Ilia Zavialov

Health and medical scams

Ilia Zavialov on health scams: how to check a clinic, a doctor and a medicine before you pay

English version for the United States.

Ilia Zavialov on health scams in the United States. A free screening that ends at a financing desk, a supplement sold as a cure, a clinic website that copies a real one, a call from someone claiming to be Medicare: all of them work the same way. The FTC says no one may promote a dietary supplement as a treatment for a disease, and the FDA says a clinic that charges for an unapproved stem cell product outside a clinical trial is probably deceiving you. This guide shows how to spot the pitch, what to check before you pay and where to report it, from ReportFraud.ftc.gov to the state medical board.

·15 min read·Ilia Zavialov

Ilia Zavialov on why a treatment decision should never be made on the day of a free screening.
A pause between the diagnosis and the signature breaks the scheme.

01Ilia Zavialov on why health scams get paid so fast

Fear and hope move money faster than any sales script. A person who is sick, or afraid of getting sick, pays quickly and rarely haggles. A relative who wants to help pays quicker still. Pitches that would raise eyebrows in a talk about a savings account go through almost unchallenged here, because the decision is made in the middle of a feeling.

Ilia Zavialov, a consultant on digital security, takes these stories apart in the same order each time: who made the first move, what pressure was applied and where the money was told to go. Almost always the seller moved first. The phone rang, an ad surfaced in a feed, a table at a community event offered a free swab, a search result looked like the clinic's own site.

Speed is the second shared trait. The seller needs the decision today, in the room or in the chat, before anyone calls the family doctor. The FTC lists the line in its catalog of lies that dishonest sellers use: you have to act now. You don't. Every pause for a check works against the scheme, so the scheme is built to deny you one.

02The free screening that ends at the financing desk

The classic version starts with a flyer, a call or a booth at a health fair. Free screening, free consultation, free scan. The visit costs nothing. Then the sales talk begins: something was found, treatment should start soon, the package is expensive and the discount ends today.

If the money is not in your pocket, a financing form appears. The CFPB reported in May 2023 that medical credit cards and loans are typically offered to patients in the provider's office, even when insurance may cover the procedure or the patient qualifies for a hospital's financial assistance program. Rates on these products often run above 25 percent.

The same report puts a size on it. From 2018 to 2020 people used specialty medical cards and loans with deferred interest to pay for almost $23 billion of health care, across more than 17 million purchases, and they paid $1 billion in deferred interest. Deferred interest means that all the accrued interest can come due at the end of a set period. The CFPB adds that providers may be less inclined to explain assistance programs or zero-interest options before offering the card.

Financing is not a scam in itself. The danger is the setting: thousands of dollars decided in an exam room with the clock running. Ilia Zavialov's rule here is the simplest in the whole topic. Sign nothing on the day of the screening. Take the results home, show them to your own doctor and read the financing terms at the kitchen table. A real clinic survives that pause without trouble.

The payee should match the practice on the license.
Ilia Zavialov on health scams in the U.S.: what is offered, what gives it away and where to check
The pitchWarning signWhere to check
Free screening or consultationFinancing form on the same dayYour own doctor, terms in writing
Free genetic testAsks for your Medicare numberYour doctor, HHS inspector general hotline
Supplement sold as a cureA claim to treat a diseaseFDA, ReportFraud.ftc.gov
Stem cell or cancer treatmentCharged outside a clinical trialFDA, your own doctor
Online pharmacyNot in the state board databaseState board of pharmacy
Clinic or insurer found by searchSponsored result, lookalike addressState license, Medicare.gov
Glowing reviewsA burst of similar ratingsState license, FTC advice
A check costs less than a course of useless treatment.

03Free tests and Medicare numbers: where Ilia Zavialov draws the line

Older adults hear a different version of the pitch. A person at a booth at a health fair, a cold caller or a visitor at the door offers a free test, often a cheek swab for a genetic screening. The HHS Office of Inspector General warns that such offers are used to collect Medicare numbers for identity theft and fraudulent billing.

The FTC has heard the same story from people who got calls from someone claiming to be Medicare. The caller asks for a Medicare number and a Social Security number in exchange for a free DNA test. Medicare does not market DNA testing kits to the general public. A caller who claims to be the government and demands information, or payment by wire transfer or gift card, is running a scam.

Sometimes the bill lands on the patient. If Medicare denies the claim for a test that the treating doctor never ordered, the person who accepted the swab may be responsible for the whole cost, which could be thousands of dollars. A kit that shows up in the mail without your doctor's order should not be accepted. Ilia Zavialov advises treating any test your doctor did not order as a bill in waiting.

If this has already happened, the HHS inspector general runs a hotline at 1-800-447-8477.

