Recently the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against Eric Anthony Nepute and his company Quickwork LLC for violating the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act by deceptively marketing products containing Vitamin D and zinc as being scientifically proven to be able to treat or prevent COVID-19.  This is the first case filed by the FTC using this new law which was passed in 2020 and made it illegal to engage in deceptive marketing related to the treatment, cure, prevention, mitigation or diagnosis of COVID-19.  Nepute and his company sold the bogus supplement under the brand name “Wellness Warrior” claiming it was even more effective than the COVID-19 vaccines.

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.”

TIPS

As for healthcare products in general, you should be skeptical about any company that promises 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 or the Centers for Disease Control https://www.cdc.gov/

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.

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and click on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”