John Cormack, a retired doctor from South Woodham, has been heavily involved with a British Medical Journal investigation into an online scam, which was published last week (July 17, 2024).

The scam involves deep fakes using well-known media doctors, where scammers use artificial intelligence to map a digital likeness of a real-life human being onto a video that isn't theirs.

These videos can be convincing, with one recent study suggesting that up to half of all people shown deep fakes talking about scientific subjects cannot distinguish them from authentic videos.

The scam can be highly dangerous, with some videos encouraging patients to stop the medication they are taking and instead buy products which are ineffective.

This could cause patients to run into serious problems.

Trusted names, including Hillary Jones, Michael Mosley and Ragan Chatterjee, are just some of the names being used.



One screenshot from a deepfake video of Michael Mosley, promoting a fad medical product. (Photo: John Cormack, 20.06.24)

John, who worked as a doctor in South Woodham for 40 years, worked with The British Medical Journal to try and capture a sense of the scale of the deep fake doctors across social media.

Having worked trying to tackle misinformation during the pandemic, Cormack was quick to notice the rising trend of deep fake videos.

He said: "Some of these scams are particularly dangerous as they advise patients to stop taking the medication prescribed for high blood pressure or 'cholesterol' - or 'diabetes' - and instead take untested remedies purchased online.

"Needless to say, this may well result in medical calamities, conditions against which the 'remedies' advertised online claim to protect."

He adds his disgust at the scams using videos of Dr Michael Mosley, who went missing in June and was later found dead after suffering severe heat stroke: "The scammers did not stop posting new deepfake videos of him appearing to advertise their products even after he went missing.

"The latest claimed to be the last interview he gave - how sick is that?" He says.

Dr Cormack also outlines how scammers prioritise making a quick buck over the general population's health, saying: "The bottom line is, it's much cheaper to spend your cash on making videos than it is on doing research and coming up with new products and getting them to market in the conventional way,"

A spokesperson for Meta, the company that owns both Facebook and Instagram, on which many of the videos found by Cormack were hosted, told The BMJ: "We will be investigating the examples highlighted by the British Medical Journal. 

"We don't permit content that intentionally deceives or seeks to defraud others, and we're constantly working to improve detection and enforcement.

"We encourage anyone who sees content that might violate our policies to report it so we can investigate and take action."

Chris Stokel-Walker, a freelance journalist working for The British Medical Journal, details six main things to do if you believe you have found a deep fake online.

• Be sceptical, look carefully at the audio and image.
• Attempt to contact the person endorsing the product to test if the audio is legitimate
• Leave a comment questioning its veracity, you may not be the only one with concerns and this could dissuade others from believing the video's claims
• Use the platforms reporting tools
• Spread the word, and encourage others to follow medical advice

John repeats such sentiments, advising people to be "very wary" of any advertisements for healthcare products advertised on Facebook.