Trust the CIPA seal – but beware of Internet imposters and fake certification marks!
February 10, 2015
For more than a decade, millions of Americans have relied on members of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA) to provide them with safe, affordable medications. CIPA member pharmacies meet our stringent standards for reliability and safety in such areas as requiring a valid prescription; maintaining a patient health profile to avoid adverse drug interactions; having a licensed pharmacist on staff to supervise dispensing and be available for patient consultations; and having procedures in place to ensure patient privacy and confidentiality.
Only 68 pharmacy websites meet our high standards and qualify for CIPA membership. See the full list here. Every CIPA member pharmacy prominently displays this exact official CIPA red oval certification mark (also known as a seal) on their website.
Consumers should look for this exact certification mark, not just text language about CIPA membership. The certification mark can be further verified by clicking directly on it - this will return a message generated by the CIPA website that verifies membership (your browser must allow pop-up messages for this to work). If you click on the CIPA certification mark and don't receive this return message, the pharmacy might not be a legitimate member, and be using our certification mark illegally!
Another way to verify the legitimacy of a website is to copy the exact website address from your browser and then insert it in the "Verify a CIPA Member Website" box you will find near the top of our website at www.cipa.com. To do this, you can write down the exact string of words and symbols you see in your browser, or simply use the "cut & paste" feature on your computer to copy the line of text and the insert it into the verification box on our website.
Unfortunately, there are also many other frauduluent "certifications" and diploma-style marks that websites are illegally claiming to be from CIPA. They're not - If they carry a signature by somebody named Steven D. Levitt or Jared Caughey, don't trust them!
Again, you can only trust the certification mark that is the CIPA red oval seal, and which generates a verification message when you click directly on it.
Other tactics by illegitimate pharmacies are to respond positively by phone or email that they are members, or to display a Canadian address on their website. While these may seem convincing, the only way to verify a true CIPA member pharmacy is to look for the official red oval certification mark and receive the return confirmation message on your computer screen when you click on it.
If you cannot verify the website as a CIPA member site, please report it to us by sending an email to us so we can post it to our list of fraudulent websites and take appropriate legal action. Through your help and support, we can protect the CIPA certification mark and ensure that only the highly qualified and trusted CIPA member pharmacies that adhere to our standards are legitimately claiming to be CIPA certified.
