A Fraud is a Fraud is a Fraud

By: Joel Luedke

"If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.”-Nassim Taleb

Now that is how you start an article.  I'm not going to go so far as to just sit down and list out some suspect, even questionable practices...but we are going to talk about some ways to avoid falling victim to them.

Things that could make someone a "fraud":

• Their thing is the ONLY thing.  No need for anything else.
• Only selling 'stuff' and you HAVE to buy certain things.
• They can fix ANYTHING
• Nothing to back it up (education, research, or continued learning)

Even people in the health and fitness industry have to make a living so at some point you are going to have to pay them some money.  There isn't anything inherently wrong with this but there are some things to look out for.  If all they are doing is selling you on something you have to have and if you don't add it to your life you won't have success.  HUGE Red Flag.  Anything that is only financially incentivized is something you need to stay away from.

Also be leery of someone can fix any and every problem with a specific type of treatment or specialized technique.  If that were truly the case they would be world famous, see 6 people a week and you and I probably wouldn't have access to them.  There are a lot of great practitioners out there but no one can treat everybody and fix everything.  Things are too complex and people are too individual.  If they follow it up with you HAVE to come back over and over to keep the progress, be careful on just looking for a quick fix.

With all of these things you have to find people that have the information and knowledge to back it up.  While traditionally that comes with college and higher education it doesn't have to.  Years of experience, research and knowledge gathering along with critical thinking can be sufficient but you have to do your due diligence.  Ask a lot of question, get informed on your own and you can always ask them what they would do if they were in your situation to get a better feel.

Be careful out there for frauds, while I don't want to start throwing around names (yet) I am happy to give input if you have questions (free of charge of course).