You've come across a great deal regarding the use of weight loss injections to lose weight, you feel it is time to try them out in the run-up to the festive season. However, the issue lies in cost.
But it seems alternatives exist rather than getting a prescription and going to the pharmacy. An SMS arrives providing a URL to a site with much cheaper drugs – and with no necessity to navigate proper procedures. And you saw a comparable advertisement on online platforms recently, so you decide to take the plunge.
The catch is these ads are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive no product and lose whatever money you spent. At worst, you obtain a counterfeit item, containing unspecified components that could lead to serious medical issues.
The popularity of legitimate slimming drugs has resulted in a increase in counterfeit products hitting the market and scams established to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have warned against purchasing these illegal weight loss medicines absent a doctor's order from beauty salons, bogus online chemists or via digital platforms, saying they could contain “harmful substances and additional components which may provoke genuine injury”.
New figures from a high street bank show a sharp rise in the number of customers who have been affected by the fraud. The bank says, the amount of money stolen through scams involving slimming jabs, pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was over twice the total sum stolen in the previous three months. The average scam costs victims £120, it says.
“Scammers are actively exploiting people’s insecurities and health concerns, with these scams soaring in recent months,” notes a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
Most occur on messaging apps and social networks. Across platforms, a profile may mimic the brand that you seek, but there will typically be slight variations in spelling or logos.
The messages or updates will often use pressure-inducing language such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
With the cost of some legitimate weight loss jabs, rose of late, the scammers will set the cost of their “product” more cheaply.
“Buying from unverified sellers online can entail a significant monetary, medical and emotional cost,” says the fraud expert.
Recommended Actions
As with all scams, the wise saying holds true: if it appears overly advantageous, it likely isn't genuine.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be highly vigilant when buying medicines online. These products must solely be acquired from a registered pharmacy using a prescription issued by a medical practitioner, it says. When procured from other sources, they may pose serious risks to wellbeing.
Fraudsters can go to great lengths to design their webpage or online profile look as authentic as possible. If they claim to be an internet-based chemist based in Great Britain, it's possible to verify the website of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure they are correctly licensed.
