4 Common Online Pharmacy Scams and how to Avoid Them

Today, almost everything can be bought online. Clothes, shoes, cosmetics, technology, books, tickets for various events, furniture, cars, and medications. Shopping has never been easier and quicker, everything that made us have to sit in a car or a bus, look for parking, walk for hours in shopping centers or stores, try on clothes, shoes or something else – now is possible to buy from your armchair, with the click of a mouse, through popularly called “web shops”. It is enough to take a closer look at the food you are buying, “put it in the basket”, pay and in a few days it will be at your door.

FAST, CHEAPER, AND LESS DEMANDING

In general, shopping online allows us to be in trend, it is easier to find the desired product, and the prices are often lower than in stores. Shopping has never been easier. Distance shopping is reduced to a few steps – you need to find an online store, choose the desired product, make a purchase decision, pay for it and wait for it to be delivered to your home address. If we choose a safe site for shopping, which has a developed web shop and which has excellent reviews from other customers, shopping can become a real pleasure.

Source: hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com

The offer is really huge. There’s nothing you can’t find and buy online. If you want an article on clothing – you can! Do you need a toothbrush – you can! If you are looking for a nut for a screw – that can be done! Of course, online shopping is more popular with the younger generation. Members of the fairer sex are offered the opportunity to buy clothes, shoes, cosmetics, and various fashion accessories. And when they are already “there”, it would be useful to look at some details for decorating the house or maybe a gift for a friend, mother, grandmother, neighbor…

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The same goes for medications. All the information you need is at your disposal, you don’t even have to ask a doctor about them, you just click https://www.pricepropharmacy.com/.

Certainly, a great idea, but is it really so? Since we’re talking about a huge uncontrolled thing called the internet, scams are a normal thing. This article will list the most common ones you should be aware of.

1. Forged medications

Source: fdli.org

What are the risks of taking forged medicines? A person who takes a forged drug may be at risk of many dangerous health consequences. Patients may have unexpected side effects, allergic reactions, or deterioration of their health. A certain number of these medicines do not contain active substances and instead contain inert substances, the treatment of which does not provide any benefit to the patient. Forged medicines can also contain incorrect ingredients, inadequate doses of correct ingredients, and dangerous ingredients. And online pharmacies are the place you can end up buying those.

The safest way to get a prescription for the original drug is to have it issued by a doctor and pick up the drug at a licensed pharmacy, and if you want to buy the drug online, you must order it from an authorized online pharmacy. Get a list of authorized online pharmacies from your local authorities (note that online pharmacies are not legally allowed in many countries) and refrain from buying from websites that do not list the pharmacy’s registration number, physical address and phone number as fake online pharmacies do not provide this information.

2. Suspicious payment options

Online pharmacies can look real when they’re not, so be sure to check which page you’re redirected to when you want to make a payment. The most secure payment options are through special payment service providers such as PayPal and similar. Also, if by any chance you haven’t already, turn on the 3DS authentication option. This means that you will have to additionally confirm the transaction on your mobile phone (push message) or on the page of the bank that issued the card using a one-time code or password (the code is generated by a token or via a mobile application). The most common scam people fall for are related to payments, and their bank details.

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3. You have received an empty package

Source: ncesc.com

The pharmacy publishes a discount, usually for medications that are in demand and popular at a given time, at a price far below the market price. In fact, it only sells a box for that medication and counts on the fact that you will not read the description carefully and rush to buy it before everyone else.

How will you avoid this scam? Do not rush to buy and read the information carefully. If the price is too low, something is probably wrong.

4. Delivery with the wrong name

The pharmacy places an ad, usually with a Buy Now option (though not always). After you buy the goods, they send it to your address but write the name wrong so that you think you received someone else’s package. Naturally, you return the shipment. And thus void the warranty that protects you from fraud. The seller keeps the money, you are without what you wanted to buy and without the right to appeal.

Online purchase of medicines and authorized e-pharmacies: are they the same?

Source: segmentify.com

In recent years, the increased interest in e-commerce and the anonymity of online shopping has led to a drastic increase in online pharmacies.

Authorized e-pharmacies provide a convenient way to obtain prescribed medications and are often used by health insurance providers. Unfortunately, only about 4% of e-pharmacies are truly legal, licensed pharmacies. Unauthorized pharmacies allow the purchase of drugs without a prescription. And the medicines you get are usually fake, wrong, or contaminated.

How to distinguish a licensed from an unauthorized pharmacy? Unauthorized pharmacies will ask you to fill out some kind of survey, are often registered in an unknown location, and do not have a contact email address. And a sure sign that something is wrong is the price. If they offer you a medicine, for which you know the approximate price, at an incredibly low price – believe that it is not a medicine you want to buy, let alone use.

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