You've heard and read a great deal regarding the use of slimming jabs to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to try them out ahead of the festive season. The problem is cost.
Yet it appears alternatives exist rather than getting a prescription and going to the pharmacy. An SMS comes through giving a link to a website with much cheaper medication – and requiring no need to navigate official channels. And you saw a similar ad on social media recently, so you decide to take the plunge.
The catch is these ads are almost certainly fraudulent schemes. At best, you'll receive no product and lose any funds you spent. At worst, you receive a fake version, with unknown ingredients which may result in severe health problems.
The widespread use of authentic weight loss medications has led to a increase in counterfeit products entering circulation and scams established to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding buying such unlawful weight loss medicines absent a doctor's order from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or through social media, stating they could contain “toxins and other ingredients which may provoke real harm”.
New figures from a major retail bank show a sharp rise in the quantity of customers who have been impacted by the scam. According to the bank, the total sum lost to scams related to slimming jabs, injector pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions during the third quarter this year, was more than double the total sum stolen in the previous three months. The average scam sets back sufferers £120, reports indicate.
“Scammers are deliberately targeting individuals' self-doubts and health concerns, with such frauds skyrocketing in recent months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
Most take place on messaging apps and social media. Across platforms, an account may mimic the brand that you seek, but there will typically be subtle differences in text or brand marks.
These communications or updates will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “time-sensitive deal”, “exclusive deal” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of certain authentic weight loss jabs, has increased recently, the fraudsters will price their “product” lower.
“Buying from unapproved vendors on the internet can entail a serious monetary, medical and psychological toll,” warns the security specialist.
What to do
Like any deceptive scheme, the wise saying holds true: if it appears overly advantageous, it likely isn't genuine.
Health regulators 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 issued by a healthcare professional, they advise. When procured from other sources, they can present serious risks to health.
Criminals can expend considerable effort to design their webpage or social media page look as authentic as possible. If they claim to be an online pharmacy located within Great Britain, it's possible to verify the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to confirm they are correctly licensed.
