More and more people are preferring buying prescription drugs and other healthcare products online, mainly because of the benefits it brings to the table: buying online is convenient, saves time, money and provides high levels of privacy.
Most enterprises, such as SAM Medical, are genuine and legitimate, but a few try to exploit consumers by supplying fake, unapproved, or even harmful products. Others take money but fail to deliver the products.
To avoid falling prey to these rogue websites, you need to be cautious about how you go about buying healthcare products online. To help you out, here are tips on how to do it safely:
Know whom you are dealing with
Anyone can set up a shop online and pose as a legit business, so you should be cautious when doing any online transaction. Before you give out any personal or financial information, know whom you are dealing with.
As a rule of thumb, buy your products from a shop with a physical address. And don’t just take their word for it. Dig deeper and ensure that the physical address is genuine.
The purpose of doing this is to ensure that you are dealing with a real business. It also gives you peace of mind that you can return the product should it be defective on arrival.
Avoid online stores that only list a P. O Box, as they might not be a genuine business. You also have a hard time returning the products should you not like them or arrive defective.
Before you order your healthcare products online, confirm the listed physical address and phone number. This way, you have peace of mind that you can quickly get hold of the store should you need to.
Buy prescription drugs from licensed pharmacies only
Many people scammed online say that the website looked genuine with genuine-looking seals, logos, and security features, but you should note that all of this can be faked.
What might look like a genuine online pharmacy might be a scammer collecting your money and sending you fake, expired, wrong, or even dangerous ingredients. Others even fail to send you anything after collecting your money.
Others collect your information, then try to steal from you or even sell the data.
To avoid this, ensure that you buy healthcare products online from a licensed pharmacy.
You must be wondering, how can you tell you are dealing with a legitimate, licensed pharmacy, right? Well, you can quickly tell whether a pharmacy is recognized and licensed by visiting The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy 9NABP).
You will find the list of online pharmacies that meet the board’s standards from the website.
You can also tell whether a pharmacy is genuine by observing how it conducts its business. A reputable, genuine pharmacy will:
- Ask for a doctor’s prescription
- Have a licensed and knowledgeable pharmacist to answer your questions
- Provide an actual physical business address and phone number.
Avoid websites making big promises.
If you have been visiting health sites, you must have come across sites making big promises. They say that their products can cure serious medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV-AIDS, and others.
You also must have come across weight loss websites selling a weight-loss bill promising to help you lose weight without exercising or changing your diet.
As much as you might be desperate for a solution for your condition, in most cases, the “miracle” products don’t work, and at best, they are a waste of money. Others even end up being harmful to your health.
Most of these websites have “testimonials” from “real people,” but this isn’t enough evidence that they are genuine. Remember, these can easily be faked.
In most cases, if you dig deeper into these reviews, you realize they are bought, and the images are stock photos.
Before you buy a product, ask your doctor about it, and the doctor will explain more about the product and its capabilities.
You should also talk to your doctor about the claims on these websites and find out if they are genuine.
Read online reviews
Yelp, Google, and Facebook have made it easy for businesses to collect reviews from their customers, so there is no reason a genuine company shouldn’t have reviews.
This means that if you research a given pharmacy to buy your healthcare products online and you can’t find any reviews, avoid it. In fact, you shouldn’t give it a second look.
When going through the reviews, pay close attention to negative reviews, especially those about non-delivery, sending the wrong products, fake products, substandard products, etc.
It’s common even for the most reputable business to gather a few 3-star and 4-star reviews, but if you see a company with so many one-star reviews, chances are they don’t do a good job, and you should avoid them.
You also should avoid a pharmacy with all positive reviews. A pharmacy can have five or ten five-star reviews, but if all 500 reviews are five stars and the customers are raving about the quality of the products, chances are the reviews are bought.
As mentioned, even the best pharmacy will have a few negative reviews, so you should stay away from a pharmacy with all positive reviews.
Run from a website that doesn’t ask for a copy of your prescription
It’s a federal legal requirement for pharmacies to ask for a copy of the prescription signed by a doctor.
If you come across a website that says you don’t need a prescription to buy from them, avoid buying from them as this is not only against the law but it also increases your chances of receiving adulterated medications that put your life at risk.
Be cautious when buying online.
The key to avoiding falling victim is being ultra-cautious when buying healthcare products online. This is not for healthcare products only, but for anything else.
Be on your toes, especially if you are dealing with a new store.
While at it, be on the lookout for special online deals such as discount coupons that will bring your costs down. You don’t want to spend all of your money on medical products and prescription drugs, do you?
