Why do the elderly become the biggest victims of health care product fraud?

With the continuous improvement of living standards, the health care awareness of the elderly is gradually strengthened, and the demand for health care products is increasing. However, in recent years, it has been frequently reported that the elderly have been fooled into buying health care products, and the situation that the elderly group has fallen into the "health care product fraud trap" has become more and more serious. Some lawless elements use the characteristics of asymmetric information and weak cognitive ability of the elderly to set various traps, exaggerate false propaganda and infringe on the rights and interests of the elderly. Recently, relevant local departments have launched special rectification actions to crack down, clean up and rectify the chaos of health care products. I believe that such illegal activities will be effectively curbed. At the same time, the elderly also need to establish a scientific and correct understanding of health care products. Health care products are not medicines and cannot cure diseases. Don't trust the so-called "health lectures" and blindly believe the exaggerated propaganda of the so-called experts that "drugs can cure all diseases", so as not to delay the treatment opportunity. As the children of the elderly, we should also pay more attention to the elderly and make up for their emotional lack and psychological needs.

In recent years, the crime of health products fraud has shown a trend of expanding the crime area, increasing the amount involved and constantly renovating the modus operandi. In particular, some criminal gangs operate in a corporate mode, taking advantage of the fact that some elderly people are not aware of health care and fraud prevention, giving gifts, free medical examinations, free lectures and free travel as bait to obtain information about the elderly, and then organizing special personnel to provide "family" services to defraud the elderly, and deceiving the elderly under the banner of high-tech products and charitable welfare projects by exaggerating and fabricating the efficacy of health care products. The situation that the elderly are caught in the "health product fraud trap" is becoming more and more serious, and it has become the hardest hit area.

Why do criminals target the elderly? The main reason is that with the improvement of living standards, the health care awareness of the elderly is increasing, the demand for health care products is increasing, and the ability to buy products is strong, but the ability to distinguish products is insufficient.

In fact, health care products are not prescription drugs, but are there any side effects? Can I take whatever I want, the more the better? There is no scientific conclusion. Most elderly people are not exposed to product information and cannot verify the authenticity of health care products through online publicity. Many criminals make use of the psychology of the elderly, such as information occlusion, weak legal awareness, love to "take advantage of small things", superstitious authority, stubborn conformity and so on, to tailor a scam for them.

How to prevent fraud and false propaganda of health care products is a lesson that the elderly, their children and even the whole society need to do well.

First, we should establish a scientific and correct understanding of health care products. Health care products are not medicines and have no curative effect. According to the provisions of the Food Safety Law, there are currently 27 kinds of health-care functions that the regulatory authorities are allowed to register according to law, and the health-care functions that legally registered health foods are allowed to claim are to supplement vitamins and minerals. Advertisements for health products shall not involve the efficacy of disease prevention and treatment, and shall not be compared with drugs and other health foods.

Second, strengthen the identification, restriction and supervision of health care products practitioners. "There are indeed many chaos in the health care products market, but because of strong demand, it cannot be blindly eliminated and needs social support." Fang Jiake said that establishing a professional health care product qualification certification system is the key to promote the healthy development of health care products. There are essential differences between professional health care products practitioners and health care products marketing teams. Professional practitioners should have professional quality and knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, and cannot blindly exaggerate the efficacy of products. It is an important means to curb the "no lower limit" of health care products marketing by "issuing certificates" and setting entry thresholds for health care products practitioners.

In view of the batch number problem of health care products, the state should strictly implement relevant laws and regulations and intensify the examination. In the recent "Quanjian scandal", among the nine health foods removed from the shelves of Quanjian Group, only "Shengkun brand Shuang Ren Seabuckthorn Oral Liquid" can find the production batch number, Quanjian Company only entrusts the manufacturer, and the production batch numbers of the other eight products are not found. Among the 35 kinds of health food in Quanjian official website, except for the 19 health food with the production batch number found by the State Administration of Pharmaceutical Products, 16 health food has not been approved for production.

Over the years, the health care products market has been mixed, and many health care products are "black households", using expired approval numbers to fabricate false approval numbers and using "health permits" as approval numbers. Therefore, children should help the elderly, check the quantity of health care products through formal channels, and purchase products safely.