You've heard and read a great deal about people using slimming jabs to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to give it a go ahead of the holiday period. However, the issue lies in expense.
Yet it appears there are other options instead of getting a prescription and visiting the chemist. A text message comes through giving a link to a site with much cheaper drugs – and requiring no need to navigate proper procedures. And you saw a comparable advertisement on social media recently, prompting you to go for it.
The catch is such promotions are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive nothing and forfeit whatever money you paid. In the worst, you obtain a counterfeit item, with unknown ingredients that could lead to severe health problems.
The widespread use of legitimate slimming drugs has led to a rise in fake goods entering circulation and scams established to merely steal consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding buying these illegal weight loss medicines without a prescription from beauty salons, bogus online chemists or through digital platforms, stating they might include “toxins and other ingredients that could cause genuine injury”.
Recent statistics from a major retail bank reveal a sharp rise in the number of customers who have been affected by the scam. According to the bank, the amount of money stolen through scams related to weight loss injections, injector pens, tablets and fat-dissolving products between July and September , was over twice the overall amount lost in the prior quarter. The average scam sets back sufferers £120, reports indicate.
“Scammers are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with these scams soaring in recent months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
Most take place on messaging apps and social networks. On socials, a profile may imitate the brand that you are looking for, but there will typically be slight variations in text or logos.
These communications or updates will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “limited-time offer”, “special promotion” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of certain authentic weight loss jabs, has increased of late, the scammers will set the cost of their “item” more cheaply.
“Purchasing from unapproved vendors online can come at a serious monetary, health-related and emotional cost,” says the security specialist.
What to do
As with all scams, the wise saying holds true: should something seem overly advantageous, then it probably is.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be extremely cautious when purchasing medications online. These products must solely be acquired from a registered pharmacy with a valid script provided by a medical practitioner, it says. When procured from other sources, they can present serious risks to health.
Fraudsters 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 the UK, it's possible to verify the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure this is correctly licensed.
