In an attempt to curb the growing number of unscrupulous internet scam artists claiming to sell swine flu vaccines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has demanded that dozens of internet website operators remove their counterfeit claims.
Reporting an astonishing degree of success, FDA officials told the Associated Press last week that there has been a nearly 75 percent drop in the number of existing fraudulent websites, while the number of new sites has also fallen precipitously in the six weeks since the agency introduced its anti-racketeering campaign.
According to Alyson Saben, deputy director of the FDA’s office of enforcement, the number of new websites selling bogus swine flu treatments has plummeted from a peak of roughly ten a day two months ago to current levels of one or two a week.
FDA officials say that the agency has to date issued more than 50 official warning letters to online merchants making illegal claims, more than 70 percent of whom have responded by either removing the fictitious claims or shutting down their websites entirely
“In general, they’ve removed all reference to the swine flu,” explained Gary Coody, chief of the FDA’s health fraud division. Of the sites that opted to stay online, Coody says that most have changed their advertising strategy and now claim that their products strengthen the immune system rather than prevent the swine flu.
Coody said that just one of the FDA’s warning letters led to the removal of 10 websites, corroborating suspicions that most of the money-making schemes are being conducted by a small handful of crafty individuals.
FDA officials say they are still putting pressure on the operators of the remaining 30 percent of fraudulent websites. The agency has already enlisted the help of its Office of Criminal Investigation to consider the potential use of more coercive tactics against those refusing to comply, including product seizures, injunctions against sales and criminal prosecutions for.
A few of the more spectacularly bogus claims spotted by Saben and her crew included an ultraviolet light supposedly capable of destroying swine flu, an air purifier able to sterilize a whole room against the flu, a product “clinically shown” to kill the virus in the nose, and a supplement promising to “excite your immune system so much that you would be ready to take on the flu virus.”
Though such claims may seem absurd to well-informed shoppers, the gullibility of a panicked public is never to be underestimated.
“They could be harmful to their health and present a potential threat to the public health,” said a concerned Saben.
Perhaps the most egregious site encountered by Saben’s team was one claiming to sell the effective antiviral treatment Tamiflu for $128 for a 10-pill treatment course. The real medication costs around $93 per treatment as is only available with a physician’s prescription.
FDA has posted a list of officially unapproved products that it’s found so far at: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/h1n1flu/
Vigilant consumers are encouraged to contact the agency through the website if any suspicious products are located that are not found on the list.
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