Confronting medical grifting: Fraudulent and unproven products and interventions in apheresis, transfusion and biotherapies, 2025, Adkins et al

[Mij]

Summary

Medical scams or grifting has long been a societal issue, though in recent years, the problem has become increasingly mainstream, especially as it relates to transfusion medicine, apheresis and biotherapies. Unfortunately, unsubstantiated medical claims, or unfounded interventions such as therapeutic plasma exchange for longevity or dangerous stem cell injections, are leading to significant medical waste and patient harm. Herein, we review contemporary medical grifts, cognitive biases and present framework for managing these issues to ensure legitimate care and safety for patients.
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[Mij]

"Compounding these biases, humans are often worse at recalling where they learned a fact even when they vividly remember the fact itself. According to the source monitoring framework, people frequently retain content but lose track of its origin, so statements from unreliable purveyors can persist unchallenged. Repeated exposure—especially via social media feeds—further erodes source attributions, reinforcing misremembered claims and making corrective interventions far less effective. Repetition across platforms thus acts like an ‘origin eraser’, letting misinformation circulate untethered from its unreliable source and resurface later as an apparently free-standing fact, further reinforcing the grifter's narrative.

Furthermore, many of the sellers of these unproven therapies appeal to desperation, targeting their products to individuals with chronic or terminal illness who may be particularly vulnerable, especially when conventional medicine offers limited options. Finally, by framing benefits as subjective (e.g. ‘you'll feel younger’), purveyors make it practically impossible to disprove their assertions. Together, these strategies create a persuasive illusion of legitimacy, making grifting difficult to detect—and harder to challenge".