Fake Gmail ‘Deferred Message’ Notification Opens Spam Drugstore Website

According to this email, Gmail has found a deferred message in your account. The email includes a link that offers to show you the deferred message.

Supposedly, the message is a ‘mandatory email service announcement’ from Gmail.

However, the email is not from Gmail and clicking the link does not let you read any messages, deferred or otherwise.

Instead, the email opens an incarnation of the infamous Canadian Pharmacy website. The site tries to peddle all manner of pharmaceutical products, all without the need of a doctor’s prescription.

If you buy via these sites, you may or may not get the products you ordered. But, even if you do get the products, you could be risking your health by taking them.

Furthermore, any site that is so unethical that they are willing to use underhand and deliberately deceptive spam messages certainly should not be trusted with your credit card details.  Often, such sites do not even use secure payment systems, which might further expose your financial information.

And, in some cases, the sites may also harbour malware.

The spammers who run these campaigns bank on the fact that at least a few people who are tricked into visiting the drugstore website will linger and buy its products.  And, given how common such spam campaigns are, the tactic obviously pays off for the spammers.