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- Jul 5, 2014
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Is your love letter real?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers about fraudulent letters sent to people who have purchased medicines online or over the phone from illegal pharmacies. The agency is concerned that these fake letters, which look similar to official FDA correspondence, are part of an international extortion scam.
Printed on what appears to be FDA letterhead, the letters follow the format of other documents sent by the agency. They alert recipients that their packages have been reviewed and allude to drug violations stemming from their purchases. They ask for a written reply within 15 days, providing a valid FDA address.
So far, approximately three dozen letters have been reported. Mysteriously, thus far none appear to have included a request for money.
While the FDA routinely sends warning letters to companies manufacturing and distributing illegal drugs, individual consumers purchasing from these pharmacies typically are not targeted.
It’s unclear how the names and addresses of the recipients were obtained or how the senders knew who made the purchases. The FDA has warned that many of these websites—which allow people to buy drugs without a valid prescription and often at steep discounts—offer no fraud protection, thereby potentially enabling personal and credit card information to get into the hands of scammers. Some consumers may not even realize they are ordering from illegitimate websites.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers about fraudulent letters sent to people who have purchased medicines online or over the phone from illegal pharmacies. The agency is concerned that these fake letters, which look similar to official FDA correspondence, are part of an international extortion scam.
Printed on what appears to be FDA letterhead, the letters follow the format of other documents sent by the agency. They alert recipients that their packages have been reviewed and allude to drug violations stemming from their purchases. They ask for a written reply within 15 days, providing a valid FDA address.
So far, approximately three dozen letters have been reported. Mysteriously, thus far none appear to have included a request for money.
While the FDA routinely sends warning letters to companies manufacturing and distributing illegal drugs, individual consumers purchasing from these pharmacies typically are not targeted.
It’s unclear how the names and addresses of the recipients were obtained or how the senders knew who made the purchases. The FDA has warned that many of these websites—which allow people to buy drugs without a valid prescription and often at steep discounts—offer no fraud protection, thereby potentially enabling personal and credit card information to get into the hands of scammers. Some consumers may not even realize they are ordering from illegitimate websites.
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