RIYADH, 2 August 2006 — Police arrested here yesterday an Egyptian man who was accused of selling a fraudulent cancer treatment.
The arrest of the alleged snake-oil salesman was made after the Ministry of Health received a complaint about a man posing as a doctor. He was reportedly sending SMS messages advertising a cancer treatment.
According to a ministry spokesman, the man was meeting his victims and administering undisclosed drugs that had no beneficial value, and in some cases may have caused adverse respiratory side effects.
“The suspect, an Egyptian, was arrested at a city hotel where he was meeting his patients,” Khaled Al-Mirghalani, a spokesman of the Ministry of Health, told Arab News yesterday.
The alleged quack was on a visit visa to the Kingdom and had contacted prospective patients through the Internet and mobile phones, the spokesman added.
In order to lure the victims to his trap, the man would conduct a breathing-therapy exercise with his targets and convince them that he could help them further.
“The initial therapy gave patients false hope for a cure and they were prepared to pay the money demanded by the suspect,” said Al-Mirghalani, who did not say how many people the man might have duped. The ministry did say the man had only been in the country for a short while.
The ministry reported that one aromatherapy substance the man was using could have caused allergic reactions to some people while another drug contained ethylene alcohol that could adversely affect a person’s glucose level, particularly with diabetics. The ministry also said that the doctor endangered the lives of his customers because his fake treatments could have made their conditions worse.
The ministry has taken this opportunity to warn people in the Kingdom about false physicians promising overnight cures for terminal conditions. It’s always good to check the background of a doctor and assure that he has a license to practice, the ministry spokesman said, in order to avoid being suckered by a medical grifter.
“They want to earn extra bucks by exploiting the patients’ mental instability when they are suffering from terminal diseases such as cancer,” said a statement from the ministry.
