Spam e-mails, such as a recent one from a company impersonating Facebook Technical Support, are being sent to unsuspecting recipients. Users who click on them are being taken to rogue pharmacy sites, and in some cases spammers are able to harvest personal and financial information.

The Facebook spam email closely resembles a genuine notification message from Facebook Technical Support (see graphic below). The user is urged to click a “Go To Facebook” button in order to read the awaiting message.

The message above is just one example of spam emails that lead to rogue pharmacy sites. According to NPR, such email campaigns are a very common spammer ruse, with companies such as Rx-Promotion and SpamIt being responsible for upward of 50 or 60 percent of such emails over the last five years. The spammers hope that at least a few recipients will actually stay on the site and purchase their suspect products. In some cases, when opened and clicked, the emails spread malicious software.

You might ask yourself how to spot suspected phishing emails. Facebook’s partners at the Anti-Phishing Working Group have put together some helpful tips to avoid being deceived by these messages:

1. Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for login or financial information, and remember, unless the email is digitally signed, you can’t be sure it wasn’t forged or ‘spoofed’.
2. Don’t use the links in an email, instant message, or chat to get to any web page if you suspect the message might not be authentic or you don’t trust the sender, instead navigate to the website directly.

If you receive an email from an unknown sender or if something about the email doesn’t seem right, don’t open it or click on the links. If you are planning to purchase prescription medications online, make sure your purchase is safe before you buy by using the consumer protection tools from CSIP Partner LegitScript: the Pharmacy-Checker Tool, Health Product Legitimacy Checker, and the Report a Pharmacy page.

The Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) and our 12 member companies have the shared goal of helping address the growing problem of consumer access to illegitimate pharmaceutical products on the Internet. Continue to read this blog for updates on CSIP’s education, enforcement and information-sharing efforts.