Fake health videos use healer’s identity to sell bogus cures

AI-generated videos impersonating Chinese medicine practitioner Rene Bürkland are promoting bogus treatments and products, with hundreds of people reportedly buying them, ERR’s Pealtnägija programme reports.

Over the past year, Bürkland and colleagues at the Dao Centre, a centre specialising in Chinese medicine, have encountered numerous fake videos claiming he endorses revolutionary treatments for diabetes, high blood pressure, impotence and brain parasites. Bürkland said many people had been taken in.

Bürkland, 51, practises Chinese medicine and has general medical qualifications. He founded the Dao Centre, which employs nearly 30 people. He said he believes Chinese and Western medicine should be used together, and that scammers had recognised the size of his audience.

The fake videos appear to use artificial intelligence to imitate Bürkland’s face and voice. Earlier scams investigated by Pealtnägija mainly involved fabricated articles and social media posts. The videos now make false health claims, including that tiny parasites enter the brain at night and destroy memory, and promote a product called Vermixin as a remedy.

“As a medical professional, listening to this is the height of absurdity,” Bürkland said. His social media account was also faked, with posts purporting to show him talking to satisfied Vermixin users. He cited another bogus product supposedly taken at night to prevent sudden death: “If you’re alive in the morning, it must have worked.”

Psychologist Ülli Kukumägi said the videos use manipulative techniques, including scientific-sounding but empty terms such as “bioactive formula” and strong emotional appeals against the pharmaceutical industry and pharmacy chains.

Bürkland’s team says calls and messages suggest hundreds of people have bought suspicious products after seeing the adverts. Some callers, including people aged 35 and older, have asked whether the videos are real. Bürkland said the concern was not simply that the products might be ineffective, but that they could have an effect.