Practices warned of web-cloning risk

Gwent Police have warned veterinary practices to be alert to the possibility of their websites being cloned for the purposes of illegally obtaining veterinary medicines.

A practice in Gwent was the victim of one such fraud when its website was cloned by someone as a means of legitimising an attempt to purchase £150,000 worth of a medicine called Agrobolin.

Gwent Police reported that the cloned site was created in East Timor and the medicine was to be paid for cash-on-delivery in Singapore .

The three contact numbers on the site related to phones in Malaysia and Nigeria .

The police advice for practices includes:

1. Search for your own website to determine if it has been cloned;
2. Be aware that, as part of this scam, staff names were quoted in correspondence when trying to legitimise the claims - you might consider removing names from your homepage;
3. Beware of offers of discounted products from new sources; and,
4. Contact Trading Standards or the police if you have any suspicions.