MIT Technology Review Subscribe

Illegitimate Pharmaceutical Ads Prolific on Yahoo

The majority of the search engine’s drug ads are from rogue online pharmacies, according to researchers.

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.

LegitScript/KnujOn

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.

Advertisement

In a press release issued today along with the second report, KnujOn founder Garth Bruen said,

This story is only available to subscribers.

Don’t settle for half the story.
Get paywall-free access to technology news for the here and now.

Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in
You’ve read all your free stories.

MIT Technology Review provides an intelligent and independent filter for the flood of information about technology.

Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in

“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.

This is your last free story.
Sign in Subscribe now

Your daily newsletter about what’s up in emerging technology from MIT Technology Review.

Please, enter a valid email.
Privacy Policy
Submitting...
There was an error submitting the request.
Thanks for signing up!

Our most popular stories

Advertisement