Original article (in Serbian) was published on 15/07/2021
If you suffer from diabetes, the headline on the Republika.rs portal, “Doctors discovered a trick for a long-term solution to diabetes”, could have caught your attention. The “trick” by which this dangerous disease will allegedly be solved is Diatea tea, which costs 3,700 dinars, and it is recommended by a certain “endocrinologist Nebojsa Tomic”. Doctor Tomic is presented as “the best diabetes treatment specialist in the country” who “rarely gives interviews”. It is no wonder that this is the case, considering that doctor Tomic does not even exist, and the same goes for the satisfied users who are mentioned in the text.
Clicking on this deceptive title exits the site of the Republika, and the link leads to the site prirodnolijecite.com. There, the reader is greeted with the promising title “Learn to distinguish reality from fantasy, and then cure yourself from diabetes”.
Dr. Nebojsa Tomic seems credible. There is also a photo of him, and the text is in the form of an interview in which he talks about the dangers of diabetes. The first alarm that this is a fraud is “lit” by the fact that nowhere is it stated where this respectable and well-praised doctor works:
The text reads as follows: “Today, he is considered the best diabetes treatment specialist in the country. All celebrities who suffer from diabetes are trying to make an appointment with him for an examination. Patients come to him from France, Germany, Great Britain and other countries. He is one of the most valued endocrinologists in the EU. He has written several scientific books, and in his arsenal there are even more scientific papers, published in journals”.
Googling the terms “Endocrinologist Nebojsa Tomic”, despite his rich biography, does not give any results. The unknown author of the text warns of this by stating that he simply rarely gives interviews.
What follows is his extensive persuasion that this tea is the solution to diabetes, but obviously to all the other problems in life, because it not only regulates glucose levels but also restores blood vessels, melts fat, improves the condition of skin, bones, muscles, improves mood and gives strength and mental peace, improves vision and testosterone levels and finally – prolongs life.
This is confirmed, judging by the text, by the experiences of satisfied customers of this tea. Milena Pavic, a 67-year-old retiree from Sremska Mitrovica, is delighted with this tea and claims it has transformed her life, and the author calls her letter “the most sincere letter”.
There is also a photo featuring her happy and satisfied. Below, there are entirely positive comments by readers, followed by the offer that, if you buy this tea immediately, you will get it with a 50 percent discount for only 3,700 dinars.
All of this, however, is a scam. There is no doctor Tomic, nor a retiree from Sremska Mitrovica, nor readers who comment.
By simply searching for their photos (right click on the photo – Search Google for image), we find out that they appear on numerous foreign sites that sell various products for diabetes.
In various versions of the texts, depending on the country, “doctor Tomic” is “Luis Rodriguez” – an endocrinologist from Chile, “Luis Rodriguez” – an endocrinologist from Argentina, as well as from Colombia, in Albania he is “doctor Luan Agoli”, and in Romania he is “Alexander Rafila”. It is interesting that the same man appears on a couple of other sites in the Serbian language, where he is not called “Nebojsa Tomic” but “Jovan Andric” or “Goran Krivosic”, who recommends Dia Drops for diabetes.
The same is the case with the retiree who is called Martina Armero from the city of Valparaiso in the Chilean version, and Brana Kojic from Mitrovica, or Milena Pavic in the Serbian versions, but this time she is from Novi Sad. In all texts, she uses the same words to explain that she has been ill since the age of 28, while at the age of 49 she suffered eye and kidney complications, she had ulcers on her fingers, but in one text she states that this tea helped her, and in another text she mentions drops.
Also, readers “Darko”, “Jovana”, “Milorad” and others who recommend this tea, in some foreign versions have completely different foreign names and recommend some other “magical” products.
It is interesting that the versions of the text change with each click on the title on the website of Republika. The second “click” opens the text “EVERY DIABETIC ROTS WITHIN AND DIES IN AGONY!”
This time, “Sofija Tadic, head of the Department of Endocrinology” explains how to avoid that if you are diabetic. But the information about which “department” she works and where, remains unknown.
By googling her photo, we find out that Sofija Tadic does not exist, and that this photo was taken from the so-called “Stock” sites, which means that she is a model, not a real doctor.
Sofija Tadic: “I will make sure that every person who asks for a natural medication for diabetes and stabilization of blood sugar gets the same at a special price.”
The answers to your questions are provided by Sofia Tadic, head of the endocrinology department. A doctor of medicine who saved thousands of lives. A medical specialist for the treatment of diabetes in Serbia.
Work experience – more than 15 years
Even on the manufacturer’s website where this tea is advertised, “stock” photos of non-existent doctors and non-existent users who share their positive experiences are featured.
On the site, they claim that they have a “license from the Ministry of Health”, but it is not possible to check that (quickly). Although the Ministry has a database of dietary products on its website which are approved and legal, it has not been updated since June 2018, so it is not known whether Diatea has received a license for legal distribution in the meantime. This out-of-date list includes numerous tea, drops, herbal mixtures and other preparations that are used as dietary supplements and to alleviate the symptoms of diabetes.