Internet Pharmacy Scams: Know Before You Buy!
INTRODUCTION
Online pharmacies are growing by the day. While most are
legitimate and really do provide consumers the opportunity to
save money on their prescription drugs, there will always be the
few that are out to steal your hard earned money.
An internet pharmacy scam may be any number of things, but most
importantly it is set up to steal your money! The difference
between scams is how they go about stealing it. One internet
pharmacy scam site may simply be set up to take orders, but
never sends your meds. When things heat up, the website, and
your money, suddenly disappear.
Other online pharmacy scam sites may just be gathering credit
card information for use at a later time. They take orders, but
never charge your credit card or send you the prescription
drugs. They are set up to gather credit card and personal
information from you. This information will them be used at a
later time by the con artists operating the site or sold to
other scam artists for their use. Either way, if you order
something online and never receive it, but think all is ok
because your card was not charged, look out! This may come back
to haunt you.
There are still other online pharmacy scam sites that take
orders and then mail the unsuspecting customer counterfeit
medication or medication that has been cut or is of low quality
and made in unsanitary pharmaceutical labs. Either way, they are
stealing your hard-earned dollars.
Keep in mind also that even legitimate online pharmacies may
still use your information in bad ways, either on purpose or
unknowingly. Many businesses, not just online pharmacies, make
it a routine practice to sell your email, phone number, and
address to email and telemarketers. Because you have already
spent money online, you are a better prospect for more
marketing. Check to determine whether the online pharmacy you
are using clearly defines its privacy policies to help avoid
this. Some savy consumers also set up a free email address
through yahoo or hotmail especially for use in ordering. You can
set up one free email for each business you order from and then
check how well they keep their word about no spam.
There are no hard and fast rules to spot internet pharmacy
scams. The list below; however, may be helpful to you in
spotting them. Remember that just because an online pharmacy
fails in one area does not necessarily mean that it is a scam.
You have to look at the entire picture and to do so, we offer
the following list:
DOES IT HAVE A PHONE NUMBER AND PHYSICAL ADDRESS?
Does the pharmacy have a phone number and a physical address?
It is easy to contract out a toll-free number to a call center,
but do they have a physical address listed on their website? If
they do not, does that tell you anything about the company in
light of the circumstances?
CAN THE ADDRESS BE VERIFIED?
If the pharmacy does have a physical address, can it be
verified? If the pharmacy has been in business for very long, it
should be fairly easy to check for it in phone books, etc. If a
business has not been in business long enough to have a listing
in the phonebook, you might want to avoid it until it builds
more of a track record.
WHAT ARE THE RESULTS OF A WHOIS SEARCH?
Do a WhoIs search on the domain name and you may find some
interesting information. For example, the search will tell you
where their IP is located and also usually give their contact
address. If a pharmacy says that it is a US or Canadian
pharmacy, but their contact address is Lithuania then you have
to ask what the heck is going on here. The same goes when you
see a website that does not display a contact person and
address, but the name and address of its domain name
registration company instead in order to hide the true owner's
identify.
IS LIVE ONLINE HELP REALLY AVAILABLE?
A lot of sites selling products, not just online pharmacies,
advertise that they have live online help available. Do they
really? While there may a little graphic advertising as much,
you may also notice that it is never available. Some sites just
say this, but never have anyone present to answer questions. And
just who is answering the questions? Does it sound like someone
who has a list of common questions that is just looking up
answers from the list or someone who is affiliated with the
company and knows what they are talking about. Generally, after
a few questions you will know.
DOES THE PHARMACY TAKE CREDIT CARDS?
This may not be an indicator of a legitimate site, but if the
site accepts only paypal or money orders and no credit cards
then it might be indicitive of a problem.
ARE SHIPPING AND OTHER COSTS CLEARLY STATED?
If you are not aware of all costs before placing the order, do
not place it! Some sites will not tell you the cost of shipping
until you enter your personal information and possibly your
credit card number. Another scam a few use is to suddenly tell
you about a "consultation fee" or some other fee only after you
submit all of your information. Be sure you are getting all of
the costs up front before you enter any personal information. If
you are not sure, ue their toll-free number or email and ask.
BE CAREFUL OF TESTMONIALS
Some internet pharmacy sites provide personal testimonials, but
what are they in reality? More than likely, no good at all
because you have no way knowing whether the person making the
testimonal is a real person or if what was written was simply
made up by the operator of the online pharmacy.
CAN YOU EASILY CALL AND TALK TO THE ONLINE PHARMACY?
An online pharmacy scam site may be set up to take orders, take
your money, and then close down after a few weeks of collecting
money and sending nothing in return. Before you order from an
online pharmacy, pick up the phone and call their toll-free
number to be sure it works. Talk to the person on the other end
of the line and get an idea of what you think.
DOES THE WEBSITE HAVE SPELLING AND GRAMMATICAL
MISTAKES?
Sure, it is easy to make a mistake or two, but if you see a
site with several what does that tell you? Why would you order
drugs from a site that is full of errors?
IS THE WEBSITE KEPT UP TO DATE AND FUNCTIONING
PROPERLY?
Take a look at the online pharmacy website and ask yourself how
it really looks? Do they have news items posted that are months
old? Look for a copyright notice and what date appears on it. If
a site is being maintained, the notice should be kept up to
date. When you click on the different menu items do they come up
properly in your browser or are there pages that do not work?
When you look around the site, ask yourself if things are up to
date.
IS ORDERING SECURE?
Networks are secure if you can see the lock graphic in the
right-hand side of your browser status bar and if there is a
reputable credit society handling your on-line transactions.
Before submitting any personal information, you should see this
graphic. No graphic, no order! Be careful, some sites will use
their own padlock graphic somewhere on the web page to fool you.
They will also say they offer secure ordering when they do not.
Remember, the graphic should appear in the right-hand side of
the browser status bar (at bottom).
CAN SHIPPING BE TRACKED?
Are orders shipped using a method, such as registered mail,
which provides some sort of documentation of the delivery? If
not, be careful.
CONCLUSION
The tips above on how to spot online pharmacies are to help you
get started. The bottom line is that you have to judge for
yourself. Just because a pharmacy is online or located in
another country does not mean that it is scam. There are many
foreign online pharmacies that provide great service and great
prices. Unfortunately, the few online pharmacies that are set up
to scam you make things bad for everyone concerned.
Remember that dealing with online pharmacies is like everything
else in life, use your common sense. If a deal is too good to be
true, it probably is!
For more information, go to Internet Pharmacy List.