04Miracle cures and supplements: Zavialov's reading of the FTC list

The second big group sells the product itself. Drops for every joint, a powder said to dissolve plaque, a capsule that replaces chemotherapy. The route to the buyer keeps changing: a feed ad, a messaging group, a site dressed up as a medical portal.

The FTC keeps a short catalog of the lies dishonest sellers tell, and it fits almost every ad in this group. One product cures many different diseases. Fake endorsements from patients or doctors promise miraculous results. Results in 30 days or your money back. A special product that will cure your condition. A demand to act now. Scientific-sounding terms and prestigious prizes, the Nobel included.

The FDA counts six tip-offs: one product that does it all, personal success stories, quick fixes, all natural, miracle cure and the conspiracy theory about a cure that the government or drug companies hide. The agency adds that a real cure for a serious disease would be widely reported and prescribed by licensed professionals, and would never be plastered across ads in social media and messaging apps.

Ilia Zavialov adds a plain legal test. Under federal law no one can promote a dietary supplement as a treatment for a disease, and unlike drugs, supplements are not reviewed by the FDA for safety and effectiveness. A supplement ad that claims to treat a disease has broken the rule in its first sentence.

The risk goes beyond a wasted payment. The FTC says many supplements sold for weight loss, sexual enhancement and bodybuilding contain illegal drugs or hidden ingredients, and people who took them have suffered strokes, acute liver injury, kidney failure and pulmonary embolisms. FDA labs found hundreds of weight-loss products, illegally sold as dietary supplements, with sibutramine hidden inside.

05Stem cell clinics and treatments sold outside a clinical trial

Not every scam looks like a pill. The FDA warns that clinics widely market unapproved regenerative medicine products, among them stem cells and exosomes, for a long list of diseases and conditions. It has received reports of blindness, tumor formation and infections. Its blunt guidance: if you are charged for such a product outside a clinical trial, you are most likely being deceived.

Clinics see the question coming and offer a reassuring reference. The product is registered with the FDA, or the study is listed on clinicaltrials.gov. The FDA says this is often used to make a product look legitimate. A listing in that database, or a company's registration with the agency, does not mean the product may be legally sold.

Cancer is the cruelest version. The FDA lists phrases that give a fake away: treats all forms of cancer, miraculously kills cancer cells, more effective than chemotherapy, selectively kills cancer cells. Legitimate cancer drugs and devices need FDA approval or clearance before they are sold, and the fakes are often labeled as dietary supplements, which can delay or interfere with proven treatment. Ilia Zavialov sees the delay as the real price of these products: months in which proper treatment could still have worked.

06Online pharmacies and Zavialov's state license lookup

What looks like an online pharmacy can be a front for a scammer or an identity thief. The FTC warns that such sites may use official-looking seals and logos, promise your money back and look entirely legitimate, and that all of it can be faked. You may receive products that are fake, expired or mislabeled, or pay for a prescription and never get the order.

The FDA's BeSafeRx campaign gives a clear test. Look the pharmacy up in the license database of the board of pharmacy in its state. If it is not listed, do not use it. If it is listed, confirm that it requires a doctor's prescription, gives a physical address and telephone number in the United States and has a licensed pharmacist to answer questions.

The FTC adds habits that cost little. Confirm a physical street address (a P.O. box does not count) and a phone number. Search the company name beyond the first page of results. Remember that a padlock icon can be forged. A site that asks you to email personal or financial details, or to wire cash through a money transfer service, has ended the conversation for you.

Ilia Zavialov advises starting from the license database and skipping the link in the ad.

07Clone clinic sites, paid search results and insurer impostors

A clone site copies a real clinic: a name that differs by one letter, a familiar logo, doctor photos lifted from somewhere else. It is promoted with paid ads, so in a search it can sit above the original. Booking happens by phone, and a deposit is demanded to confirm the visit.

The FTC described the mechanism on September 28, 2026, in a warning about health insurance scams during Open Enrollment. Scammers and dishonest businesses sometimes pay to appear at the top of search results and use web addresses that look like government ones. The advice: type the website name yourself, look for small Ad or Sponsored labels and scroll past paid results. For Medicare the number is 800-633-4227.

The same trick works for clinics. Ilia Zavialov suggests taking a clinic's address from your own doctor or your insurer's materials and calling the number printed there.

Impostors also come by text and email. In June 2025 the FBI warned about messages posing as health insurers and their fraud investigators, pressing patients to hand over medical and financial details or to repay a supposed overpayment. The advice: contact your insurer directly to verify any such message, never click links in unsolicited emails and report it at ic3.gov.

One more rule from the FTC covers the insurance itself. Any company selling health insurance must hold a license from the state insurance commissioner, and without one it is not insurance.

