Internet Pharmacies Target Academics

The BBC reports today that a fake drug scam has hijacked some UK college websites.  Online searches for drugs such as Viagra, Cialis etc would give search results which included the websites of academic institutions.  When the user clicked on these sites they were instead taken to online "pharmacy" sites where they were offered the medicines they had originally searched for.

I (and many others) have blogged about internet pharmacies before, but this is a cunning new angle.  By routing the search through the psychologically safer ground of an academic website, the criminals may perhaps fool the unwary into assuming some kind of endorsement of the online pharmacy. 

Internet pharmacies, with very few exceptions (probably not enough for a tetrapod to run out of digits when counting them) are very risky and dangerous. Do not be fooled by the search route, logos, associations or any claimed endorsements. Check everything thoroughly. VIPPS  is one of the few reliable quality schemes.

If you are trying to get prescription medicine online without a prescription then try using breath mints instead - much cheaper, less toxic, and just as efficaceous as whatever turns up in the post from the internet harmacy ("p" deliberately omitted).