Covid despite its adversity also gave a window for new innovations to emerge. One of the stark innovations, in user behaviour, has emerged in the way people buy medicines. More and more people are moving towards online pharmacies considering their increased vitality during the pandemic and lockdowns.
However, this also brought an undesired demon along with it, Cyber Scams. With an increased number of users buying medicines online, scamsters also set up their fake pharmacies. A joint action by Israeli firm Brandshield and Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI) has worked on fake Online Pharmacies from December 2020 to November 2021.
Both blocked more than 850 fraudulent Online Pharmacies. More than 14,000 fake listings in popular online marketplaces were removed. These platforms were backed by strong social media support. More than 4000 social media posts were also removed by them. Their joint action destroyed a racket of fake medicines whose joint worth is estimated to be $1.8 million!
Most of the time these platforms don’t even give medicines. Their whole purpose is to just get a confirmed payment from a victim. They would do this by different measures. In between the purchase process, they would ask the victim to switch to personal conversation. They can also send and ask users to switch to a different domain name
Although, online pharmacies have given convenience and accessibility to all. This should be utilised with some caution. One of the easiest way is to check the domain name. By looking at the domain name carefully and having some information about the different red-flags, you can protect yourself from such scams.
To know more about such scams, click here.
Join the Discussion