietary supplements intended to treat cancer, Parkinson’s disease and other serious health conditions with some of their treatments costing as much as $100,000.

TIPS

As for healthcare products in general, you should be skeptical about companies that promise miraculous cures to illnesses and medical conditions. The world is full of snake oil salesmen. You should also be wary of any healthcare product that is sold exclusively either over the Internet or through mail-order advertisements. The best course of action is to ask your physician about the effectiveness of a particular product or program before you buy it. As for the Coronavirus specifically, the best places to get reliable information are the World Health Organization https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus and the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html You also can find trustworthy Coronavirus treatment information at the website of the FDA. https://www.fda.gov/patients/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-resources-patients

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.

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