In plain words

Lateral reading means leaving the page you are reading and checking somewhere else who is behind the claim and whether other trustworthy sources agree. Instead of studying a suspicious message closely, you open a new tab or ask a person and look it up elsewhere. This simple move is what professional fact-checkers do, and it works better than trying to judge a page by how it looks.

For years, a common piece of advice was that trustworthy health information looks clean and professional and that fakes look sloppy. AI has broken that rule. Today anyone can use AI to produce large amounts of polished, fluent, convincing health content, including fake clinics, miracle cures, and invented patient stories, in minutes. Some of it is aimed at specific communities, including immigrant and language communities. The good news is that you can still protect yourself. You just protect yourself in a smarter way.

At a glance
  • AI can mass-produce polished fake health content, so looking real no longer means it is true.
  • Recognize the techniques: urgency, a miracle cure, "doctors do not want you to know," payment pressure, and no way to verify.
  • The strongest habit is lateral reading: leave the page and check who says this elsewhere.

Why “looks real” is no longer enough

Studies have shown that AI tools can generate convincing false health content quickly and cheaply. In one study, researchers prompted AI systems to produce more than 100 health-disinformation blog posts, complete with fake references and fabricated testimonials from patients and doctors, aimed at different groups of people (Menz et al., 2024). In another, AI-written false messages were rated more convincing than false messages written by people, and readers could not reliably tell which was which (Spitale et al., 2023). The lesson is that polish, good grammar, and a professional look no longer tell you anything about whether a message is true. That means judging content by how it looks will lead you wrong.

This is not a small problem. A systematic review of 69 studies found that false health claims are widespread on social media, and in some studies as many as 87 percent of the posts on a health topic contained misinformation, with false claims about vaccines especially common (Suarez-Lledo & Alvarez-Galvez, 2021). The World Health Organization calls this flood of false and misleading health information an infodemic, and warns that it can cause confusion, push people toward risky choices, and weaken trust in health workers (World Health Organization, n.d.). AI makes the flood larger and cheaper, so the skill of checking before you believe matters more than ever.

Recognize the technique, not the look

AvoidJudge by how it looksPolish, good grammar, and a professional look no longer tell you whether a message is true.
BetterRecognize the techniqueWatch for pressure moves like urgency, a miracle cure, or payment pressure; they are easier to spot than a good fake.

Instead of asking “does this look real,” ask “what is this message doing to me.” False health content tends to use the same handful of pressure techniques, and those are much easier to spot than a well-made fake. Watch for these:

  • Urgency. “Act now, before it is too late.” Real health information gives you time to think and check.
  • A secret or miracle cure. Health authorities warn about a short list of phrases that signal fraud: “miracle cure,” “secret ingredient,” “scientific breakthrough,” “ancient remedy,” “quick fix,” and a “no-risk, money-back guarantee,” along with claims that one product treats many unrelated conditions (MedlinePlus, Health fraud, n.d.). Real care rarely comes as a single secret, and a product that claims to fix everything usually fixes nothing.
  • “Doctors do not want you to know.” Setting itself against all doctors and clinics at once is a persuasion move, not a fact.
  • Payment pressure. Pushing you to pay quickly, especially by gift card, wire transfer, or cash, is a strong warning sign.
  • No way to verify it. No real address, no license number, no named organization you can look up. If you cannot check who is behind it, treat it with care.

When you see one or more of these, you do not need to prove the message is fake. You just need to stop and check before you believe it or share it.

The habit that works: leave and look

The single most reliable habit is called lateral reading, and it is what professional fact-checkers do. Instead of staying on the page and studying it, you leave the page and check who is behind the claim and whether trustworthy sources agree. Research found that fact-checkers who read this way judged sources far more accurately than historians and college students who stayed on the page (Wineburg & McGrew, 2019), and that ordinary adults can learn the habit quickly. In one short online course of about an hour, older adults improved their ability to tell false stories from true ones from about 64 percent correct to about 85 percent (Moore & Hancock, 2022).

For you, leaving and looking can be as simple as:

  • Opening a LINC guide or an official site such as MedlinePlus and seeing whether it says the same thing.
  • Searching the name of the clinic, product, or organization along with the word “reviews” or “complaints.”
  • Asking a person you trust, such as a community health worker, what they know about it.

A short example

“URGENT: A new immigrant wellness clinic is giving away free anxiety treatment this week only. No insurance, no ID needed. Hundreds already cured. Message us now and pay a small $40 processing fee by gift card to hold your spot.”

Read for technique and the tells jump out. There is urgency (“this week only,” “now”). There is a miracle claim (“hundreds already cured”). There is payment pressure in a suspicious form (a gift card). And there is no way to verify it: no clinic name you can look up, no address, no license. You do not need to prove it is fake. The techniques are enough to make you leave and look. A quick search for the clinic name, or one question to a community health worker, would settle it before you sent any money.

Try it now. Think of one health claim you saw recently online or in a group chat. Do not reread it. Instead, open a new tab and search the name behind it, or open a LINC guide on the topic, and see whether a trustworthy source agrees. Notice how fast leaving the page gives you an answer.

