Pseudoscience is profitable. The victims pay with their health — and sometimes their lives.
QuackeryWatch exposes health fraud, bogus remedies, and the promoters who profit from desperate patients. From Scientology's Narconon drug rehabs to Hulda Clark's cancer "cures," from Kevin Trudeau's infomercial empire to homeopathy on the NHS — if it's quackery, we're watching it. This site is a companion to HealthWatcher.net and ChiroWatch.com.
Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright's exhaustive account of the Church of Scientology — from L. Ron Hubbard's founding to David Miscavige's leadership and the celebrity pipeline.
Narconon Under Fire: NBC Rock Center Investigation
NBC's Rock Center examined Narconon — Scientology's drug rehabilitation network — after multiple deaths at facilities in Oklahoma, Georgia, and elsewhere since 2009. Four young people died at Narconon Arrowhead alone.
Narconon Rejected in Hockley Valley, Ontario
In August 2013, Narconon International attempted to open a facility near Orangeville, Ontario. Concerned citizens packed a public meeting and launched a petition. Former Narconon patient David Edgar Love led the campaign to stop it.
Scientology-Linked Rehab Ordered Closed in Quebec
In April 2012, a regional health agency shut down a Narconon facility in Trois-Rivières after at least four clients were hospitalized due to the centre's methods. A 2010 investigation by Le Soleil had already documented fraud and abuses at the site.
Scientologists at War — Channel 4 (UK)
Broadcast June 17, 2013. David Miscavige deployed operatives to harass former senior Scientologist Marty Rathbun at his Texas home for 199 consecutive days. Tony Ortega called it a window into Scientology Inc.'s accelerating institutional breakdown. Also: WikiLeaks Scientology pages document how the organization controls media, influences politicians, and keeps members in line.
Hulda Clark's Tijuana Cancer Clinic
Clark — an unlicensed naturopath — claimed all cancers can be cured within five days using a low-voltage zapper and herbs. Her Mexican clinic attracted desperate patients from across North America. One daughter's account: after a month of "treatment," her mother's tumour grew to two-and-a-half times its original size. Clark pronounced her cured. She died shortly after.
Hulda Clark Lawsuit Reinstated
The California Court of Appeals reinstated a malicious prosecution suit filed by Dr. Stephen Barrett against Clark and her attorney Carlos Negrete. The court cited "the scurrilous nature of the defendants' allegations and their efforts to publicize them widely on the Internet, coupled with their utter failure to offer any proof."
Bill O'Neill & the Canadian Cancer Research Group
On May 10, 2007, Ottawa Police served a warrant on the CCRG (Canadian Cancer Research Group) clinic in the Glebe. The CTV documentary Dr. Hope (January 2006) had already exposed the clinic — one of Canada's most dubious cancer operations.
CSCT / Zoetron FTC Settlement
Michael John Reynolds and John Leslie Armstrong settled FTC charges for offering bogus electromagnetic cancer therapy to Americans — and Canadians. The settlement prohibits all future false health claims. The clinic operated from Canada.
Kevin Trudeau: From Infomercial King to Federal Prison
Trudeau built a multi-million dollar empire on infomercials for products he claimed could cure cancer, dissolve fat, and reverse disease — without diet or exercise. The FTC sued him repeatedly: in 1998 (hair growth, memory, weight loss); in 2003 (Coral Calcium Supreme and Biotape pain relief); in 2004 (banned from infomercials, ordered to pay $2 million). He was found in contempt of court in June 2004 for continuing to market coral calcium as a cancer cure. By 2013 he was in Zurich, Switzerland, trying to avoid extradition. Canadian bookstores continued carrying his books long after his FTC convictions — a fact that Dr. Polevoy publicly condemned.
⚠️ A Child Died
In 2005, five-year-old Abubakar Tariq Nadama — son of a British physician — died in cardiac arrest during chelation therapy for autism at a Pennsylvania clinic. EDTA, used to chelate heavy metals, extracts calcium far more readily than mercury, causing fatal heart failure. Dr. Stephen Barrett (Quackwatch): "Chelation for autism is a fraud. There is no sufficient evidence that autism is caused by mercury or lead toxicity." The doctor who administered the treatment was an ear, nose and throat specialist — not a pediatrician or child psychiatrist.
The Lancet: "No convincing evidence"
A Swiss-UK review of 110 trials found homeopathy performed no better than placebo. The Lancet called on doctors to be "bold and honest" with patients and declared the time for further studies "over." The British Medical Association called homeopathy "witchcraft" and voted to end NHS funding.
