Lavorgna, Anita, and Anna Di Ronco. "Fraud victims or unwary accomplices? An exploratory study of online communities supporting quack medicine." The many faces of crime for profit and ways of tackling it (2017): 297-324.

The use of untested therapies and unregulated practitioners, often referred to as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), is on the rise, driven by patients and their families' desperation and the allure of "natural" treatments. Despite some complementary approaches being recognized for their potential to address specific needs, the medical community warns against practices not based on rigorous scientific testing. These can be dangerous and are often labeled as pseudoscience, quackery, or outright frauds, lacking any scientific evidence to support their effectiveness and safety.