The image of media institutions in Romania is used by ghost sites that promise “miracle drugs” that will get rid of all your problems. Ghost sites from the countries of the post-Soviet space, even the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, speaks about this, who speaks of a “scam”. It is carefully created: media sites from Romania are copied, the image of famous Romanian doctors is used, appearing with fabricated interviews about the effectiveness of the products, and to be even more credible, the name of the Ministry of Health and the National Agency for Medicines are used means

An investigation by recorder.ro for 2021 showed that the center has a business worth tens of millions of euros. Today, two years later, the scam continues and the so-called drugs are being sold illegally, not certified by any competent authority. Rafeel shrugs as he talks about the solution because the servers change “very quickly” and he wants to campaign to keep people out of the scammers’ web.

The image of HotNews.ro is fraudulently used by a site that advertises a so-called anti-stress drug. Hotnews.ro has nothing to do with this false advertisement.

An image in which the identity of HotNews.ro has been fraudulently used.

Searching the internet, I found that the Digi or Antena 3 image is also used in a similar way.

An image that uses a fake Digi identity

An image that falsely uses the identity of Antena 3 and doctor Radu Zamfir

How Romanians fool

How to get to such a site? Many times, when you read news on a website, there will be an advertisement that, if you click on it, will redirect you to a ghost portal. In some cases, the image of the decision-makers of the day, such as President Klaus Iohannis, Nicolae Chuke or Marcel Čolaku, is used, as well as messages on interesting topics related to pensions and salaries.

On the site you go to, you can’t access the ad you started with because the “news” is inactive, but all the others are available and lead to pages where images are copied from media sites that appear to be promoting these products.

Illegal “medical” scam and fabricated interviews with doctors

The website that fraudulently used HotNews.ro’s image was promoting a so-called stress medication called Tonerin.

However, it is not approved or registered as a medicine in Romania, representatives of the National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices told HotNews.ro.

Tonerin is not officially registered in Romania even as a food additive, representatives of the National Institute for Research and Development of Food Bioresources, the institution that deals with food additives officially presented on the Romanian market, explained to HotNews.ro.

Both the National Medicines Agency and the National Institute for Food Bioresources Research and Development say they have no authority over such online scams, with the National Consumer Protection Authority and the police responsible in this case.

For credibility, the site also uses images of several famous doctors, including cardiologist Maria Dorobantsu. The site publishes fabricated interviews.

And this draws attention to the fact that this is “a big scam, which can become a victim of pensioners and not only any person.” “It all started on May 19, last Friday, when a gentleman turned to me for a consultation, to advise him how to take these medicines, miraculous medicines that clean, he says, all blood vessels. I also asked for a link and when I looked, I was horrified. First of all, I am not, nor are any of my colleagues, among the named people of completely different specialties, for example, Professor Irinel Popescu, who performs liver transplantation, and does not treat hypertension. They use the names of doctors and university professors. I don’t even know how to spell Carol Davila University correctly, I write through the “k” and so on and all the information given is wrong and false. They are using language that is completely inappropriate, unscientific, and thus causing great harm to people,” the doctor told Digi 24.

The use of commonly known medical names can mislead people, even if the information on the website is not only incorrect, but even questionable.

For example, at the bottom of the page with the terms of purchase, it is written that “adultery is inhumane.”

In another case, which features a fake tribute with the Antena 3 logo, the fraudsters also use the image of Dr. Radu Zamfir, head of the Transplant Agency, who they falsely claim is a parasitologist and was Michael Jackson’s personal physician.

Dialogue with Elena, the operator, who also introduces herself as a “Bayer specialist”

To find out how the “business” works, I left my name and phone number in the form on the website, the only way to contact the company and make a purchase. Not later than 5 minutes later, a woman with a strong Bessarabian accent called us, introducing herself as Olena, a “Bayer specialist”.

