You've come across a great deal regarding the use of slimming jabs to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to give it a go in the run-up to the holiday period. The problem is expense.
Yet it appears alternatives exist rather than getting a prescription and visiting the pharmacy. A text message arrives providing a URL to a site with much cheaper medication – and requiring no necessity to go through official channels. And you saw a comparable advertisement on online platforms recently, so you decide to go for it.
The catch is these ads are almost certainly scams. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive no product and lose any funds you paid. In the worst, you receive a fake version, with unknown ingredients which may result in serious medical issues.
The popularity of authentic slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in counterfeit products entering circulation and scams established to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have warned against purchasing these illegal weight loss medicines without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, fake pharmacy websites or through digital platforms, stating they might include “toxins and other ingredients that could cause real harm”.
Recent statistics from a high street bank show a significant surge in the number of clients who have been impacted by the fraud. According to the bank, the amount of money stolen through scams related to weight loss injections, pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions during the third quarter this year, was more than double the overall amount lost in the prior quarter. The average scam costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Scammers are deliberately targeting individuals' self-doubts and medical worries, with such frauds soaring in the past few months,” says a bank’s head of fraud.
What it looks like
The majority occur on messaging apps and social networks. Across platforms, a profile may imitate the brand that you seek, but you'll often notice slight variations in spelling or brand marks.
The messages or updates will often use pressure-inducing language such as “time-sensitive deal”, “exclusive deal” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of certain authentic weight loss jabs, rose recently, the scammers will price their “item” lower.
“Purchasing from unverified sellers online can entail a significant financial, health-related and psychological toll,” warns the fraud expert.
Recommended Actions
As with all scams, the wise saying holds true: should something seem too good to be true, it likely isn't genuine.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be extremely cautious when buying medicines online. They should solely be acquired from a registered pharmacy using a prescription issued by a medical practitioner, they advise. If sourced elsewhere, they may pose serious risks to health.
Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to make their site or social media page appear completely genuine. Should they state to be an online pharmacy based in Great Britain, you can check the website of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure this is properly registered.
