Criminal gangs, most particularly the Russian mafia, are earning millions of dollars out of the H1N1 flu pandemic by selling fake swine flu drugs over the Web, an internet security firm announced on Monday.

Fox News reports that, "Sophos, a British security software firm said it had intercepted hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical spam adverts and websites this year, many of them attempting to sell counterfeit anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu to worried customers."

The frontline drug recommended by the World Health Organization, Tamiflu, an anti-viral marketed by Roche holding of Switzerland and recognized generically as oseltamivir, does treat and slow the progression of flu symptoms. GlaxoSmithKline makes Relenza, another anti-viral for flu.

Sophos claimed many of the gangs implicated in the sites were based in Russia and the top five nations purchasing Tamiflu and other medicines on the Web are the United States, Germany, Great Britain, Canada and France.

According to Fox, "Sophos spokesman Graham Cluley said a 'worrying trend' toward stockpiling Tamiflu had already been seen in Britain - Europe's worst-hit-country in the H1N1 pandemic so far."

He said, "as more and more cases of swine flu ... come to light, it is esential that we all resist the panic-induced temptation to purchase Tamiflu online.' The criminal gangs working behind the scenes at fake internet pharmacies are puting their customer's health, personal information and credit card details at risk."

Last week, the Geneva-based WHO, which declared H1N1 swine flu a pandemic in june, updated the guidance to doctors to advise that anitviral drugs should be given even before tests conclude that at-risk patients suffer from the pandemic virus.

Sophos acuses criminal gangs of operating medicine websites branded as the "Canadian Pharmacy" to make it appear genuine.

To read the entire article from Fox News, link here:

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