Is Viagra blocking your box?

Spam and Viagra, the popular anti-impotence drug have found a match made in "spammer's heaven". According to an investigative report by Impotence Magazine Viagra has become the most popular product associated with spammers.

Many overseas pharmacies are selling sildenafil citrate, the ingredient in Viagra. The product received doesn't usually come from Pfizer - the makers of Viagra. The entire profit is split between the online pharmacy and the spammer, thereby making it one of the most profitable business opportunities for these so-called "affiliates". According to one spammer, "When all our relays are working, I make up to $15,000 in one day." With a revenue intake on average between $3,000 and $10,000 per day, the spammers are eager to put Viagra into the mailboxes of as many people as possible.

An investigative researcher for Impotence Magazine posed as an online pharmacy selling Viagra. By the end of their investigation more than forty prospective affiliates had replied, all wanted to sell the product helped by the high traffic spam generates.

Ethical aspect

The investigator for Impotence Magazine also posed as a spammer by posting messages on websites for affiliate programmes and received eight proposals from "bulk-friendly" online pharmacies. Currently, the two online pharmacies generating the most traffic from spam are "Health Suite" and "Human Nature". They provide affiliates with numerous throwaway domain names owned by the same company that are designed to protect the website if a web host decides to shut down one of the domains. All traffic is then routed to the remaining domain names ensuring uninterrupted spamming. In actual fact the above mentioned sites have been spamming uninterrupted for more than six months. These are currently hosted by Namebay.com.

The ethical aspects of this practice go deep. So-called "affiliate providers" have been paying off web hosts and abuse administrators in China and other countries for years. One affiliate manager guaranteed that the abuse administrator at the hosting company could assure uninterrupted service in spite of any complaints made.

To report an online pharmacy for these questionable practices visit the website of Impotence Magazine.