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Online Pharmacy owners who haven't been working within moral and governmental regulations are in for the ride of their lives. In past months, many of these so called "rogue pharmacies" have either voluntarily shut down or been closed by the powers that be. However, the major illegitimate players have been unable to cover their tracks, and some have been outright irresponsible.

Back in 2002, it was easy and comforting to start a personal affiliate site for one of the few legitimate online pharmacies around. However, from 2003 on it became clear that some business-savvy people thought it was fine to sell counterfeit prescription medications, or even go as far as charging a hefty "doctor's fee" for processing an online consultation when no doctors were involved!

Since those days began, numerous restrictions of trade have been put into effect over the whole span of online pharmacy industry. These restrictions are, so far, limited mainly to advertising. But, without quality advertising, how can one's business acquire customers? For example, search engine giant Google made a policy change which prohibited online pharmacy advertisers from using its AdWords pay-per-click ad service; that is, unless they had a SquareTrade online pharmacy license. I won't even get into the problems with that system.

In the past months, anyone who watches the health news sector has read all the stories of online pharmacy owners going to jail for 4 years on average and being required to forfeit most of their assets such as Porsche sports cars and penthouses. After all, when you get away charge large fees for services you don't provide, the cash should just roll in.

Recent news reports talk of the software company Microsoft and Pfizer teaming up to shut down a whole network or ring of illegitimate online pharmacies. Out of a total of 17 law suits, named operations include "CanadaPharmacy," "E-Pharmacy Direct," "DiscountRx," "VirtualRx", and "EzyDrugStore."

The reasoning behind this latest group of law suits stands on the platform of ridding the online pharmacy industry of sellers of counterfeit drugs. These cases involve counterfeit versions of Pfizer's flagship medication, Viagra, a safe solution to the embarrassing and stressful problem of erectile dysfunction. If this is about drugs, you ask, then why is Microsoft involved? Well, as the owner of the Hotmail free email service used by millions of people, the company seems to have vowed to do all it can to kill off the companies such as those above, who send out hundreds of millions of emails to Hotmail customers, carefully crafted to get past current spam filters.

For questions regarding this article, contact Ian Mason: ian@shoppe.md