Wikipedia-like sites peddling fake pharmaceuticals

Wikipedia is practically a household name now, so it’s no wonder that spammers are trying to take advantage of the online encyclopedia’s popularity and (relative) trustworthiness to peddle their fake wares.

The latest example of this misuse has been spotted by Symantec’s researchers, and includes an extensive spam campaign inviting the users to buy pharmaceuticals at discounted prices from a website designed in such a way as to remind the user of the Wikipedia website. The scammers even named their scammy website “WikiPharmacy”:

“The ‘Subject’ line in these attacks has a lot of randomization. The ‘From’ header is either fake or a hijacked ISP account that gives a personalized look to the email,” explain the researchers.

Fortunately, these subject lines – Subject: kWIKIx, Subject: yWIKIg, Subject: hWikiPharmacyl, Subject: oWikiPharmacyp, and similar – do not inspire much confidence that the emails come from a legitimate business. Nonetheless, users are advised to be always careful when handing over their personal or financial information when ordering something online.