Multinational cybersecurity software company Avast has unearthed a “large-scale criminal network” behind more than 5,000 “fraudulent” pharmacy domains, it revealed last month (July 30).
The websites are all controlled by the same operators and are linked to a “single organised cybercrime infrastructure”, it said.
According to Avast, the sites have targeted patients by selling “high-demand, high-risk and high-shame treatments” such as erectile dysfunction (ED) and weight loss drugs.
Read more: ‘DIY kits’: NI fake weight loss jab warning as patients hospitalised
Medicines like Viagra, Metformin – a diabetes medication sometimes used “off-label for weight loss” – and hair loss drug Propecia are just some of the “counterfeit, contaminated or entirely fake medications” these websites have been found to sell, it said.
They are medicines that “people are either desperate to get quickly, prefer to keep private or can’t afford through traditional means”, it added.
It highlighted that “many of these substances are dangerous without proper prescription guidance or are outright illegal to sell online in certain regions”.
“Toxic substances”
Avast warned that the unknowing use of counterfeit drugs could mean there are “no active ingredients” and this could “delay real treatment for serious conditions”.
Taking these drugs also creates the risk of patients ingesting “toxic substances...[containing] heavy metals, pesticides or even animal tranquilisers”, it said.
“These drugs often look convincingly real with forged labels, fake expiration dates and barcodes, but what’s inside can be deadly,” it stressed.
Read more: AI eBay algorithm blocks two million illegal medicine sales
The company explained that common techniques used to scam the public, as well as warning signs to look out for include:
- Fake blogs offering health tips but “redirecting to scam pharmacies”
- “Counterfeit review sites” filled with “glowing but fabricated testimonials”
- “Search engine manipulation and website hijacking”
- “Redirecting people” from legitimate resources, including AI chatbots
- Requests for “cryptocurrency or wire transfers”
- “Pressure tactics like ‘try a different card’ or ‘contact your bank to approve the charge’”
“Online fraudsters”
Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) chief executive Dr Leyla Hannbeck today (August 19) said that these “alarming” findings expose the “extent of PharmaFraud and the shocking danger it poses for patients”.
“These figures underline just how important it is that patients seek advice from the source they can trust, their local community pharmacy,” she said.
And she stressed that “it is vital” regulators take “much more vigorous and robust action to tackle these online fraudsters”.
Read more: Twelve arrests in ‘biggest ever’ meds trafficking crackdown
It comes after the Department of Health (DH) in Northern Ireland this month issued a warning to the public not to “fall victim to criminals” selling fake weight loss medication following reports of patients being hospitalised.
And the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) last week launched an investigation into “private non-NHS” prescribing in the UK to “build the evidence base” around the “misuse of medicines [and] counterfeit medicines”, among other things.
