Fake Tamiflu "Out-Spams Viagra On Web" 65
cin62 writes "The number of Internet scammers offering fake versions of the anti-swine flu drug Tamiflu has surpassed those selling counterfeit Viagra, reports CNN. Since the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, was declared a global pandemic last month, there has been an increase in the number of Web sites and junk emails offering Tamiflu for sale. 'Every Web site that used to sell Viagra is now selling Tamiflu. We are pretty sure that the same people are making the Tamiflu as are making the Viagra,' said Director of Policy for the UK's Royal Pharmaceutical Society."
This news fits in nicely with a report Wired ran a couple weeks ago about the hysteria behind H1N1.
Who the @#&* purchases from spam? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd like to know who purchases from spam. They need punishment.. What's their typical profile? Do they live in a cave? ...and still have internet?
Do these actually do business? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm also curious if any countries take steps to actively stamp these out? It seems like it should be fairly simple to figure out where these are based. I can only assume they are based in counties with no extradition laws?
Re:Who the @#&* purchases from spam? (Score:4, Insightful)
Quick, this is our chance to rid the world of the types of people who buy viagra, and fake tamiflu advertised in spam.
Which poison would be best?
Tired of response bashing... (Score:5, Insightful)
And, nobody really knew what this early information meant. Even in April, some universities estimated the worst-case in the united states will be approximately 1,000 by May 18th (link [iu.edu]) while the try number of cases was AT least 5x that (link [cdc.gov]). The actual cases were probably much more, and by july it was estimated at around a million in the US. Sure, it was becoming clearer that the death rate was small by then, but this couldn't have been known earlier on.
The response to this information was nothing draconian: no viruses were mandated or anything like that. People were simply asked to wash their hands, avoid coming out if sick, etc. Schools were shut down, but again not that big of a deal. Obviously the majority of the big cities in Mexico, the epicenter, were shut down. The only possible conspiracy-theory type reasoning that may be true is that companies making tamiflu and other drugs made a lot of money off of this. Without additional evidence, that doesn't mean the "hysteria" was manufactured.
All in all, everybody go to exercise their preparedness responses, and improve on them if they were deficient. I think the response, while probably not perfect, was pretty impressive actually.
Re:Who the @#&* purchases from spam? (Score:2, Insightful)
The cure for spam... (Score:2, Insightful)
... is to educate people, so we have less stupid buyers, the targets of spammers. But most of those stupid persons prefers to remain stupid, so spam is here to stay.
Now that I think about it, that also applies to Windows, Internet Explorer, viruses (biological and computerized ones), most elected politicians, etc.
Corollary: the category of plagues is bound by stupidity.
Re:Do these actually do business? (Score:3, Insightful)
There is another possibility - dumb businesses. A spammer's business model is to send out X spam for $Y. That's it. Business wants to do "marketing" by email, they'll pay say, $1000 for a campaign of 10,000,000 addresses (number made up). Spammer does it, and goes on with his next customer.
Business doing the marketing may never make back that $1000 (and never use such services again), but it doesn't matter to the spammer. All the spammer sees is row upon row of people wanting "marketing" services. As long as people are lining up and paying him, he doesn't care if 99.9999% of the people never see the email, and of the remaining, all but one delete it, and the last one purchases.
As long as people believe it works and are willing to pay good money for it, it'll continue happening.
Stupid question, obviously you have no idea (Score:2, Insightful)
> I just can't come to grips with the fact that people will actually order stuff like this off the net.
> It would be no different than taking random drugs you bought off the street corner. It just seems insane to me.
Actually it isn't. A lot of this stuff comes out of pharmaceutical companies that either have FDA approval or work on a similar level. There is no "world wide patent". It would also to expensive to patent a drug world wide (let's say every African country). Some Viagra, as far as I know, comes from India. Pfizer might not, by whatever reason, have a patent there. Hence drugs from offshore pharmacies can be both, the real deal AND legal by using loop-holes.
Can you get pills that contain nothing or a wrong ingredient? Yes you can. But sorry to break the news to you, it is also well possible that you get counterfeit drugs from your own local pharmacy without you or them knowing. Your statement would then become "I just can't come to grips with the fact that people will actually buy stuff in pharmacies and don't pick it off from the manufacturer like Pfizer..."
A wide field...