You've come across a great deal about people using slimming jabs to lose weight, it feels like it is time to try them out ahead of the festive season. However, the issue lies in expense.
But it seems alternatives exist rather than obtaining a doctor's script and going to the pharmacy. A text message arrives providing a URL to a site with much cheaper drugs – and requiring no necessity to go through proper procedures. And you saw a similar ad on online platforms recently, so you decide to go for it.
The problem is these ads are almost certainly fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive no product and lose any funds you paid. In the worst, you obtain a counterfeit item, with unknown ingredients that could lead to severe health problems.
The popularity of authentic slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in fake goods entering circulation and scams established to merely steal consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have warned against purchasing these illegal slimming medications absent a doctor's order from beauty salons, bogus online chemists or through social media, stating they could contain “harmful substances and additional components that could cause real harm”.
Recent statistics from a high street bank show a sharp rise in the quantity of customers who have been impacted by the scam. According to the bank, the amount of money stolen through fraudulent activities involving weight loss injections, pens, pills and fat-dissolving products between July and September , was more than double the overall amount lost in the prior quarter. The average scam sets back sufferers £120, it says.
“Fraudsters are deliberately targeting individuals' self-doubts and medical worries, with such frauds skyrocketing in the past few months,” says a bank’s head of fraud.
How It Appears
The majority take place on communication platforms and social media. Across platforms, an account may imitate the company that you seek, but you'll often notice slight variations in text or brand marks.
The messages or posts will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “free giveaway”.
As the price of some legitimate weight loss jabs, has increased of late, the scammers will price their “item” more cheaply.
“Buying from unverified sellers on the internet can come at a significant monetary, health-related and psychological toll,” warns the security specialist.
What to do
Like any deceptive scheme, the old adage applies: if it appears too good to be true, then it probably is.
Medical authorities have warned people to be extremely cautious when buying medicines via the web. They should only be obtained from a licensed chemist using a prescription provided by a medical practitioner, it says. If sourced elsewhere, they can present significant dangers to health.
Criminals can go to great lengths to make their site or online profile appear completely genuine. Should they state to be an internet-based chemist located within Great Britain, it's possible to verify the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to confirm this is correctly licensed.
