A dear friend of mine called the other day to tell me about something she had seen on social media. She knew it would interest me because it was a natural “cure” for Alzheimer’s disease and it was being touted by someone famous.

Did that last paragraph make you cringe a little or maybe roll your eyes? It should have.

Why? Because what my friend had stumbled upon was a video scam that has been going around that tries to separate people like me, who care for someone with advanced early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and my money.

The video my friend described was purportedly of CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who was reporting on a natural formula that reverses Alzheimer’s disease. One scam has it as some kind of honey with turmeric; the one my friend saw dealt with Japanese berries and some sort of tree sap tea.

A quick search online to verify this led me to a disclaimer podcast from Gupta himself.

“No, that is not me,” Gupta says in the podcast from last August. “And it’s not my colleague Anderson Cooper either who you hear in the clip as well. What you just heard is fake, a deepfake AI.”

Honestly, it’s not surprising that scammers manage to fool people. Those of us who are caring for someone with Alzheimer’s desperately want answers. We deal with grief each day as we see our person slowly decline, knowing that this will not end well.

Then the scammers add someone like Gupta, whom we are inclined to trust. Throw in a famous news anchor like Cooper and it adds to the sham. Apparently, the scammers also have been known to use deep-fake versions of actor Bruce Willis’ relatives. Willis has been diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia.

The thing with this scam, as well as so many others that can be found on social media, is that they play on our biases. They take on a conspiratorial tone. “Here’s what the medical professionals aren’t telling you,” they often say.

Often, they also tout “natural” or homemade relief, as if somehow something that purports to be natural is inherently better than something synthetic. Just remember that arsenic is natural, too.

However, there are a few things you can do to prevent being scammed by this or anything like it. I’ve seen this approach for supplements for things from weight loss to autism to menopausal pain.

First, before you sign up for anything and before you hand over your credit card information, stop and do some research.

Before purchasing any supplement or health-related product online, take the following steps, according to Malwaretips, a cybersecurity website that has a section on scams:

• Check the domain name — legitimate health outlets use .com, .org, or .gov, not .fun or .info.
• Research the company’s name on the Better Business Bureau and the FDA’s warning database.
• Look for scientific citations from credible journals or medical institutions.
• Search the product name followed by the word “scam” to see existing reports.
• Avoid any ad that uses celebrity endorsements for medical cures.
• Consult your doctor before starting any supplement that claims to treat or prevent diseases.

In addition to these excellent tips, consider using the thought process that we journalists use when trying to determine whether a source is good or not. Ask yourself: Why is this person touting this product? What do they have to gain by telling me this? What credibility do they have to be saying what they’re saying? If it’s on social media, is a credible source (in this case, the Alzheimer’s Association) reporting the same thing?

Gupta in his podcast says something similar, although he also offers tips to figure out whether something is deep fake. I fear that as AI gets better, it’s going to be even harder to tell.

However, with someone like Gupta, be assured that he isn’t going to be using social media to get the word out.

“If it’s me, and I’m talking about Alzheimer’s disease, and I am talking about a big breakthrough, it’s not gonna be on some shadowy social media site,” Gupta says on his podcast. “I’m gonna proclaim it loud and clear, hopefully with a lot of evidence and a lot of context so it can be most helpful to you.”

This, of course, is exactly how it should be.

• Joan Oliver is the former Northwest Herald assistant news editor. She has been associated with the Northwest Herald since 1990. She can be reached at jolivercolumn@gmail.com.