George Vithoulkas Makes a Fool of Himself
The world's most revered homeopath believes AIDS was caused by repeated antibiotic use among gay men with venereal disease. His fundamentalist approach to Hahnemann's teachings actively opposes vaccines and evidence-based medicine. By giving homeopathy scientific-sounding cover, he poisons public health discourse.
Arizona's Homeopathic Board: The Second-Chance Clinic
Doctors who lose their MD licenses in California, Florida, and Utah for sex abuse, fraud, and malpractice have found a backdoor back into practice through Arizona's Homeopathic Board of Medical Examiners. The cases documented here are not anomalies — they are the system working as designed.
Ontario Homeopathy Regulation
The Transitional Council for the College of Homeopaths of Ontario (TC-CHO) is the sole body authorized to regulate homeopathy under Ontario's Regulated Health Professions Act. Any organization claiming to certify homeopaths independently faces fines up to $200,000 for a second offence.
TCM and Endangered Species
Demand for tiger bone, rhino horn, and musk deer drives poaching networks that rival the illegal arms trade. The World Wildlife Fund estimates ivory from over 2,500 elephants was seized in 2011's 13 largest busts alone. TCM practitioners supply — and fuel — this market.
Chinese Herbalists: Illegal Medicines on the High Street
BBC Radio Five Live found 67 UK outlets selling Chinese medicines under investigation. Sandi Stay had both kidneys removed after taking a Chinese herbal remedy for psoriasis — it contained a banned toxic drug. The sector remains unregulated, with no safety testing and no oversight.
A4M Founders Sue Critics for $120 Million
Ronald Klatz and Robert Goldman — founders of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, who earned their MD degrees in Belize — sued two academic researchers for $120 million after the researchers publicly questioned their anti-aging claims. Even Dr. Andrew Weil — no friend of conventional medicine — calls anti-aging advocates "false prophets" who are "long on pitch and short on scientific substance."
Monte Kline — Largest Quackbusting Settlement in History
The State of Washington shut down Monte Kline's Pacific Health Center after he used electrodermal testing (EAV) to fabricate diagnoses and then sell patients hundreds of dollars of unnecessary supplements. Tim Bolen inserted himself into Kline's appeal, as he does with most quack defendants.
FDA Warning: Mercola.com
The FDA reviewed mercola.com and found that products including Living Fuel Rx, Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil, and Chlorella were being marketed with disease-treatment claims that made them unapproved new drugs under federal law. Mercola was ordered to cease.
FTC Cracks Down on Coral Calcium
A coordinated FDA/FTC action targeted both Bob Barefoot and Kevin Trudeau for claiming coral calcium cures cancer. Good Morning America aired an expert takedown of the infomercials. Both men had already banked millions before regulators acted.
Canada's Bill C-51 — Natural Health Product Regulation
In 2008 the Conservative government introduced legislation to regulate natural health products and devices. An industry-backed smear campaign — led largely by Truehope/EMPowerplus and fronted by lawyer Shawn Buckley — tried to kill it. Globe and Mail columnist André Picard exposed the campaign as industry astroturfing.
QXCI: How Can a Machine Diagnose Cancer?
After receiving a complaint from a Quebec woman who was told she had a brain tumour by a QXCI device, QuackeryWatch tracked down clinics and vendors across Canada selling these systems for over $13,500 USD. Some buyers were registered health professionals. The manufacturer declined to attend a University of Waterloo open meeting to defend their device's claims.
⚠️ Warning: Anti-Semitism in the "Health Freedom" Movement
QuackeryWatch has documented the intersection of health quackery and far-right extremism. Ryke Geerd Hamer's "New Medicine" cult — active in Quebec and across Canada — teaches that cancer is psychological in origin and that conventional treatment should be refused. Hamer served 19 months in a German prison for the illegal practice of medicine and has been held responsible for the deaths of dozens of cancer patients. His published writings include virulent anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby similarly promoted laetrile cancer quackery alongside Holocaust denial and Rothschild conspiracy theories. This is not a coincidence — it is a documented pattern.
Alex Orbito Charged with Fraud in Toronto
Filipino "psychic surgeon" Alex Orbito — once a minister to actress Shirley MacLaine — was charged in Toronto in June 2005 with fraud over $5,000 after seeing 600 patients in a Best Western hotel room at $135 each. He claimed to reach into patients' bodies to remove "negative energies." Police released him on $35,000 bail.
Adam Dreamhealer — CBC Gives a Platform to a Fraud
A university student claiming to heal cancer patients by staring at their photographs appeared on George Stroumboulopoulos's CBC program without a single critical question. James Randi offered Dreamhealer one million dollars to demonstrate his abilities under controlled conditions. He never collected.