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Bad Reviews- Dr. Simoni Discusses The Latest Scam on Doctors
With the economy in the state that it’s in, you would think many people
couldn’t afford plastic surgery -and you’d
be right. As of late many patients are getting procedures done anyway with no
intention of paying for them. These actions are catching surgeons off guard
since they are used to working with clients who usually have no qualms about
money. "We had a huge trail of bounced checks since the economy made a downturn"
explained famed Beverly Hills facial plastic surgeon
Dr. Payman Simoni, while others tried
disputing their credit card charge(s) with innovative excuses.”
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.
One con artist requested $100,000 or she threatened to ruin Dr. Simoni’s
reputation online. Soon finding out they were not the only victim of her scam
(she has done this to handful of other plastic surgeons) they were quick to turn
her down, and in no time hundreds of negative posts against Dr. Simoni were
scattered throughout the Internet. Thus resulting in potential patients -who
were not aware of this type of deception- seeing and believing the postings and
then canceling their procedures.
These scam artists know these facts and use it to their advantage.
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. Websites like ripoffreport.com and
pissedconsumer.com are at the forefront of these extortion schemes. These
websites invite negative comments and block positive ones to force plastic
surgeons in to paying them kickbacks.
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 easing 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.