You have heard and read a great deal about people using slimming jabs to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to try them out ahead of the festive season. The problem is cost.
But it seems alternatives exist rather than obtaining a doctor's script and going to the pharmacy. An SMS arrives giving a link to a site with more affordable drugs – and requiring no necessity to go through official channels. And you saw a comparable advertisement on social media recently, so you decide to go for it.
The catch is these ads are almost certainly fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you will be sent no product and forfeit any funds you spent. In the worst, you receive a counterfeit item, containing unspecified components that could lead to serious medical issues.
The widespread use of legitimate slimming drugs has resulted in a increase in counterfeit products entering circulation and scams established to merely steal consumers' cash.
Health authorities have advised avoiding buying such unlawful slimming medications without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, fake pharmacy websites or via digital platforms, saying they could contain “harmful substances and additional components which may provoke real harm”.
New figures from a major retail bank show a significant surge in the number of clients who have been impacted by the scam. The bank says, the total sum lost to scams involving weight loss injections, injector pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September this year, was more than double the total sum lost in the prior quarter. The average scam sets back sufferers £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with such frauds soaring in recent months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
Most occur on messaging apps and social media. On socials, a profile may mimic the brand that you are looking for, but you'll often notice subtle differences in spelling or brand marks.
The messages or updates will frequently use pressure-inducing language such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
With the cost of certain authentic weight loss jabs, rose recently, the fraudsters will price their “product” lower.
“Purchasing from unapproved vendors online can entail a serious monetary, health-related and psychological toll,” warns the fraud expert.
What to do
As with all scams, the wise saying applies: should something seem too good to be true, it likely isn't genuine.
Health regulators have warned people to be highly vigilant when buying medicines online. These products must solely be acquired from a registered pharmacy with a valid script issued by a healthcare professional, they advise. When procured from other sources, they may pose serious risks to wellbeing.
Criminals can go to great lengths to design their webpage or online profile look as authentic as possible. If they claim to be an online pharmacy based in Great Britain, you can check the online portal of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to confirm this is correctly licensed.
