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If you buy drugs through an “online pharmacy,” there’s a chance that the medicine you receive is not only lacking FDA approval, but actually fake, according to the latest report from NABP. The health and safety risks associated with these counterfeit and non-approved drugs are very real. Right now, this problem is primarily confined to fake “online pharmacies,” but our…
Read MoreWashington, D.C. (July 28, 2011) – Bryan A. Liang, MD, PhD, JD, vice president of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, a non-profit dedicated to curbing counterfeit drugs, today issued the following statement on the public health alert issued today by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy regarding the widespread prevalence of fake online pharmacies. “NABP’s latest report and decision…
Read MoreIn an effort to raise public awareness about the dangers of medicines purchased through fake pharmacies online, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) today issued a rare “public health alert.”
A new study by NABP found that 96 percent of 8,000 rogue websites analyzed continue to operate out of compliance with U.S. pharmacy laws, fuel prescription drug abuse, and provide an outlet for counterfeit medicines to enter the U.S. drug supply – all of which significantly endanger the health and safety of Americans. Most of these sites will sell without a valid prescription and 3,687 offer non-FDA-approved drugs. They could be selling dangerous counterfeit medicines that may contain toxic ingredients or not enough of the active ingredient to do what the medicine is supposed to do.
In the announcement of the alert, NABP warned, “The fake online pharmacy crisis has reached an epidemic level, they prey on prescription drug abusers and the most vulnerable members of society who rely on medicine every day for their health. They offer easy access to potent medicines without a prescription and indiscriminately push dangerous counterfeit drugs.
Read MoreScreenshot of an Eva brand fake online pharmacy UCSD researchers have collected data that shows that 33% of medications purchased by Americans from a fake Internet pharmacy affiliate program are for serious illness. They estimate that 85% of all serious illness medication purchased online from fake online pharmacies is purchased by Americans. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed the…
Read MoreAn Illinois resident pleaded guilty in Federal Court to conspiracy to distribute and dispenses Schedule III and IV controlled substances and to illegal use of a communication facility to facilitate a drug crime by shipping drug orders for fake online pharmacy customers. Steven B. Immergluck, 35, of Aurora, IL, pleaded guilty without a trial. Immergluck was a sales representative for…
Read MoreThe top seven card-issuing banks were processors for more than half of all medicine sales to the largest fake Internet pharmacies in the past four years. Brian Krebs reports that sales data stolen from Glavmed, a Russian affiliate program that pays webmasters to host and promote fake online pharmacies, show that card-issuing banks are key to the success of these…
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The online pharmacy spam in your email is probably coming from an online pharmacy organization with close links to organized crime and corrupt police in Russia.
The most actively promoted online pharmacies via spam are associated with Rx-Promotion.com, according to University of California at San Diego researchers.
Now new documents have revealed that Rx-Promotion.com, an affiliate network of rogue pharmacies, is associated with ChronoPay, the largest payment processor in Russia. While ChronoPay claims to be the PayPal of Russia, it makes a large part of its profits from illegal internet-based businesses, including promoting extreme pornographic websites, selling pirated music and movies, and is known for paying off police inspectors and working with nefarious banks.
Investigative reporter Brian Krebs has reported that evidence provided to law enforcement agencies has revealed that ChronoPay’s chief executive, Pavel Vrublevsky, is also definitively the criminal mastermind of this collection of illicit businesses, including the online pharmacies.
According to Krebs, Vrublevsky purchased a license for an Intranet service called “MegaPlan” which is a project management system he used to keep a track of ChronoPay’s “black” operations, including processing payments for counterfeit prescription drugs sold through hundreds of websites affiliated with rogue online pharmacy program Rx-promotion.com.
Delving into the MegaPlan, law enforcement agents discovered how ChronoPay employees tracked payments, ordered supplies, and ran advertising partnerships for Rx-promotion.com and other nefarious services, including “rape” pornography sites and other violent pornography, as well as pirated mp3s, and fake anti-virus software known as “scareware.”
Though employees used pseudonyms in the system, they forwarded the pseudonymic email to their actual ChronoPay email accounts, which allowed authorities to identify them.
The project management software revealed that the equal partners for the rogue pharmacy promotion program, Rx-Promotion, were Vrubelvsky and Yuri Kabayenkov. But in addition, a former Russian police investigator, previously in charge of a criminal investigation of Vrublevsky, was identified as being on the payroll.
Rogue pharmacies are now advertising by using Facebook’s social networking interface.
A brief search on Facebook for term “Viagra” popped up 90 pages.One page, entitled “viagra” [sic] is a Product/Service page and has almost 7,000 fans.
Read MoreBuying medicine online has increased in popularity, but the risks of purchasing online are little understood by consumers. Purchasing from a rogue pharmacy, often indistinguishable from a legitimate one, can put your health and money in the hand of international scam artists that may send you pills that do nothing or make you sicker. Marketwatch’s Val Kennedy reports that industry…
Read MoreWashington, D.C. (February 25, 2011) – Partnership for Safe Medicines Board of Directors’ member Bryan A. Liang, MD, PhD, JD, with colleague Tim Mackey, MAS, published an article in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) addressing the online direct to consumer (DTC) advertising market, and specifically how rogue online pharmacies have adopted these tools…
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