The Wall Street Journal profiled Mark Kolowich, a San Diego entrepreneur who made his fortune selling prescription drugs online and eventually found himself in jail on federal drug counterfeiting charges. Online pharmacies are proving as difficult to stop and/or regulate as unsolicited commercial email, the paper reports. Although some of the enterprises are legitimate, the vast majority are fly-by-night operations. The immensely profitable businesses are becoming more of a problem as criminals catch on to the ease of operations. In the case of Kolowich, he bought phone numbers in Europe to convince customers he was a local supplier and attempted to start his own factory in Mexico.
- see this story from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)