Feb 15, 2008 11:40 pm US/Eastern
CBS 2 HD Hidden Camera: Medical Equipment Scam
Illegal, Unproven Machines Give False Sense Of Hope
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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CBS 2 HD went undercover to expose a medical equipment scam that is giving patients false hope by using machines that aren't proven to work.
CBS
More and more people are turning to alternative treatments when diagnosed with an illness or injury.
But in an alarming hidden camera investigation, CBS 2 HD exposed how some scammers are using illegal and unproven medical devices to do little but create false hope for patients.
It's called the Electro Physio Feedback Xrroid system -- or EPFX. And right now, thousands of practitioners around the country, like Kathryn Crosta in New Jersey, say it can detect -- even treat diseases, serious diseases.
"Everything from cancer to bee stings … immune system imbalance, systemic electrical oscillation disorder," Crosta said.
We went to see for ourselves. Our visit was $300 cash, and we took along a hidden camera. Here's how Crosta says it works:
"What we're going to do is bombard you with 8,000 or 9,000 different frequencies," she said.
Those frequencies are delivered through contacts she hooked up to our producer's ankles, wrists and forehead. Crosta explained that the EPFX reads the body's energy fields, and then finds what she claims are predispositions to all sorts of medical conditions.
The EPFX doesn't have studies to back up its claims, and is not FDA approved. Even worse, it's banned here in the U.S. and its inventor, William Nelson, is a wanted felon -- in hiding overseas.
"We've had people who have not gotten treatment for their diagnosed cancer because they went off and used these machines," Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Washington, said.
And that has lawmakers calling for an investigation into EPFX manufacturers and operators.
"There's really kind of no more loathsome thing to do to take advantage of somebody in pain and in fear," Inslee said.
The EPFX is just one of several similar machines authorities say are smuggled into the U.S. Others include the Scio and the Pap-Imi, which has burned some patients.
Crosta tells our producer the EPFX is working by running interference on her potential health problems, so we confronted Crosta back on the street.
CBS 2 HD: "How does it make you feel knowing that you're using a machine that the FDA ..."
Crosta: "I don't give a ---- about the ---- DA!"
She insisted she did not know about the ban and that she has cured breast cancer and other ailments using her EPFX, where medical doctors have failed.
CBS 2 HD: "You can get your training from DVDs and manuals and yet come up with better results. How does that work?"
Crosta: "Well because we're not from the cut, slash and burn school of medicine where you cut them, you poison them or you radiate them."
Thousands of these machines are still being manufactured and despite that ban by the FDA you can easily find them for sale online. The FDA never returned our calls.
We'd like to point out our producer does not have an immune system imbalance or a Systemic Electrical Oscillation Disorder. She is in perfectly fine health.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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