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 Kingdom.

Ilia Zavialov on health scams in Britain. A free consultation that leads to a finance agreement, a miracle cure found on social media, a weight-loss jab offered without a prescription, a pharmacy website that is on no register, glowing reviews bought in bulk: the pitch changes and the method stays. The CQC registers clinics in England, the GMC registers doctors, the GPhC registers pharmacies and Report Fraud takes the report when it goes wrong. This guide explains what to look up before you pay and what to do afterwards.

·13 min read·Ilia Zavialov

Ilia Zavialov on why a private treatment should never be paid for on the day of a free consultation.
A pause between the quote and the signature breaks the scheme.

01Ilia Zavialov on why people pay first and check later

Health scams do not need clever technology. They need a worried person and a short deadline. Someone who is ill, or frightened of becoming ill, pays quickly, and a relative who wants to help pays quicker still. A request that would set off alarms in a chat about a savings account slides through when it arrives wrapped in hope.

Ilia Zavialov, who advises on digital security, takes each story apart in the same order: who made the first move, what pressure was applied and where the money was told to go. The first move almost always comes from the seller. A phone call, a social media advert for a jab, a website that looks like the local clinic, a message from a friend of a friend who swears by a tonic.

The deadline is the second thing they share. The seller wants the decision today, before you have spoken to your GP or slept on it. Any pause for a check works against the scheme, which is why the scheme is built to deny you one.

02Free consultations, treatment packages and the finance agreement

The pattern is simple. A free consultation, a scan or a skin analysis, and then a package. Something has been found, the course should begin soon, the price is high and the discount ends today. If the money is not in your pocket, a finance form appears on the desk.

The advertising rules give you a yardstick. Rule 12.3 of the CAP Code says practitioners must have relevant and recognised qualifications, and that advertisers should encourage people to take independent medical advice before committing to significant treatments, including invasive ones. A clinic that discourages a second opinion is working against the code.

The General Pharmaceutical Council publishes six tips for online health services, and they travel well to any private treatment. Check that the service and its professionals are registered with UK regulators. Ask how the service works. Answer questions about your health honestly. Find out your options. Expect to be asked for consent before information is shared with other professionals. Check what after-care you will get.

Ilia Zavialov adds a rule for the day of the consultation. Sign nothing, pay nothing and take the quote home. A quote in writing, with the name of the practitioner who will treat you and the name of the company that will invoice you, is the minimum a real clinic can offer.

The company on the contract should be the one on the register.
Ilia Zavialov on health scams in Britain: what is offered, what gives it away and where to check
The pitchWarning signWhere to check
Free consultation with a package priceA finance form on the dayWritten quote, your own GP
Clinic with a famous brand nameThe contract names another companyThe CQC register
Practitioner introduced as a doctorNo GMC reference number offeredThe GMC register search
Miracle cure onlineA cure for everything, money-back promiseReport Fraud medical scams page
Weight-loss jab advertOffered without a prescriptionMHRA and ASA guidance
Online pharmacyNo GPhC number or street addressGPhC register, MHRA list
Five-star reviewsMatching praise in one weekCMA rules, registers
A check costs less than a course of useless treatment.

03Checking the clinic: Ilia Zavialov starts with the CQC register

In England anyone who provides a regulated activity has to be registered with the Care Quality Commission, and carrying one on without registration is an offence. So for a clinic in England the first question is simple: is it registered, and under what name?

That second part matters. The CQC registers the legal entity that is directly responsible for the activity. It does not register brands, though it shows a brand name next to a service as also known as. The company named on your contract, the registered provider and the account that takes your deposit should lead back to the same legal entity. If they do not, ask why, in writing.

A clone site or a call centre that books patients on behalf of a famous clinic fails this test quietly. The logo is familiar. The legal entity is somebody else. Ilia Zavialov advises taking the name from the contract and searching for that name.

The rest of the UK has its own regulators. The GMC's guide names Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority in Northern Ireland alongside the CQC in England.

04Checking the person: Zavialov and the GMC register

The General Medical Council keeps the registers of doctors, physician associates and anaesthesia associates in the UK. Anyone can search them by name or GMC reference number to find a practitioner and see their registration status.

