#fakedrugs: Scammers using Twitter to peddle fake medicines

Viagra is a top target for scammers

Scammers are exploiting Twitter to entice people into buying fake medicines, according to a new report.

The report, published by the department of computer science at the University of Alkron in Ohio, says that Twitter is creating an ideal environment for those peddling counterfeit drugs.

The vast majority of pharmaceutical spam still comes via email - with 65% of all email spam related to counterfeit drugs - but the authors say that the 175 million users tweeting around 95 million times a day is making Twitter more attractive to spammers.

The authors say this poses a threat to people naïve enough to believe they can purchase their medication cheaper through these scammers.

They are exploiting Twitter features such as adding the most popular or trending hashtags to their spam tweets to give greater exposure to the fake products they are trying to sell.

They are also using ‘friendly’ accounts with personalised pictures and innocuous profiles to make themselves more credible.

The authors said: “Twitter spammers target the network by following other users and attempting to get them to follow back - they create fake profiles and start following as many people as is feasible without being identified as a spammer.”

Although email remains the primary medium for pharmaceutical scammers, the allure of Twitter may start to tip the balance if its popularity continues. 

Ben Adams is the reporter for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com. He can be contacted via: email or Twitter.