Warning out vs 'Google Pharmacy' spam

Scammers are exploiting search giant Google's popularity to sell drugs online, a computer security firm warned this week.

 

GFI Labs said the cyberscammers are sending out unsolicited emails pitching drugs via a so-called "Google Pharmacy."

 

"Of course, this time around, online criminals only used Google’s name in an attempt to pique users’ interest and have them start clicking away," it said in a blog post.

 

It cited one sample spam with a Google Pharmacy logo, claiming to have "launched a pharmaceutical interface for Google, as well as several new features that will improve the Google experience for the people buying pills and using pharmaceutical interfaces."

 

GFI said the sample spam - with the sender using an @irs.com domain - claimed Google Pharmacy "will help people use pharmacy and surgery."

 

"The supposed sender is obviously fake, seeing that it used an @irs.com domain. What’s more, this particular email address has been involved in numerous email scams before," GFI noted.

 

On the other hand, it said the link provided in the spam message cannot be clicked since the entire message body is an image.

 

"Spammers designed this spam to bypass normal filters that normally just track texts/URLs within email messages. Such a spam is called image spam," it said.

 

GFI said recipients of this spam will have to type the URL into a browser’s address bar to visit the domain.

 

But once they do, they are led to a page that is not Google Pharmacy but to "Pharmacy Express," which is not to be mistaken with a legitimate Pharmacy Express based in New Zealand, GFI said. — TJD, GMA News