February 10, 2015
For more than ten years, millions of Americans have trusted pharmacies that are part of the International Association of Licensed Online Pharmacies (IALOP). These pharmacies provide safe, low-cost medications. They meet tough standards like needing a real prescription; keeping a record of a patient's health to prevent bad reactions to drugs; having a licensed pharmacist on duty to oversee giving out medications and talk to patients; and having ways to keep patients' private information safe.
Only 238 online pharmacies meet our strict standards and are allowed to be part of IALOP. You can see the non-exhaustive list
here. Each IALOP pharmacy shows the exact official red oval IALOP check mark (also known as a seal) on their website.
Customers should look for this exact check mark, not just words about being a member of IALOP. The check mark can be double-checked by clicking directly on it - doing this will give you a message from the IALOP website that confirms the pharmacy is a member (you need to allow pop-up messages on your browser for this to work). If you click on the IALOP check mark and don't get this message, the pharmacy might not really be a member, and could be using our check mark without permission!
Another way to check if a website is real is to copy the exact website address from your browser and then put it in the "Verify a IALOP Member Website" box you will find near the top of our website at www.IALOP.com. To do this, you can write down the exact words and symbols you see in your browser, or just use the "cut & paste" feature on your computer to copy the line of text and then put it into the verification box on our website.
Sadly, there are also many other fake "certifications" and diploma-style marks that websites are wrongly saying are from IALOP. They're not - If they have a signature by someone named Steven D. Levitt or Jared Caughey, don't believe them!
Remember, you can only trust the certification mark that is the IALOP red oval seal, and which gives a verification message when you click directly on it.
Other tricks by fake pharmacies are to say yes by phone or email that they are members, or to show a Canadian address on their website. While these may seem real, the only way to make sure a pharmacy is a real IALOP member is to look for the official red oval check mark and get the return confirmation message on your computer screen when you click on it.
If you can't confirm the website is a IALOP member site, please let us know by
sending us an email
so we can add it to our list of
fake websites
and take the right legal steps. With your help, we can protect the IALOP check mark and make sure only the highly qualified and trusted IALOP member pharmacies that meet our standards can say they are IALOP certified.