WikiPharmacy New Spammer Ploy to Fool Consumers
Consumers beware: there is no wikipharmacy. This is a new ploy by spammers to entice the unwitting into revealing personal financial information and purchasing unregulated medicines from fake drug hawkers.
Spammers have created a wiki-style layout for a so-called “WikiPharmacy” to entice purchasers through advertising low prices. Victims are drawn in by the known reliability of Wikipedia, which is being expoiled, says Patil, because of its huge knowledge base and reputation.
Patil warns consumers that providing any personal information to these websites is dangerous.
This phenomenon is a new version of one that began in 2010, when phishers began attacking Wikipedia with a huge volume of spam emails at directed users to fake Wikipedia websites.
Patil reminds email correspondents to carefully examine the “Subject” line for odd random characters and words. The “From” header is not a secure test of authenticity because often it is either bogus or a compromised ISP account, reports Patil.
Bogus headers with odd character usage that Patil found included “Subject: hWikiPharmacyl” and “Subject: oWikiPharmacyp.”
Says Patil, “A careful look at the ‘Subject’ line is sufficient to identify this type of spam. However, don’t throw caution to the wind when performing online transactions. Beware of prowling predators who are waiting to pounce on casual netizens.”
Warns Spam Fighter, “Spam campaigns of the above mentioned kind once again brought into light the fact that, pharmaceutical spam is the major group across all spam categories that is circulated by cyber criminals and is significantly rising, with no visible end to it.”