Illegitimate Pharmaceutical Ads Prolific on Yahoo
82% of drug ads on Yahoo lead to illegitimate Internet pharmacies, according to the second report from spam-monitoring group KnujOn and online pharmacy verifier LegitScripts. At the beginning of this month, these groups released a study suggesting that most of the pharmacy ads appearing on Bing lead users to fraudulent online pharmacies.
By searching Yahoo for terms like ‘generic Viagra’ or ‘pain meds,’ the researchers were able to order several prescription drugs without prescriptions (a violation of federal law) from various countries. The report lists details on 10 ads which led to these ‘rogue’ pharmacies.
In a press release issued today along with the second report, KnujOn founder Garth Bruen said,
“Like Bing, Yahoo! has been infiltrated by sophisticated illicit operations that are taking advantage of consumer need and gullibility.”
The group states that better online pharmacy verification systems are needed to minimize the sales of counterfeit drugs and addictive drugs without prescriptions.
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