In an astonishing case, a medical self-help book by a former used-car salesman with no medical training and a long list of fraud charges is holding a high position on North American bestsellers lists, including the third spot on Q&Q‘s Self-Help Bestsellers list.

Kevin Trudeau, author of the self-published Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, has used the dismissal of his book by medical professionals and consumer protection agencies to his advantage, according to Arthur Caplan, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Caplan claims that the book preys on the doubts many Americans have about the health care system. If this is the case, the medical community’s response to Natural Cures may only fuel the fires of the book’s success.

The New York Consumer Protection Board has issued a public warning concerning the infomercials Trudeau uses to sell his book, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has banned Trudeau from appearing in misleading infomercials, Candice Choi of The Associated Press reports. A convicted felon, Trudeau has been found guilty of depositing worthless cheques and of unlawfully using credit-card numbers of customers of a memory improvement course he was promoting. He has also been charged with fraud for his promotion of products such as Exercise in a Bottle, Fat Trapper Plus, the Mega Memory System, and coral calcium as a cure for cancer.

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