Marcia Bergeron died after taking pills she had bought
online.
IT security and control firm Sophos is warning computer users of
the dangers of buying pills from online sites following the death
of a 57-year old Canadian woman.
According to reports in Canadian newspapers, Marcia Bergeron
died of poisoning after taking pills labeled as anti-anxiety
medication and sedatives purchased from an internet site that used
fake endorsements from medical agencies. The coroner's report
revealed that the pills were laced with dangerous traces of
uranium, strontium, selnium, aluminium, barium and boron. Sophos's Security Threat Report 2007
revealed that almost 60 percent of all spam sent across the
internet is related to drugs and medication.
"This is a tragic reminder that you should always consult a
doctor and never purchase pills online or reply to emails that
offer miracle cures at knocked-down prices," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant at Sophos. "Self-prescription can not only
result in you buying medication that you don't need, but more
worryingly there's no guarantee that the pills won't be just a
cheap concoction of whatever minerals the sellers can get their
hands on, designed for the sole purpose of earning them money. It's
madness to buy drugs from an unknown source - who knows what's in
it?"
Sophos experts warn that fake online sites, such as the one
Bergeron bought her medication from, are growing in number. They
are set up by cybercriminals who often send out spam emails
directing unwary users to the site. They then operate for just a
couple of days before they are shut down to avoid detection by the
authorities. This way spammers can peddle their drugs without being
caught, only to set up another site under a different name a few
days later.
"Medical spam is a serious problem, not only clogging up
networks with unwanted messages, but putting lives at risk. All
computer users need to display common sense when it comes to
opening and responding to unsolicited messages - if what's being
offered seems too good to be true, then it probably is," concluded
Cluley.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend against the
threats of spam, spyware and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.