Say it back before you pass it on

Before you share a health message with family or friends, put it in your own words and ask yourself where it came from and whether a trustworthy source confirms it. Saying it back slows you down just enough to catch the pressure techniques. If you cannot name a source you checked, that is your signal to hold off. Checking one message before you forward it can protect your whole community.

When money, ID, or a clinic name is involved

Fake health messages often want something from you: money, your documents, or a quick sign-up. Before you give any of it, check these:

  • A real clinic can be looked up. You can confirm a federally funded health center at findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov and mental health or substance use treatment at findtreatment.gov. If a “clinic” has no address, no phone number, and no listing anywhere, treat that as a warning.
  • Real care never asks for a gift card. Anyone who tells you to pay with a gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency is a scammer, the Federal Trade Commission warns. No real clinic or government office collects payment that way.
  • You do not have to decide fast. Pressure to act “today only” is itself a technique. Step away and ask a community health worker or someone you trust.
  • Report it. You can report a scam to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Reporting one message can protect other people in your community.
  • You can get help in your language. You do not have to do this in English. USAGov explains common scams and has a tool that points you to the right agency to report one, and its pages are available in Spanish (USAGov, n.d.).
Watch out

Real care never asks for a gift card. Anyone who tells you to pay with a gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency is a scammer. No real clinic or government office collects payment that way.

A simple method to remember: SIFT

When a health claim reaches you, it helps to have one short routine you run every time. A good one is called SIFT, created by the researcher Mike Caulfield from watching how professional fact-checkers work (Caulfield, 2019). SIFT is four moves:

  • Stop. Before you read on or share, pause. Notice that you do not yet know who is behind this or whether it is true. Do not pass along a message you have not checked.
  • Investigate the source. Take about a minute to find out who made the claim and why. A real clinic, a company selling a product, and a stranger in a group chat are not the same, and knowing which one you are dealing with changes everything.
  • Find better coverage. Do not rely on the page that reached you. Look for what trusted sources say about the same claim, such as a LINC guide or an official site like MedlinePlus.
  • Trace claims, quotes, and images back to where they started. Follow a quote, a study, or a photo back to its first source. Content that has been taken out of context, or changed, often falls apart once you see the original.
Stoppause before you share
Investigate the sourcewho made the claim and why
Find better coveragewhat trusted sources say
Trace claimsback to where they started
SIFT: four moves to run on any health claim before you believe it or share it.

The middle two moves are the lateral reading this guide describes: you leave the page and look elsewhere before you decide.

Do not trust a face or a photo anymore

It used to be that a photo of a smiling doctor, a clinic building, or a happy patient was some proof that a thing was real. That is no longer true. AI can now create realistic images, and even video, of people who do not exist, or put words in the mouth of a real doctor who never said them. A 2025 review of new AI video tools noted that these systems can produce high-quality, lifelike video and that the tools to detect such fakes are still weak (Temsah et al., 2025). Scammers use this to make fake “before and after” photos, invented doctor testimonials, and even copied versions of real clinic websites.

So do not let a face, a white coat, or a professional-looking photo convince you. Judge the claim by the SIFT moves above, not by the picture. Two practical checks help:

  • Look for the same person or clinic somewhere else. A real doctor and a real clinic leave a trail: a listing on a hospital or health center, a license you can look up. If a “doctor” appears only in the one ad or video that is asking for your money, be careful.
  • Do a reverse image search. You can upload a photo, or right-click it, to search where else it appears online. A stock photo, a stolen picture, or an image with no history anywhere is a warning sign.
Try it now. Find a photo in a health ad or post you saw recently. Do not study the picture itself. Instead, search the image online and see whether it shows up on a real clinic or turns out to be a stock photo used everywhere. Let the trail, not the face, tell you what to trust.

How to check if a provider or clinic is real

One of the strongest signs of a fake is that there is no license or listing you can check. The good news is that real providers and clinics can almost always be looked up, and the tools are free.

  • Check a provider’s license. In the United States, doctors are licensed by a state medical board. You can look up whether a doctor is licensed, and whether a board has ever disciplined them, through your state medical board or the Federation of State Medical Boards tool at docinfo.org (MedlinePlus, Choosing a doctor or health care service, n.d.). If someone calls themselves a doctor but you cannot find any license, treat that as a serious warning.
  • Confirm a clinic exists. You can confirm a federally funded health center at findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov and mental health or substance use treatment at findtreatment.gov. A real clinic has an address, a phone number, and a listing you can find; a “clinic” that exists only inside one message does not.
  • Cross-check with someone who knows. A community health worker or a trusted clinic can often tell you in one minute whether a place is real. When in doubt, ask before you pay or hand over your documents.

Sources

LINC is a research prototype, not a medical or legal service. Translation can be wrong; you have the right to a free, qualified interpreter. For anything high-stakes, do it with a community health worker or someone you trust. In a crisis, call or text 988, or 911 for immediate danger.