Cybercriminals exploit swine flu fears

Criminal syndicates involved in multi-billion dollar online drug scams

As the number of reported swine flu cases in Britain climbs to an all-time high, IT security and data protection firm Sophos has added its voice to government warnings against buying Tamiflu over the internet.

Panic-induced stockpiling by individuals who aren’t officially classified as being at risk of contracting swine flu, and therefore anxious they won’t receive Tamiflu from the British healthcare system, are at risk of losing a few bob whilst also granting cyber criminals access to sensitive personal data to be used for other crimes.

Underground web affiliates, which form networks called the Partnerka, operate an organised criminal network alongside the businesses running online pharmacies. The Partnerka generate traffic to those sites for an agreed share of the profit from online Tamiflu sales.

Many of these pharmaceutical sites brand themselves as “Canadian Pharmacy” in order to appear as a more trusted website to unsuspecting internet users.

Thousands of affiliates use criminal methods including spam, adware and malware to drive as much traffic to their partners’ stores as possible, which then sell high-profit illegal goods as part of a multi-million dollar industry. 

The top five countries purchasing Tamiflu and other drugs from the “Canadian Pharmacy” are the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada and France. Although unwitting buyers do often receive some kind of drug as a result of the transactional exchange, at best the drug doesn’t work and at worse it can pose serious health risks.

Although the precise number of affiliates is ever-changing, it is projected that there are thousands in operation at any one time. Sophos research has discovered that on one of the more popular affiliate networks operated out of Russia, called Glavmed, it is possible to earn an average of US$16,000 (±R118,000) a day promoting pharmaceutical websites – totaling $5.8-million a year (±R43-million).

The criminals can be members of more than one affiliate network, and some have boasted of earning more than $100,000 (±R740,000) per day.

Sophos is warning that concerns about the severity of swine flu has the potential to drive even greater volumes of traffic and total sales to Partnerka websites.

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