Photo: Linkdin
AI-generated “health professionals” are dispensing bogus advice and even prescribing medicines to unsuspecting Australians from Facebook accounts managed by users in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Mozambique.
Multiple Facebook pages have been detected falsely purporting to belong to doctors specialising in dermatology, men’s health, weight loss, sex therapy and other specialist medical fields.
However, the doctors don’t exist and images of them have been generated using artificial intelligence technology.
According to the Australian Medical Association, the professional body representing the nation’s real doctors, the profiles potentially undermine trust in the profession.
To its president, Dr Danielle McMullen, they’re outright “dangerous”.
Accounts, a number of which have been scrutinised by AAP FactCheck, commonly feature a biography introducing the fictitious medic and listing their qualifications.
The profile photos typically show them in white coats, often with stethoscopes draped around their necks.
At first glance, the profiles appear legitimate.
However, closer inspection reveals numerous signs they don’t represent real people and are AI-generated fabrications.
In one, a fake Melbourne-based practitioner named Dr Garcia claims to be part of the “Australia Medical Association team” and has more than 1300 Facebook followers.
Yet ‘her’ profile image features several telltale signs of AI generation. Among other distortions, there’s the unreadable text on ‘her’ medical coat, ‘her’ two left arms and, lo and behold, six digits on one hand.
A reverse image search of the account’s cover photo, which does include the AI-generated Garcia, traces it to a group of doctors based in Philadelphia.
Facebook’s transparency information shows the page is operated from Hong Kong.
Another profile, claiming to belong to Dr Audrey Sinclair from Sydney’s Bondi Junction, links via reverse image search to a stock photo website identifying the picture as AI-generated.
Similarly, a supposed Sydney-based “board-certified sex therapist,” Dr Selena Harvey, is associated with dozens of Facebook pages using near-identical content.
‘Her’ profile image also exhibits hallmarks of AI imagery – unnaturally smooth skin and evenly lit facial features that lack realistic shadowing.
The page is managed by users in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Mozambique.
Another page shows a Melbourne-based weight management expert, Dr Elaine Tremblay, promoting prescription-only weight loss drugs.
The page’s profile photo also appears to be created using AI, with ‘her’ left ear notably oddly rendered.
It includes biographical information that could not be substantiated.
The page is managed by users in Hong Kong.
AAP FactCheck reporters attempted to contact the individuals portrayed on the pages of the platform, which currently boasts more than 17 million active monthly users in Australia. However they received no response.
None of the ‘individuals’ investigated appear on the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency register, where all legitimate medical professionals must be listed.
AMA head Dr McMullen describes the proliferation of the accounts is “a real worry”.
“Profiles like this are really dangerous because the community doesn’t know what they can or can’t trust online when things are purporting to be from a health professional but they really aren’t,” she says.
“These aren’t doctors behind these profiles, they’re bad actors out there to either instil fear in communities or make a profit or just pure scammers.”
Not all the accounts operate in the same way.
While some appear to post genuine health advice taken from legitimate sources, others spruik medicines falsely claimed to have been approved by Australian regulators.
Others appear to host very limited activity, while prompting links to external websites.
Cyber fraud investigator Dan Halpin says the common goal is exploitation, whether financial or by spreading misinformation.
“The ones selling products are usually scams aimed at making money or collecting personal details,” he says.
“Others post health advice to drive clicks or push misleading content.”
This drive for clicks can ultimately be monetised, either through advertising revenue or the sale of social media profiles and external web pages with a certain amount of exposure.
Javaan Singh Chahl, an expert in sensor systems including deepfake detection at the University of South Australia, says many of the pages are likely scams, specifically targeting those with deep instinctive biological needs that are also very private.
“This leads people to want to avoid a face-to-face consultation while being desperate at the same time, leading to the possibility of being isolated in an interaction,” Professor Chahl says.
While there are a few giveaways that the profiles are AI-generated, he says this is only going to become harder to spot.
“AI is rapidly progressing.
“Although there are ‘tells’ in the Facebook pages … this is late 2025. This technology did not exist in 2020.
“Appearance will soon cease to be an indicator.”
The Therapeutic Goods Administration, the federal government’s medicines regulator, says it is aware of reports of fake health professionals operating online and will take strong enforcement action against alleged unlawful advertising and supply of therapeutic goods.
By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
