Medical scams are damaging patients’ trust

Barely a day goes by before I receive a message from a follower on social media informing me of a fake account using my images to spam them. As a doctor, this deeply concerns me. My main purpose for doing media is to challenge health misinformation online and to educate the public about key health messages.

Worryingly, there are now more sophisticated means used to deceive and exploit vulnerable people, such as “deepfake” videos generated by artificial intelligence (AI). This can be done with pictures, audio clips and videos and it is becoming a significant cause for concern for experts in the public eye.

One of my close friends, Dr Amir Khan, has fallen victim to deepfake videos being generated using his face. Fraudsters have used his TV appearances and social media to create false videos of him endorsing unlicensed drugs and misleading viewers about conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. This has been a very unsettling and frightening experience for him.

While we can report and block such accounts, we have no control over where else these images and videos are being shared.

The Government is planning a law to prosecute those who create sexually explicit deepfakes. This is a positive step, but there also needs to be more urgent action on medical and health exploitation in deepfakes.

On reviewing the accounts pretending to be me, I often find pictures taken from my page with misinformation in the captions. Messages being sent from them include requests for money for medical research, as well as selling products with no evidence.

I immediately block and report these accounts, and I also advise my followers to do the same, but I still feel anxious about how far and wide they have travelled.

I urge everyone to be more cautious about the content you view, especially in health contexts. Verify the details, compare it to credible sources like NHS websites, reach out to relevant professionals on their verified pages before acting on anything. Protecting yourself in this new digital era is vital.

Dr Punam Krishan is an NHS GP in Glasgow, medical educator and director of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine