Some pharmacy scammers are just phishing — for your credit card number
Some so-called no prescription pharmacies aren't actually pharmacies at all.
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.
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