CBS’ 60 Minutes aired a hidden-camera investigation last night into promises of miraculous medical cures, focusing on Stowe Biotherapy in La Mesa.

Here’s how the story begins:

[Q]uack medicine has never been bigger. In the 21st century, snake oil has been replaced by bogus therapies using stem cells. Stem cells may offer cures one day, but medical charlatans on the Internet are making outrageous claims that they can reverse the incurable, from autism to multiple sclerosis to every kind of cancer.

Desperate people are being bilked out of their life’s savings.

We’ve been looking into this surging crime and we found there is no better window on how it works than the practice of a man who calls himself “doctor,” a man named Lawrence Stowe.

Stowe has been unaware that, lately, some of his patients have been working with 60 Minutes.

Watch it for yourself. Here’s Part I:

If the video below does not launch, watch it here.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

And Part II:

If the video below does not launch, watch it here.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

— ANDREW DONOHUE

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