Are Tamiflu sales for H1N1 a scam?

For every crisis, there are people eager to jump in and make some money off of the fears of others. After 9/11, bogus sellers of "terrorism kits" (i.e. duct tape, plastic sheeting, and candles) popped up all over. H1N1 (i.e. Swine Flu) is one of our current crises, and it appears that we may have found out that overinflated claims for Tamiflu may indicate it is the next scam targeting our fears.

The Cochrane team eventually concluded that the evidence that Tamiflu reduces complications, hospitalizations, or deaths is weak at best, and if the drug does offer any benefit, it is slight indeed. This is precisely the conclusion of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). As we reported in our story in The Atlantic, the FDA directed Roche to state on the drug’s label the following caveat: “Tamiflu has not been proven to have a positive impact on the potential consequences (such as hospitalizations, mortality, or economic impact) of seasonal, avian, or pandemic influenza.” An FDA spokesperson told the BMJ, "The clinical trials . . . failed to demonstrate any significant difference in rates of hospitalization, complications, or mortality in patients receiving either Tamiflu or placebo.” Yet in the wake of the H1N1 pandemic, the FDA gave temporary approval for the drug to be given to hospitalized flu patients, who are at risk of dying.

Yeah, not a good sign

From townhall.com.

Watch your back: Trilegiant

Mod-Blog friend and commenter, Bowhunter, called last night to report that a company had attempted to scam him last night. Apparently, the company called "Trilegiant" (formerly Compucard, currently Affinion, constantly changing its name) had enrolled him into a "discounts program" without his permission. When he checked them out, he discovered they are currently under investigation for fraud for doing the same thing to many, many others.

Be sure to check your credit card and bank statements each month for fraudulent charges like this, as it is becoming easier and easier in the electronic age to sneak something past the radar.

New Phone Phishing Scam

Most of us probably bring he same skepticism to our home phone that we do to our e-mail inboxes. But some do not, and scammers are taking advantage of it.

"We know as a general public that there's a lot of fraudulent activity on credit cards and debit cards, so when we start hearing ... your financial institution calling you ask you for specific information and providing information that nobody else should know, it brings down our wariness," said McCormick, who is with the organized fraud section.

He said investigators are seeing a steep increase in reports of a scam in which a caller names an unusual big-ticket item and asks if the customer has recently purchased it.

When the customer says no, the caller says the company involved has been cropping up in a lot of suspicious transactions.

The caller provides a reference number for the customer's file and give the customer a 1-800 number to call.

He or she also asks the customer to confirm that they still have the card by providing the three-digit security code marked on the back.

Remember, if your bank or credit card company EVER asks for your card number when THEY call YOU, then chances are it is fraud.

Pay Per E-Mail

One of the reasons that spam and e-mail scams are profitable is because of the low overhead cost. The number of responses needed for a return on investment is less than 1%. (Somewhere I seem to remember it's around 0.01%.) Wired has up an article about a company named Goodmail that for a quarter of a cent per message will verify the message allowing it to bypass ISPs filters. (This requires the ISP to be using the Goodmail technology). For a broadcast of 5,000,000 e-mails, it will cost the sender $12,500. Using the 0.01% response rate, that means that out of 5,000,000 e-mails, there will be 500 responses for a cost of $25 per responder. Will this stop spam or scams? I doubt it. I'm guessing most spammers and all scammers will make at least $25 off of a responders. Supposedly, if a company hasn't been in business over a year or they have a number of spam complaints, Goodmail will not take their money, but I suspect that spammers and scammers will find ways around it.