While the Coronavirus pandemic has gotten considerably better in much of the United States and safe and effective vaccines are available, the pandemic still poses a significant health threat both here in the United States and around the world.  However, even though the absolute best thing you can do to protect your self from COVID 19 is to get one of the FDA approved vaccines, many people are still falling prey to unscrupulous scammers who are peddling phony cures and treatments for the Coronavirus.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced that it had sued Xlear, Inc. for violating the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act alleging that Xlear represented that its saline nasal spray provided protection against infection from the coronavirus and was a “simple, safe, and cheap option that could be an effective solution to the pandemic.”  Xlear made these claims on social media, podcasts and television commercials.  The truth is that there is absolutely no clinical trial or scientific evidence to support these false and misleading claims, according to the FTC.  Last July, the FTC sent a warning letter to Xlear demanding that they stop their misleading and deceptive advertising, but they failed to comply with the demand resulting in the FTC suing them to stop their misrepresenting their product.

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, and the FDA https://www.fda.gov/patients/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-resources-patients or the Centers for Disease Control https://www.cdc.gov/

Remember B.S. – Be skeptical.  Whenever there will be breakthroughs to treat, prevent or cure any disease, particularly COVID 19 you are going to hear about it through legitimate news sources first rather than through ads in emails, text messages, podcasts, television commercials or posts on social media.

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.”