The "Shop Smart" service allows Internet users to immediately notify the FDA online if they suffer from a serious side effect or injury from a product they bought on the Web.

To use the free service, users go to the FDA?s Web site, www.fda.gov, and click on the "Shop Smart" icon on the home page. This gives users a list of consumer tips on how to buy drugs safely online and a form to use for reporting any illegitimate or suspicious Web sites selling prescription drugs. After the form is submitted, the FDA will follow up with an investigation and, if necessary, a warning to the public.

Joseph Dye, RPh, PhD, a registered pharmacist and a behavioral scientist at the American Cancer Society (ACS), praised the FDA for "going after some of these fraudulent claims, like the recent one claiming that shark cartilage can cure some forms of cancer."

When seeking information about health, many people are vulnerable, Dr. Dye added. "There is a general sense that people tend to believe everything they see on the Internet, yet it is so easy for misleading information to get put out by certain types of people who are just simply trying to make money," he said.

"That makes investigating products and companies tough for the cancer patient," Dr. Dye said, adding that cancer patients may be especially vulnerable to some claims. "If you are surfing the Internet looking for hope as a cancer patient and you start coming across some of these claims, you might just be willing to assume that the information you?re reading is true and go after some of them."

The most important step a cancer patient can take when shopping for drugs online is to first consult a health professional either a pharmacist or a doctor who knows about every drug the patient is taking, including over-the-counter medications, and can monitor the patient for interactions and potentially harmful side effects, Dr. Dye advised.

"Otherwise, the patient?s entire medical record does not exist in one place and no one can look at all of his or her medications together," he concluded.