• Products sold from Web sites making grandiose claims.
The Web sites from which questionable products are sold often use high-pressure sales techniques designed to make the greatest emotional impact. These techniques usually follow a fairly typical format:
· Frequent use of bold lettering and all caps.
· A lot of text with many of the words in red and/or highlighted in bright yellow.
· Empathetic language showing how they understand what you’re going through and how much you are suffering.
· Lots of personal stories and testimonials from people whose lives have been changed by using this product.
· References made to research proving their claims, but no links provided to the actual research.
• Techniques or therapies that you can only learn more about by buying the book.
Sometimes you will find someone claiming to have an exercise program or therapy technique that will drastically reduce your symptoms, but they don’t give you a clue as to what their program consists of. All they will tell you is that to learn more about this amazing technique, you can purchase their book. While I don’t expect anyone to give away their entire program, I do think if there’s any value to it, they should at least give you a general idea about what it involves.
• Products or techniques that claim to help a wide variety of different illnesses.
No single product or technique can cure or improve every illness. It is wise to question anything that claims to help everything from fibromyalgia to autism and heart disease. The etiologies of these illness are significantly different, so it is highly unlikely any one product or treatment will help all of them.
• Products or therapies that rely almost solely on personal testimonials to verify their claims.
Most companies selling questionable products or therapies offer a lot dramatic personal stories as proof of their claims, but no verifiable research or clinical trials. The stories told sound heartfelt and are extremely persuasive. The people testifying describe going through the same kind of suffering as you. Then they tell how, after using this product, their lives have been changed forever. They’re no longer in pain and are full of energy. Even the strongest of us find ourselves wondering if maybe this product could be just what we’ve been looking for. But before you fall prey to this tactic, remember: These stories were designed to draw you in and sell you a product. The cold, hard fact is you have no way of knowing whether these stories are even real. Reputable products and therapies should have solid, verifiable research to back up their claims.
