The Food and Drug Administration announced today that it sent warning letters out regarding about 136 rogue Internet pharmacies. So far, over half of them have been shut down by the domain name registrars.

LegitScript’s review of these websites indicated that most or all are part of a network that goes by the name Rx-Commission. That network, as LegitScript told the Washington Post today, is illegal in several respects: it imports prescription drugs from outside of the United States; it sells prescription drugs without a prescription (including controlled substances, like Xanax and Ambien); and it sells unapproved generic versions of prescription drugs that are patent protected. The drugs are likely, in at least some cases, potential counterfeits.

So what’s the real news story here? It isn’t that the FDA is notifying website registrants; they’ve done that before. It also isn’t in the FDA’s notification of hosting providers (ISP), which is not new. Rather, the interesting thing is this: the FDA chose to notify domain name registrars, which, by our analysis, have shut down over half of the websites in question.

This is important precedent: historically, domain name registrars have encouraged Internet security advocates to look to the ISPs, not the registrars. But as KnujOn President Garth Bruen recently argued, it’s the registrars, not the ISPs, that can “freeze” a domain name in the long-term. The principle here is that once registrars are put on notice, they are bound to act; if they do not, they are arguably facilitating illegal activity.

At LegitScript, we’re excited about a new partnership with a great company called SiteJabber. Have you ever wanted to know what other people think about a website? Interesting in hearing about others’ experiences, both good and bad? Want to make sure that a website isn’t fraudulent, or have terrible customer service? SiteJabber.com is emerging as the premier Internet location for Internet users to rate websites, and identify those engaged in fraud or deceptive behavior.

SiteJabber’s mission is right in line with ours: reducing Internet fraud, and making the Internet a safer and better place. We’ve launched a partnership with SiteJabber where visitors to LegitScript can, from the page for a LegitScript-approved pharmacy within legitscript.com, click through to SiteJabber.com to write a review about the Internet pharmacy. Similarly, visitors to SiteJabber.com get the added benefit of seeing that an Internet pharmacy has met our standards, and SiteJabber has agreed to only designate Internet pharmacies as “legitimate” on their website if we’ve identified it as approved by LegitScript.

Part of LegitScript’s interest in this partnership is due to our recognition that just because a website is operating legally, it doesn’t mean that it has great customer service, or provides a good user experience. One of LegitScript’s standards requires that the Internet pharmacy not be engaged in fraud or operate deceptively, so the information that SiteJabber.com obtains from Internet users helps us do a better job in reviewing candidates for LegitScript approval.

There’s another dynamic, which reflects one way that we hope our partnership is helpful to SiteJabber.com, too. Some rogue Internet pharmacy networks have devoted teams of staff who visit review websites to post fake reviews, stating that a rogue Internet pharmacy is terrific. (You can see why: if a website owner is willing to sell counterfeit drugs or drugs without a prescription, they are probably willing to post fake reviews!) And indeed, a rogue Internet pharmacy may initially seem to have great, attentive customer service (they want to make the sale!), but may not be operating legally. As SiteJabber.com visitors look at reviews of Internet pharmacies, we hope that LegitScript’s classification of the website, based upon objective legitimacy standards, will be another factor that will help SiteJabber’s visitors make a decision about which Internet pharmacies are reliable and trustworthy.

If you have used a LegitScript-approved Internet pharmacy, we encourage you to click-through to SiteJabber and let other folks know about your experience, good or bad. LegitScript is excited about our collaboration with SiteJabber and hope that it provides our users with another tool to make decisions, and help keep the Internet safer and fraud-free.