Original article (in Serbian) was published on 8/2/2025; Author: Aleksa Ćirić
Readers often report to us suspicious websites featuring non-existent doctors and experts recommending miracle tea, medicines, ointments, and gels. However, a recent report in Tragac’s inbox was an unusual one. The reader claimed that a deceptive ad for Osteon gel was shared on a website allegedly created by Nebojsa Stamenovic, known as Nesa Travka. What makes this report unique is that it was Nesa Travka himself who reported it.
On the website I sent you, they’re advertising Osteon gel. They’ve used my photos from social media and are falsely presenting themselves, claiming I made this cream, presenting me as a professor, which I’m not. I saw that you wrote about Bone Control cream. There’s another website claiming I made that cream too”, wrote Nebojsa Stamenovic, known for his vegetarian recipes and healthy eating content on social media followed by tens of thousands of people.
However, the identity theft of Nesa Travka is not the only false element in the Osteon gel story. Almost every other detail on the website Nesa reported to us is also fake. Below, we will briefly present the fake account attributed to Neša Travka and highlight the gaps and inconsistencies in the story.
The story for sale
In the first paragraph of the story, the fake Nesa Travka tells potential customers how he has found “a way to calm pain and treat joints and the spine, which will make every patient 100% healthy in just 14 days”. Along with this, Nesa’s supposed discovery will allegedly save you thousands of euros you would have spent on chemicals. But how did Nesa’s discovery come about? In the text, seemingly out of nowhere, there is a story about his mother, who had increasing mobility issues, weeds grew in her garden, she stopped cooking lunch, almost got hit by a car, etc. This entire story is presented before the gel’s name is even mentioned.
The fake Nesa then returns to the product with the Archimedean phrase: “Look, you’re a scientist!” – when he remembers that he could find a product to help his mother. The explanation of how the process of creating the product unfolded is somehow even more bizarre than the previous introduction. It is mentioned that initially, the fake Nesa tested “various combinations of different ingredients” on his mother. It is claimed that “the largest scientific research institutes in Europe and the U.S. guarantee a 98% effectiveness”. However, as expected, there is no source for these claims. If that wasn’t enough, the product allegedly “restores the regenerative process by up to 300%”.
Where are the gaps in this story?
Besides the website that Nebojsa sent us, there are several other websites advertising Osteon gel (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). They are almost identical, except for minor visual differences. Some of the websites promoting Osteon gel have unusual names related to tourism, such as “explorenovisad.rs” and “sarganskaosmica.rs”, while others have domains resembling the web addresses of existing organizations (opens2019.rs and prevent.org.rs). However, none of these websites allow you to purchase the advertised product. Instead, you are redirected to the alleged manufacturer’s site. The search for this “official” website leads to two possible candidates (1, 2), and in both cases, you are asked to put your name, surname, and phone number on the website so the seller can contact you.
As the stories on these websites are fake, so are all the photos used on them. The famous mother of Nesa Travka from the suspicious ad originates from the stock photo website Alamy, where it is stated that her photo was taken in North Macedonia. The website also features “satisfied users”, whose photos also come from stock photography websites, including the alleged Dragana Marjanovic (73), whose photo appears on the BBC World Service, with the source of the photo listed as Getty Images. Also highlighted is a photo on the “official” Osteon website, where one of the satisfied users, Sunita (46) from Bijeljina, is actually Hana Viktorivna, the deputy head of the Kyiv City Administration.
Artificial intelligence as the cherry on top of the manipulative cake
In addition to the completely fabricated story about Nesa Travka, his mother, and the miraculous Osteon gel, the manipulators created another fake ad to attract potential buyers on social media. This time, Nesa Travka had the opportunity to see himself saying words he never actually said. In a video circulating on Facebook, Nesa Travka supposedly tells you to forget about arthritis and osteoarthritis thanks to his “versatile recipe that penetrates into the joints”. The entire video is, of course, the product of artificial intelligence and poor editing.
The main indicator that the video was created using artificial intelligence is that the words he is saying do not match his articulation, especially when pronouncing the vowels A and O. Additionally, the videos used in the ad are taken from his YouTube channel. The fake Nesa also pronounces certain words like “invented”, “treat”, and “you’ll feel better” in the ijekavian dialect. However, as he himself told us, the real Nesa is “from Nis”, and the sound of his true voice can be heard in numerous recordings on his YouTube channel.