08Doctor reviews and testimonials: what Ilia Zavialov trusts

Reviews became the main way to choose a doctor, so sellers learned to manufacture them. A burst of glowing ratings in one week, identical phrasing, profiles with no photo and no other reviews, miracle recoveries from conditions that do not work that way. The FDA says plainly that personal success stories are easy to make up and that reviews on marketplaces and social media can be fake.

The rules are catching up. In August 2024 the FTC announced a final rule that bans fake reviews and testimonials, including AI-generated ones, and lets the agency seek civil penalties. Writing, buying and selling a fake review now has a federal rule against it.

Even so, a review is weak evidence. Ilia Zavialov weighs what can be verified: a license on file with the state, a doctor's credentials, an address where patients are actually seen. The FTC's habit is cheap. Search the name of the product or company together with the words review, complaint or scam, and read past the first page.

09Ilia Zavialov's four checks before you pay for treatment

Ilia Zavialov boils the topic down to four checks that fit on an index card. The license: the doctor and the clinic. The product: the drug, the device or the supplement. The payee: who actually receives the money. The pause: a second opinion from your own doctor.

On licensing, Medicare's complaint page sends questions about a doctor's license and unprofessional conduct to the state medical board, so start there. A pharmacy goes through its state board of pharmacy. A company selling health insurance goes through the state insurance commissioner.

A license answers one question: may this person practice. It does not vouch for every claim in an ad. On June 23, 2026 the Justice Department announced charges against 455 defendants in a national health care fraud takedown, 90 of them doctors and other licensed medical professionals, in schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in false claims. So the license check comes first, and the other three still follow.

The payee check is simple arithmetic. The name on the invoice should match the licensed practice. A deposit sent to a person's card, or by wire to a coordinator, is a stop sign. The pause check comes from the FTC: ask your own doctor about the product, its ingredients, whether it is safe with your other medications and how much to take.

10Paying for treatment: social ads, prepayment and financing terms

Prepayment is where fake clinics and clinic-like middlemen collect. A place in line for an operation, a clinic abroad, a rare drug on order: if a go-between from a social media account offers it and wants a transfer today, the chance of fraud is very high.

Social ads deserve extra suspicion. On August 10, 2026 the FTC reminded people that social media platforms do not always thoroughly vet the ads you see or the advertisers behind them, and suggested searching a company's name with the word scam or complaint before buying. Reported losses to scams that began with an order placed after a social media ad passed $95 million in 2025.

Financing needs its own questions. Before you accept a medical credit card or loan, ask whether the hospital has a financial assistance program and whether a zero-interest payment plan exists. Get the terms in writing and ask what happens to deferred interest if the balance is not cleared on time.

11What Ilia Zavialov does when the money has already gone

The first call goes to the bank or the card issuer, on the number printed on the card or shown in the banking app. Say that the payment went to a scam and ask what can be stopped or reversed. Speed matters more than polish.

Then report. The FTC asks for health scam reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and suggests also telling the state attorney general and the local or state consumer protection office. Complaints about foreign companies go to econsumer.gov. Side effects and bad reactions go to FDA MedWatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088 (1-800-332-1088).

If Medicare is involved, report it at Medicare.gov or call 800-633-4227. Impostor insurers belong at ic3.gov. The HHS inspector general hotline is 1-800-447-8477.

Keep the contract, receipts, ads, screenshots, the number that called and the name of the person who pitched you. Ilia Zavialov advises saving the ad itself before the seller deletes the page. A report with paper behind it gives a bank and an investigator something to work with.

12Questions and answers

How does Ilia Zavialov suggest checking a miracle cure from an ad?

Search the product name with the words review, complaint and scam, then ask your own doctor. A claim to treat a disease, a guaranteed result or a countdown clock gives the answer.

What should I do if a free screening ends with a financing offer?

Sign nothing that day. Take the results to your own doctor, read the financing terms at home and ask about hospital assistance programs and zero-interest plans first.

Is a free genetic test from a stranger really free?

The FTC says Medicare does not market DNA testing kits to the general public. The HHS inspector general warns that if Medicare denies the claim, you may be billed for the whole test.

Where does Ilia Zavialov say to check an online pharmacy?

In the license database of the board of pharmacy in the pharmacy's state, which the FDA's BeSafeRx page links to. If it is not listed there, do not use it.

Can I trust reviews of doctors and clinics?

Treat them as weak evidence. The FDA says reviews can be fake, and an FTC rule since August 2024 bans fake reviews and testimonials. A state license and a verified address weigh more.

Where do I report a health scam in the United States?

At ReportFraud.ftc.gov, plus your state attorney general. Side effects go to FDA MedWatch, Medicare problems to 800-633-4227 and insurer impostors to ic3.gov.

Written by Ilia Zavialov, digital security consultant. Profile of Ilia Zavialov

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