As rumors swirl that pop superstar Michael Jackson may have been killed by an accidental overdose of Demerol, Diprivan and other medications, it is ironic that shady prescription drug pushers are still abusing the King of Pop, even after his death.

That’s right. No-prescription pharmacy scammers are using Michael Jackson’s death as the bait in their latest spam e-mail campaigns.

According to the Xinhua news agency:

Computer security firms are warning users to be vigilant about spam messages capitalizing on the sudden death of U.S. pop star Michael Jackson. Security firm Sophos … reported that about eight hours after Jackson’s death, its experts witnessed the first wave of spam messages taking advantage of the breaking news in the subject line and body of the email.

In these messages, the spammers claimed that they have vital information about the death of Michael Jackson to share and asked for a reply … [Experts] said users should be wary of spam emails offering links to “news” or “pictures” of deceased celebrities, which most of the time will lead to websites touting pharmacy products …

The spammers have outdone themselves again.

We’ve always liked Google’s approach to distributing the news. Google News aggregates headlines from about 5,000 English-language news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together, and then displays them based on your keyword search or customized options.

As Google explains:

Traditionally, news readers first pick a publication and then look for headlines that interest them. We do things a little differently, with the goal of offering our readers more personalized options and a wider variety of perspectives from which to choose.

On Google News we offer links to several articles on every story, so you can first decide what subject interests you and then select which publishers’ accounts of each story you’d like to read. Click on the headline that interests you and you’ll go directly to the site which published that story.

Our articles are selected and ranked by computers that evaluate, among other things, how often and on what sites a story appears online. We also rank based on certain characteristics of news content such as freshness, location, relevance and diversity.

Google News sources are mostly old-school media sources, such as newspapers, television channels and wire services, as well as some of the more prominent blogs and online publications. But now, pharmacy spammers are finding a way into Google News search results.

In running a search for Viagra, for example, you’ll find spam posted on the domains of media sites ranging from Motley Fool to MyFox Austin. In some cases, the spam is pulled quickly, but in other cases it isn’t.

Here’s the first paragraph of a story found on MyFox Austin’s site:

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The reason spam is creeping onto these sites is that they have created “community” sections that allow site visitors to post their own news items. Clearly, however, these media sources are not doing enough to keep spam from undermining their sites.

Source

If you are receiving unwanted e-mails from no-prescription pharmacies, particularly from the same source again and again, you obviously want to stop those messages from appearing in your inbox.

So when the message you receive concludes with an offer to delete you from the mailing list, it’s tempting to click the “unsubscribe” link or reply to the e-mail with a “remove me” request, isn’t it?

Don’t do it!

Most pharmacy spammers send out well over a million spams every day to lists scraped and stolen from all over the Internet. These spammers have no idea which of the addresses on their lists are functional and currently in use, and which are not.

Until you click a link or send a reply, that is.

As Spamhaus explains:

By sending back a ‘remove me’ opt-out request you are confirming to the spammer that your address is live, you are confirming that your ISP doesn’t use spam filters, you are confirming that you actually open and read spams, and that you follow the spammer’s instructions such as “click this to be removed”. You are the perfect candidate for more spam.

A live address is a valuable address, spammers sell live addresses at a premium as “confirmed deliverable” addresses to yet more spammers. If you don’t want your address to end up on endless spammers’ lists, distributed on spam CDROMs to spammers worldwide, do not confirm to the spammer that your address is real and working.

Never Opt-out of lists you did not Opt-in to in the first place.

U.S. laws are strict against sending unsolicited bulk email. If someone is spamming you, chances are the perpetrator is based overseas and, in many cases, linked to criminal syndicates.

Believe us, you don’t want to deal with people like that — even in a seemingly innocuous e-mail reply.

The TV news report should serve as a warning to all of us.

Many rogue online pharmacies aren’t technically “no prescription” pharmacies — because they do have physicians on hand who write prescriptions for patients based on what are called “remote consultations.”

These online consultation pharmacies work with doctors who review a patient’s self-reported medical history — generally based on the completion of an online questionnaire — and then write a prescription in response to the patient’s request. U.S. states have different laws on what constitutes a valid doctor-patient consultation. However, as PharmacyChecker.com reports:

The American Medical Association and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have issued statements asserting that remote consultations are a substandard medical practice when there is no prior doctor-patient relationship, one established by an in-person physical exam.

