Every season is scam season.  Scam artists, the only criminals we know as artists, manage to take advantage of whatever are the current concerns, particularly when people feel threatened or desperate, to offer their phony solutions.  It is flu season and many people are particularly concerned about the Swine Flu.  Scam artists are selling bogus Swine Flu products that at best are ineffectual, but at worst can harm your health or even make you a victim of identity theft or financial fraud.

The FDA and FTC have sent warning letters to the purveyors of 135 products, but it is tough to shut down all of the websites selling phony Swine Flu products.

Some websites purport to sell Tamiflu, a prescription drug that actually is used to fight Swine Flu.  Unfortunately, you can never be sure of the quality of what is being sold to you as legitimate Tamiflu when you buy it on the Internet.  The FDA tested one source of alleged Tamiflu sold on the Internet and found it to be acetaminophen, the generic name of Tylenol and talcum powder.  It would do little to fight the Swine Flu although if you rubbed it on your body, it could possibly keep you from chafing.

Some of the Swine Flu products being sold contain excessive amounts of silver, which can cause a health risk.

And to make things even worse, some of the links to which you may be directed on some websites will cause you to download malware in the form of keystroke logging programs that can raid your computer and obtain personal information that can permit the scam artist to get access to your bank accounts and brokerage accounts.

So what should you do?

Check the FDA list of bogus products which you can find at www.fda.gov.  You also should not believe the claims of any of these products unless you have checked them out with your own physician.  And to keep yourself from becoming the victim of malware, don’t trust spam, don’t click on attachments from people you don’t know and keep your firewall and security software up to date.