Who is Dalya Karezi? Woman convicted after giving health advice on TikTok while pretending to be a doctor

Dalya Karezi, an alleged TikTok doctor, was convicted and ordered to pay a fine of over $13,000. Health professionals have increasingly started gaining popularity on social media, especially TikTok, for using the platform to provide health advice and tips to their followers. However, while many of these TikTok doctors are registered professionals, some are quacks, as is the case of Dalya Karezi.

On Wednesday, October 11, Karezi pleaded guilty to falsely posing as a qualified doctor and giving unqualified advice to those with serious health concerns. She even went as far as to sign her official emails with the designations of RMO and VMO when, in reality, she worked at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Dalya Karezi is a Sydney resident (Image via Instagram)

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Dalya Karezi used TikTok and Instagram to advise on serious medical issues like HIV and Ovarian cancer

Dalya Karezi is an Iraqi immigrant who entered Australia in 2001 when she was eight years old. According to her defense barrister, Erasmus Lovell-Jones, Karezi, who was studying for a health science bachelor's degree, was misunderstood as a medicine student by a friend, and she did not correct this misunderstanding.

From this alleged misunderstanding stemmed an entire online career where she pretended to be a doctor, giving out unqualified health advice to her social media followers. Her TikTok and Instagram skyrocketed to over 243,000 and 20,000 followers, respectively. In 16 months, she had put out 80 posts of her health advice across both platforms.

Dalya Karezi pleaded guilty on October 11 (Image via Instagram)

The 30-year-old's videos were viewed over 15 million times. She used her platform to advise on serious issues like reproductive and s*xual health, Ovarian cancer, and HIV. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, these videos were made in 2021, during the peak of the pandemic, between February and September.

Astonishingly, Dalya Karezi held project coordinator positions at the Cancer Institute NSW and NSW Health, as these positions did not require any medical certifications. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Dalya Karezi claimed to be a doctor with a bachelor in medicine degree from Western Sydney University.

She even signed her emails as the Resident Visiting Officer, Visiting Medical Officer, OB-GYN, master of reproductive medicine, and MBBS. Her success on social media led to several promotions with various brands that sold nail polish, covid protection masks, and surgical scrubs.

Dalya even managed to get work at the NSW (Image via Facebook)

The outlet reported that she was hit with two charges of using the name, title, or symbol of a health practitioner while not being registered. On October 11, she pleaded guilty at the Downing Centre Local Court. She even wrote an apology letter to the magistrate, accepting her crime and claiming that she had never thought she would be in this position.

"I have taken responsibility for my actions and know there is no excuse for my actions," she said, adding, "having to tell my family and friends about my actions was extremely humiliating. I understand the serious consequences of my actions and I am truly sorry for what I have done."

Karezi was also a part of the Shisha No Thanks project (Image via Local News Plus)

Even though her charges carried a maximum penalty of a $60,000 fine and time in prison, she was not charged to that extent. She was ordered to pay $13,300 to cover the legal costs of the medical regulator, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). She was also given two years of community corrections. Her social media handles were since deleted.

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