In this age of technology, with everything at our fingertips, at all hours of the day, we of course take advantage. Whether we are booking a hotel, looking for a new restaurant to eat dinner, or even just buying a book most of us go straight to the reviews as our deciding factors. What consumers need to know though is that not all of these reviews are accurate and some are even downright lies.
The most serious of these cases though comes in the form of extortion. “In a few situations, patients threatened to post negative comments and ratings about our practice on social and forum websites if we did not refund their money once their procedure was completed”, explained Dr. Simoni.
To make matters worse, some websites are taking part in this online fraud themselves and requesting exuberant amounts of money from plastic surgeons to remove these fake posts.
As we all know the Internet is not always the most trustworthy place to gain information. Doctors constantly express how they don’t advise people to get medical advice from the web, and now even more so with this epidemic of online swindling.
Online extortion has become an important expenditure for many plastic surgeons. These con men target top plastic surgeons to better ensure their paybacks. Many assume that plastic surgeons make enough money -“so who cares”. But in reality, once these unnecessary expenses occur, plastic surgeons have more difficulty easening up on their fees to try to help their patients in this tough economy. So once again, ultimately, the honest people are the one who get hurt, patient and their doctor alike. Many say that a tough economy brings out the worst in people, but in terms of plastic surgery offices it’s bringing the worst people IN.
Top Los Angeles Cosmetic Surgeon Dr. Payman Simoni has been featured in numerous national and international media outlets, as well as been at the forefront of no anesthesia plastic surgery.