Ilia Zavialov's order of work is short. Get the full name of the practitioner who will actually treat you, then check that name on the register. The person at the front desk who sold you the consultation is a separate question.

The GMC's patient guide on cosmetic procedures says to check your practitioner's registration before the first appointment. For a surgical procedure it says to confirm that the clinic or hospital is registered with the CQC in England. For non-surgical treatments such as fillers or botulinum toxin, it says they should be carried out in a safe and suitable environment and notes that some providers join voluntary registers.

Report Fraud's description of fake medical websites includes endorsements from a doctor who cannot be tied to any known institution or clinical practice, backed by evidence that has never appeared in a recognised journal. A name on the register ties a person to a regulator. A name on a web page ties them to nothing.

05Miracle cures online: what Report Fraud describes

Report Fraud describes the typical fake health website in one breath. It promises a miracle cure or a wonder breakthrough, sold as a cure for acne, AIDS, arthritis, baldness, cancer, impotence or weight loss, with no testing behind it and no proof that it works. It offers prescription-only medicines without a prescription.

It shows testimonials from satisfied customers, and Report Fraud's point about them is blunt: anecdote is no substitute for the scientific evidence behind real medicines. It dangles a no-risk money-back guarantee, and the fraudsters simply vanish when you try to claim.

The advertising code writes the same warnings as rules. Rule 12.10 says a marketer must not suggest that a product is safe or effective merely because it is natural. Rule 12.2 bars discouraging essential treatment for conditions that need medical supervision. Rule 12.9 demands proof before claiming that a product is guaranteed to work, absolutely safe or free of side effects. Rule 12.18 adds that health professionals and celebrities must not be used to endorse medicines.

So a person in a white coat vouching for a medicine on camera is already outside the code. Ilia Zavialov advises saving the advert before it vanishes, because a complaint about a page that no longer exists is hard to act on.

06Weight-loss jabs, social media and the beauty salon: Ilia Zavialov's warning

Weight-loss medicines are a fresh opening for sellers because public interest is so high. The MHRA reminds people that these medicines are supplied only on a prescription from a healthcare professional, and that selling them in beauty salons or through social media without one is against the law.

The Advertising Standards Authority went after the advertising side. In December 2024 it warned that prescription-only weight-loss medicines cannot be advertised to the public, directly or indirectly, and that none of them is approved for people who are not obese. By July 2025 it had taken action against nine advertisers. Its rulings established that every injectable weight-loss medicine is prescription-only and cannot be advertised even without a name, and that phrases such as Weight Loss Injections, Weight Loss Pen and GLP-1 count as references to them.

For a reader this turns into a quick test. An advert for a weight-loss jab on social media is already outside the rules, and the account behind it deserves no further trust.

The same logic covers other conditions people find embarrassing. Between 2021 and 2025 the MHRA seized about 19.5 million doses of unlicensed erectile dysfunction medicines, 4.4 million of them in 2025. In 2025 it also disrupted more than 1,500 websites and social media accounts that were illegally selling medical products. The release warns that criminals exploit stigma and embarrassment to sell fake medicines, and that such pills may hold no active ingredient, the wrong dose, hidden drugs or toxic ingredients.

07Online pharmacies and the GPhC register

Every legitimate pharmacy in Great Britain, online ones included, has to be on the register of the General Pharmaceutical Council. The GPhC calls its register the only way to confirm that a pharmacy is operating legally. Find the registration number on the site, usually under About us or at the foot of the home page, and search the register by name or number. If the pharmacy is not listed, do not buy from it.

The GPhC, quoting the MHRA, lists ten signs of a fake: a product name in the web address, spelling mistakes, pop-up adverts, claims such as 100% safe or no side effects, next-day delivery promises, prescription-only medicines and prices on the home page, no prescription needed, payment in cryptocurrency, a request not to name the medicine or the site in the bank reference and no street address.

The stakes are real. Fake medicines have been found to contain mercury, arsenic, rat poison and cement, and a fake pharmacy can also lead to theft of data and credit fraud.

