Is Buying Viagra online a scam?

One of the most common spammed subjects I’m sure most will agree is ‘Viagra’, or ‘Cialis’, in fact they’ve become so prevalent that most mail services automatically detect these terms as spam. I’ve never fallen foul to the spammers that advertise these ‘wonder drugs’ and certainly had no need to use them, so in truth had no idea what lengths are taken to try and sell you this stuff. That was until a site was brought to my attention today that claimed to legally sell Viagra in the UK.

This immediately set me to thinking out aloud, ‘they can’t sell Viagra online legally in the UK can they?‘, ‘you need a prescription for this don’t you?‘, and so on. The site in question was ever so accommodating regarding these questions as they had a ‘live chat’ that actually was live at the time of my visit, (They must be keen). I jumped at the chance to throw some questions at them, questions like, ‘how can you sell Viagra without a prescription?, and ‘will I get in trouble?‘, simple questions from a medically unqualified person.

Viagra is a pretty powerful medication all said and done and it shouldn’t be given out to all and sundry without a thorough consultation, or so I was led to believe, and in all fairness the site in questions live help operator did say that ‘their Doctor’ would review my online prescription before allowing me to have the drug. I felt quite comforted by that but then Mr. Sceptic told me that this is the internet; in theory they could just be saying they have a Doctor at hand, or what if the details I filled in were inaccurate? Remember, I’m after the drug that will (or so I think) help recover my libido, I’m hardly going to put down details that are likely to cause the Doctor, (if there is one) to refuse my application now am I.

How dangerous is that then! You have no real way of telling if the Doctor on the other side of cyberspace is real, or in fact if the little blue pills they are about to prescribe you are either! I set to doing a little research prior to writing this article because I wanted to be thorough on the risks of buying this kind of product online, things like side effects, I had heard of horror stories that people could actually go blind after using Viagra! They don’t tell you that on the websites.

In truth they actually don’t tell you a whole lot, certainly not on the site I went to. They do go a long way to hype up the fact that they go the extra yard to shove down you throat the word ‘Viagra’, 39 times on the front page to be precise, but hey that’s the pedantic side of me. And in all fairness, after throwing all those references at you they do tell you the following line…

“Once you submit the consultation form, you will be sent a prescription. This will however be done only if the doctor finds you suitable for it.”

So are sites like this safe? Are they just a bunch of conmen who can get hold of these little blue pills and know there is an absolutely massive market for them? Well, its only my opinion on this one but I’d say no, and here’s my reasoning. Take a look at the site I’m discussing here, if you read the text thoroughly enough you’ll actually see they let slip on their grammar,

If a site is legitimate it will have contact information both on and off-line, and by that I don’t mean one of those awful redirects from a UK number to somewhere in Brazil! If its legitimate it will have a number of features to support this fact, and if you think about it they’d actually be quite eager to do so. Here’s the points to look out for.

• Who’s registered the site?
• Is it a registered Company?
• Is it licensed to sell pharmaceutical grade drugs?
• Is the Doctor real?
• What’s his name and General Practitioners number?
• Do they have a legitimate land address?
• Can they be contacted by a genuine phone number?
• Do they list all the possible side effects? Not just a few!
• Do they offer an after sales service in case of problems?
• The list could go on but the basics are pretty much covered above.

Any self respected business would be happy to satisfy the points above so the warning is, if they don’t then quite frankly you should run a mile and look for a site that does. Don’t be fooled by the hype these sites give you, they aren’t going to say they are anything other than the best thing since sliced bread, some use clever marketing tricks by making their prices higher than others with the reasoning that they are selling ‘Genuine Viagra’ from the ‘best manufacturer‘.

In truth you haven’t got a clue what your buying if you buy online and that’s a fact, and unless you have the drugs analysed by a chemist you aren’t going to. Are they really going to advertise ‘Fake Viagra‘ or ‘made by two kids in a back-street chemist? Not a chance.

My honest opinion of buying this kind of product on the internet? DON’T