No Prescription Needed does not permit online consultation pharmacies to be members of our network. While the standards of these pharmacies are higher, on the whole, than those of pharmacies that require no prescription at all, they still do not meet the safety standards that you deserve — and should demand — as a patient.

As has been reported by the Washington Post and others, online consultation pharmacies have a tendency to attract doctors with substance abuse problems, a history of malpractice, and a variety of financial woes.

The Post checked the background of prescribing physicians and found the following:

A Colorado doctor had a history of alcohol abuse. An Arkansas doctor was being treated for bipolar disorder and drug dependency. A Florida doctor had twice been cited for providing inadequate care to elderly patients, one of whom died. A Texas doctor was under investigation by the FBI for suspected Medicare fraud and later committed suicide. A California doctor was disciplined for operating under a fictitious name. A North Carolina doctor had held 22 jobs in five years.

Pharmacy site operators use Web sites like this one to recruit doctors in need of cash.

Don’t be fooled by a pharmacy that claims to distribute valid prescriptions over the Web. The only legitimate prescription is one your doctor writes for you after an in-person consultation.

We’ve warned you that you’re better off staying away from so-called no prescription pharmacies. Now a member of Canada’s parliament wishes these pharmacy scammers had stayed away from him.

As the CBC reports:

Fredericton Conservative MP Keith Ashfield is learning a hard lesson about how the internet has changed the old question: what’s in a name? The federal cabinet minister registered the domain name keithashfield.ca during the 2008 election to promote his candidacy.

But Ashfield, now the minister of state for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, let the registration lapse, which allowed someone else to take over the domain name.

The new owner is using the page for a totally different purpose than politics. Now if someone is looking for information on the Fredericton politician, they won’t find it at keithashfield.ca. What they will find are details on how to buy prescription drugs “with no prescription.”

The site lists various drugs available from overseas pharmacies without a prescription including OxyContin, Ritalin and diazepam.

“Obviously it doesn’t make me very happy,” Ashfield said. “But in this day of technology, obviously I’ve learned a lesson from this.”

Scam pharmacies don’t all sell bad or counterfeit drugs.  That’s right — some of them don’t sell any drugs at all!

And scam pharmacies — many of them billing themselves as “no prescription” pharmacies — don’t always use your credit card numbers to charge you for drugs, either.  That’s because some of them don’t even have a merchant account that allows them to process credit cards!

You see, getting a merchant account isn’t easy, and takes a little time.  And fly-by-night operators like things to be easy.

So what these so-called pharmacies will do is put up a quick-and-dirty Web site using a free template and begin sending out spam e-mails to attempt to draw you to the site.  Once you’re there, they will pretend to sell you medications with no prescription — and they will take your credit card number and other personal information to pretend to charge your credit card.

And of course, they would charge you if they could — but they can’t, since they don’t have a merchant account.

So instead, they just hang on to your credit card information for future use.  Say, to buy a new high-definition TV — or a dozen of them.  Or for some other scam they’re concocting.

Of course, we hope you’ve already learned enough to avoid this kind of no prescription pharmacy site, but in the event you’ve given out your card number and you’re having second thoughts or concerns, here’s what you should do:

After you place an order, give your bank a call two or three days later to see if it was charged. If it has not been charged, you should immediately call the pharmacy to ask why.  

If you don’t get a good explanation, you probably need to cut up that credit card and get a new one.

We’ll be discussing online pharmacy safety quite a bit on this blog. For starters, here are four of the biggest warning signs that you are dealing with a rogue pharmacy.

1. No prescription needed. Rogue pharmacies generally do not require you to see a doctor to get a prescription. They advertise “No Prescription Needed!” or say they will provide a complimentary online consultation with a physician — which usually simply entails you filling out a brief form.

2. You can’t find an address on their site. Many sites claiming to be licensed Canadian pharmacies are actually based in third-world countries in Asia and Africa. They sometimes even put a fake government seal on their sites! If you can’t find an actual address, that’s a good clue that you’re being scammed.

3. They only offer the most popular drugs. If the Web site only offers Viagra, weight-loss drugs and painkillers, you’re not dealing with a real pharmacy — and who knows what, if anything, you’ll receive in the mail if you place an order.

4. They spam your inbox. Did you know that “Canadian pharmacies” is one of the most frequently used subject lines in spam e-mails? NO legitimate pharmacy sends out these kinds of e-mails. Do not respond to them under any circumstances.

If you come upon any of these business practices, do not make a purchase! In fact, we encourage you to leave the Web site immediately — or you might just end up with a nasty virus on your PC.