Spammers Beware
Earlier this month, the Los Angels Times published a story that explored the extremely profitable relationship between spammers and drug counterfeiters. For some time now, spammers have made money by sending countless emails to the public and then charging the credit cards of those who responded for products which never existed. In some case, the spammers sold that credit card information to other criminals.
Now, spammers have paired up with overseas criminals to flood our inboxes with offers for cheap drugs. Of course, what all those emails neglect to say is that the package arriving at your door is very likely filled with counterfeit drugs or contraband medications. Often these supposed medications arrive without any instructions or, in some cases, with instructions printed in foreign languages.
Not only do spammers and drug counterfeiters defraud consumers, they threaten our health. At their worst, counterfeit drugs cause great harm and fatalities. At the least, the drugs these enterprising criminals sell deny ill patients from therapies that can alleviate suffering and save lives.
If you do order medicines online, make sure the Web site is part of the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program. Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration support VIPPS since no other accreditation or verification program for online drug sellers covers as many areas as VIPPS, or does so as thoroughly.
Remember, counterfeit drugs are unsafe at any cost and keep visiting SafeMedicines.org to learn how we can work together to protect the safety of our prescription medicines.