How to Get Off of the My Canadian Pharmacy Mailing List

Are receiving Spam emails as a part of the "My Canadian Pharmacy" fradulent ring of websites? Here are some steps you can take to not only nip these spams in the bud, but also to keep yourself from getting on spam lists in the future.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer
• Internet connection
• Time and willingness to do a little research

1. Understand the background of the scam.
   
   This scam preys on people who are looking to buy drugs at a discounted rate from Canadian pharmacies. Unfortunately, this scam involves a ring of fake sites that are affiliated with the #1 spam offender in the world, who has also been linked to online pornography and credit card and identity theft. All of the symbols on the site that seem to prove its legitimacy are fake. For more information, check out the SpamWiki article at: http://spamtrackers.eu/wiki/index.php?title=My_Canadian_Pharmacy.
2. Understand how the scam operates.
   
   Essentially, these sites hijack space on servers that are owned by other, often reputable companies. These servers - computers that are constantly connected to the internet - are usually ones that have passwords that are easy to guess, allowing them to be hacked into. One of the best way to stem the spam coming to you is to find out which domain is sending the emails to you and file a spam report with SpamCop. After complaints are received, spammers lose their internet access and face consequences for breaking the "acceptable use policy" of the ISP (internet service provider). SpamCop uses your report to find out who the ISP is and to file a complaint with them.
   
   If you can find out who the ISP for the domain is yourself, you can complain to them directly to root out the problem on their servers. With your complaint, they may be able to find the machine that has been compromised, locate and remove the directory that contains the infection from the pharmacy web server, and take steps to make sure that their machines are protected from future hacks. Incidentally, if you own a domain or server or even have a computer that is always connected to the internet, you can be a victim as well - take steps to make sure that your computer is secure.
3. Submit a SpamCop complaint.
   
   Open your Web browser and navigate to SpamCop (http://www.spamcop.net/). Click the "Report Spam" tab and register. You will receive an email with a password. Enter your email address and password to login. Go to your email program in another browser window and open the spam email. View the source code of the email. Highlight the source code and cut and paste it into the form on the SpamCop site. Click the "Process Spam" button. Then, click "Send Spam Report(s) Now."
   
   If you receive a lot of spam, it may mean entering a lot of SpamCop reports. Be persistent and your efforts are very likely to pay off. Realize, however, that this is an ongoing battle.
4. Contact the registrar of the site to file a fales Whois records complaint.
   
   Whois.net is an online research service that allows you to find out who is behind a website. By entering in the url for a fake pharmacy site, you can find out who their ISP is and potentially other information such as the name and address of the people running the domain.
5. Send an email to [e-mail].
   
   The people who run this scam are commiting not only internet crimes, but also are potentially manufacturing and shipping drugs that could be harmful. Therefore, the FDA is a good place to go to lodge complaints.
6. Send complaints to the organizations whose seals of approval have been fradulently placed on the fake pharmacy Web site.
   
   Often, seals of approval from organizations such as the BBB (Better Business Bureau), Pharmacy Checker, and Visa appear on the site. A few tactics that the creators of these sites use is to not make these icons clickable or for clicks to redirect to a fake site that resembles the official site. Using your browser and not the fake pharmacy site, search for these organizations and find email addresses to contact to report the misuse of their seals. A few addresses that victims of this scheme have mentioned are: [e-mail] and [e-mail].
7. Change your email address.
   
   I know you probably don't want to hear this, but, once your email address has been compromised, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to effectively stop receiving spam messages. If you feel that all of the above efforts are not helping, and you are still receiving a massive amount of spam, consider changing your main email address. Update all of your contacts once you have done so and ask them to under no circumstances pass it on without your permission. Learn as much as you can about how to protect this new email adress from spammers. Also, get a second email address that you use for online registrations. You may need to change this secondary email address frequently.
   
   Another possibility is to register your email address with SpamCop. For a yearly fee of $30, you can use them to protect your email address.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure that you have effective spam filters in place in your email program. The following article will give you more information about the best spam filters and other services available to combat spam: http://email.about.com/od/spamfightingtools/Find_the_Best_Spam_Fighting_Tools_and_Services.htm.
• Check out resources such as About.com (http://email.about.com/cs/spamfightingtips) and SpamHaus (http://www.spamhaus.org/) to learn more about how to fight spam and how to prevent receiving it in the first place. SpamHaus also has information about this fake pharmacy scam specifically (http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/searchresults.lasso).
• Carefully inspect order forms before entering your information and submitting them. An easy way to check whether an order form is actually secure is to look for "https:" or "SSL" in the url. If these are absent, you should not use the form. Also look for the padlock symbol that assures that your credit card data is being encrypted.
• Use Firefox. Firefox offers greater web security than Internet Explorer. Learn more at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/.
• Complain to your Senator or Representative. Doing so helps to make sure these issues are in the spotlight so that effective legislation may be developed.
• Do not use your primary email address to sign up for anything. It is impossible know who your email address will be marketed out to once you register for newsletters or Web sites.
• Do NOT opt out of Spam emails. Think about it. By replying to the spam and requesting to be removed, you have just confirmed that your email address is real, that you are actually opening and reading spam, that you don't use spam filters, and that you are following instructions contained in the spam email. Instead, use a spam blocker and complain directly to the spammer's ISP (if you don't know how to find out who their ISP is, use SpamCop; it will find this out and file a complaint for you).
• Before using any online service, do an online search to verify its credibility. For instance, just typing in the words "My Canadian Pharmacy" brought up a page that mostly consisted of Spam information. A simple search has just given me all I need to know to realize that this not a good company to do business with.