During the discussion I was told that it is clearly a medicine but natural based, that you need a 40 day course of treatment which will cost 795, but you can also buy just four boxes for 636 lei. He told me that the so-called medicine is made in Bulgaria and that he can give me a discount of 512 lei. When I asked if she was from Moldova, Olena said she was from “Moldova over there”.

Below is a conversation with the operator:

Reporter: Hello, good day.

Operator: My name is Olena, I am an operator and specialist of the Bayer…Baner company (website biolink.of.by – none) and I present to you the drug for tension Tonerin. I am calling you to order, have you applied on the website?

Reporter: Yes, I want to ask if it’s just for tension, I’ve seen it has a lot more effects and is good for a lot of things.

Well, I will introduce you to the product and let’s know more about it. First tell me where you are from.

Bucharest.

Yes, well, from Bucharest. For you or someone else?

For me. Because I have some problems and I wanted to know if this will help me because I can’t. I went to doctors and couldn’t find a cure for these pre-menopausal disorders. Do you think it helped me to see that these drugs have many, many good effects?

Yes, yes, but you tell me your age first.

49.

So, you want to get rid of voltage problems, right?

Not necessarily for voltage. I mean I saw more benefits there.

Elena shows me how Tonerin cleans the blood vessels, thins the blood and reduces the risk of stroke, and insists that I want to get rid of my blood pressure problems.

But is it medicine or is it natural based only from plants because I am afraid to take such medicine?

This is a very good drug for tension, for blood circulation, for blood thinning, for the elasticity of blood vessels…

But is it plant-based or laboratory-based?

It is made in a laboratory and is a natural preparation, that is, nothing is prepared chemically. To get this remedy, you need to take it for at least a month, because natural bases are known to work very well, but you need to take it longer.

I mean, how many months do I need to take?

The basic preparation consists of four boxes. Four boxes will cost 636 RON.

So how long does it take?

It will last for 40 days, or if we want to get the optimal half treatment, it is six boxes. Five boxes of one box are free and cost 795 lei.

Is the drug produced in Romania?

Medicines are produced in Bulgaria.

I saw it advertised by our Hotnews site.

It is also being promoted in Bulgaria and Romania.

And on Hotnews? I went to your site there and saw that Hotnews was there and I read Hotnews. So I say, are the drugs serious?

So.

What about Hotnews?

So. (In fact, HotNews.ro has nothing to do with the ghost site and the product)

I tell her that I don’t have that much money, and Elena offers me a discount of up to 512 lei. I tell him I get paid on May 27th and if he can call me then. He answers yes.

At the end, I ask her if she is from Moldova, because I think so from her accent. The answer tells me that he is actually from the Republic of Moldova: “Yes, we are from Moldova, from there to you.”

All I had to do was call me on May 27th when I got my paycheck.

Recorder.ro investigation in 2021: a coordinated international network from Russia and Ukraine

Recorder.ro wrote in 2021 about this huge scam that will bring in tens of millions of euros.

The international network, according to Recorder.ro, is coordinated from Russia and Ukraine, and people are lured by false advertisements posted on the Internet, persuading them to abandon the treatment prescribed by doctors and replace it with phantom nutritional supplements that can worsen their lives and endanger them. danger.

“Behind this story is a whole industry that works at the international level. We found hundreds of duplicate websites in several languages ​​with similar or even identical design in Romania and many other countries. For example, for diabetes, such products as Dialine, Dianol, Suganorm, and Insumed are sold online. In case of hypertension, products with the names Detonic, Normalife, Neocard, Recardio, Cardiline, Cardio NJR, HeartTonic are sold using the same method. But the names of supplements are constantly changing, because new means are invented in the network on the conveyor belt. When certain products are no longer successful in a country or are the subject of unfavorable press articles, the chain replaces them with others. Basically, they come up with other product names and change the packaging, but keep the promotion methods,” Recorder.ro wrote at the time. (Read Recorder.ro’s investigation HERE)