Fake Amazon E-Mail Takes Victims to Online Pharmacies

Buying books through Amazon.com (or, in Canada, Amazon.ca) beats browsing individual bookstores hands down. More often than not, that is. Except that it might expose users to unwanted scams.

Such as e-mails that claim they come from Amazon.com. They say the recipient's recent Amazon order has been successfully cancelled. To finalize the deal, please click a link to view details about the cancelled order.

The first order of business for you: try to remember whether you have even ordered the item mentioned in the e-mail in the first place.

Great service? No. The e-mails are not from Amazon. In fact, they are part of an ongoing spam campaign to promote suspect online drug store websites. Those who click the links in the messages will be taken to a "pharmacy" website that attempts to sell them various kinds of prescription medications.

Amazon isn't the only victim of such attacks. iTunes, LinkedIn, YouTube and other similar, high-profile online entities, have been targeted, too.

What's the percentage for the predators?

It's quite simple, really. By disguising their spam as legitimate communications from legitimate providers, they sneak past most of anti-spam filters. And, secondly, they have found out that quite a few people, once they've landed on their sites, stay to browse and may become interested in whatever it is they're selling.

This, in and of itself, is perfectly dangerous. On five levels:

• First: you may have parted with your money but will receive nothing in return.
• Second: unless you are a pharmacist and have the laboratory equipment and expertise to analyze the product you may have received, you will not know whether whatever has arrived in the mail is the real thing or some dangerous or ineffective substitute.
• Third: unless you are a physician who is familiar with your condition, you have no way of knowing whether the medication you have ordered will or will not interfere with whatever other medications you are taking, or what kind od side effects it has, or whether it even is suitable for whatever medical condition you might be suffering from.
• Fourth: many (perhaps most) such sites use pages that haven't been secured to keep your credit card information safe.
• And the fifth level: how can you trust a deceptive spammer with your credit card information, anyway?

There can be two more levels of danger:

• Sixth: how do you know these fake sites do not harbour malware that they can install on your computer?
• Seventh: scammers have been known to use similar tactics for phishing purposes. Pretending they are concerned about your overall health, they will ask a number of personal questions, some of which you would prefer not to discuss even with your family doctor.

Here's a cure:

If you receive any such messages, do not click on any links they may contain. Just delete them. If you're thorough enough, mark them as spam.




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