Two more tools help. GOV.UK runs a check against the MHRA's Not Recommended list: a site on it may be selling medicines illegally, and a suspicious seller can be reported to the MHRA. Suspicious medicines and websites can also be reported through the Yellow Card scheme. Report Fraud adds a human test: a registered pharmacy has to check that a medicine is suitable before it sells it, so a site that asks no questions has told you what it is. Ilia Zavialov advises doing this search before you open the checkout page, with the registration number in hand.

08Reviews, ratings and Zavialov's reading of the CMA rules

Reviews are where most people begin when they pick a private clinic or a supplement, so sellers manufacture them. A run of five-star ratings in one week, matching phrases, profiles with no history, recoveries from conditions that do not clear up that way.

The law now covers this. Since 6 April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans fake reviews, paid reviews that hide the payment, the hiding of negative reviews and distorted star ratings. The CMA can fine a business up to 10 per cent of its global turnover, and on 27 March 2026 it opened five investigations into reviews and star ratings.

That gives a reader one useful fact: a clinic that buys reviews is breaking a law with real penalties, so a pattern of suspicious praise is worth reporting. It does not turn a review into proof, though. Ilia Zavialov weighs what can be checked: a name on the GMC register, a CQC registration, an address where patients are really seen.

09Paying safely: cards, Section 75 and bank transfers

How you pay can decide whether you get the money back. Report Fraud advises against paying for online health purchases by money transfer, urges care with direct bank payments and says never to send confidential personal or financial details by email. The GPhC's list of fake-pharmacy signs adds two payment red flags: a request to pay in cryptocurrency and an instruction not to mention the medicine in the bank reference.

A credit card brings Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act into play for purchases priced from £100 to £30,000. A debit card has chargeback, which the Financial Ombudsman Service says usually runs for around 120 days, although the bank is under no obligation to start one.

A deposit for treatment is a purchase like any other. Pay it by card, to the legal entity named in your contract, and keep the receipt. Ilia Zavialov advises declining any request to pay a private individual, to use a transfer for speed or to send a deposit to a coordinator.

10What Ilia Zavialov does first when money has gone

Ring the bank straight away on the number on your card, or dial 159, the short number that connects customers of more than 99 per cent of UK retail current accounts to their bank and cannot be spoofed.

Then report it to Report Fraud, which replaced Action Fraud on 4 December 2025. The number, 0300 123 2040, stayed the same, and the crime number you are given is useful to your bank.

For a clinic, seller or advert that broke the trading rules, tell Citizens Advice on 0808 223 1133. It passes reports to Trading Standards and does not investigate them itself.

If you have already taken a product you are worried about, see your GP. Suspicious medicines and websites can be reported to the MHRA through the Yellow Card scheme.

Keep everything: the contract, receipts, screenshots of the advert, the number that rang and the name of the person who pitched you. Ilia Zavialov advises saving the advert first, since sellers delete pages quickly. A report with paper behind it gives the bank and the police something to work with.

11Questions and answers

How does Ilia Zavialov suggest checking a clinic in England?

Find the legal entity behind it, look that name up on the CQC register, then check the practitioner on the GMC register. Compare the name with the contract and with the account that takes the deposit.

Where do I check a doctor in the UK?

On the GMC registers, by name or GMC reference number. They list doctors, physician associates and anaesthesia associates with their registration status.

How do I know an online pharmacy is genuine?

Find its GPhC registration number on the site and search the GPhC register for it. If the pharmacy is not listed, do not buy. A site that skips the prescription check, takes cryptocurrency or lists no street address shows further warning signs.

Is it legal to buy weight-loss jabs without a prescription?

No. The MHRA says weight-loss medicines are supplied only on a prescription, and selling them in beauty salons or through social media without one is against the law.

Can I trust reviews of private clinics?

Treat them as weak evidence. Fake and hidden paid reviews have been banned since 6 April 2025, but a name on a regulator's register is worth more than any star rating.

Who does Ilia Zavialov say to tell first if I paid a fake clinic?

Your bank, or 159, then Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040. Citizens Advice on 0808 223 1133 passes trading complaints to Trading Standards.

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

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