{"id":748,"date":"2020-01-01T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fraud.flywheelsites.com\/fake_rx_alert\/"},"modified":"2020-11-09T07:30:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T07:30:42","slug":"fake_rx_alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/fake_rx_alert\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking to save on prescription costs? Don’t be a target for counterfeit drug sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s healthcare costs are skyrocketing, and\u00a0many Americans look\u00a0for ways\u00a0to save, including turning to online pharmacies for cheaper prescription drugs. While there are legitimate online pharmacies, many are fraudulent. At best, they\u2019ll take your money and fail to deliver the promised prescription. At worst, they could send you a drug that is counterfeit that may worsen your condition or even be fatal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A recent survey of 12,000 online pharmacies found that\u00a095\u00a0percent\u00a0of them<\/a>\u00a0posed safety concerns to their customers.\u00a0Media reports<\/a>\u00a0have circulated<\/a>\u00a0of drugs<\/a>\u00a0being laced with lethal doses of fentanyl. At Fraud.org, we have received numerous complaints of consumers paying for drugs online and never receiving them.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to avoid counterfeit prescriptions whether you are purchasing online, or from your neighborhood pharmacy:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Verify your online pharmacy.<\/strong>\u00a0Before purchasing a drug online, go to the website\u00a0safe.pharmacy\u00a0to make sure your pharmacy is recommended. If it is not\u00a0on the list, do not purchase drugs from that online pharmacy.<\/li>\n
  2. Pay attention to the appearance of the drug and its packaging.\u00a0<\/strong>If the appearance or coloring of the drug seems different\u00a0from what you expected, or if the packaging appears to be tampered with, this is a red flag.<\/li>\n
  3. Avoid pharmacies that do not require a prescription.\u00a0<\/strong>If the pharmacy only requires you to fill out a questionnaire, the pharmacy is probably a seller of\u00a0counterfeit\u00a0drugs.\u00a0Legitimate pharmacies will\u00a0always<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0require you to submit a prescription from a health care provider before they sell any medicine that requires a prescription.<\/li>\n
  4. Make sure that the pharmacy has a licensed pharmacist available for consultations<\/strong>\u00a0and provides you with contact information such as a physical street address.\u00a0If a pharmacy does not offer these basic services, it is probably illegitimate.<\/li>\n
  5. Be wary of prices that seem too good to be true.<\/strong>\u00a0Regardless of whether you are getting your drugs online, at a neighborhood pharmacy,\u00a0or in a provider\u2019s office, be wary of drugs that are offered at a substantially lower than market-value price. Use drug price comparison tools like\u00a0GoodRX.com to get an idea of what normal market prices are for a\u00a0particular drug.<\/li>\n
  6. Consult your\u00a0<\/strong>d<\/strong>octor or\u00a0<\/strong>p<\/strong>harmacist.<\/strong>\u00a0If you think you may have used a counterfeit drug, consult a medical professional immediately even if you are not experiencing adverse symptoms. If you have a suspicion that you have received a drug that is a counterfeit, take it to your pharmacist.\u00a0Pharmacists are trained to identify the appearance and packaging of legitimate medications.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are\u00a0many safe ways to save money<\/a>\u00a0on prescription drugs. You should never risk your health for a deal on prescription drugs. By following the above steps,\u00a0and by spreading the word to your friends and family<\/a>, you can keep yourself and your family safe from fraud and serious health risks associated with counterfeit medications.\u00a0 If you would like to learn more about counterfeit drugs, you can also check out\u00a0Fraud.org\u2019s new Fake Rx Action center!<\/a><\/p>\n

    If you think you have stumbled upon a counterfeit prescription drug, please report it by filing\u00a0a complaint at Fraud.org via\u00a0our\u00a0secure online complaint form<\/a>.\u00a0We share complaints with our network of nearly 200 law enforcement and consumer protection agency partners who work to\u00a0shut\u00a0down illegal pharmacies, keep dangerous counterfeit drugs off the streets, and put fraudsters behind bars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Fraud.org has launched a new Action Center to help people spot and avoid counterfeit medications–and to save money by shopping online safely<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1225,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions\/1225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fraud.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}