You have come across 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 festive season. However, the issue lies in cost.
But it seems alternatives exist instead of getting a prescription and going to the chemist. An SMS comes through giving a link to a website with much cheaper drugs – and with no need to go through official channels. And you saw a comparable advertisement on online platforms the other day, prompting you to take the plunge.
The catch is these ads are highly likely to be scams. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive nothing and lose whatever money you paid. In the worst, you receive a fake version, containing unspecified components that could lead to severe health problems.
The widespread use of authentic slimming drugs has led to a rise in counterfeit products hitting the market and deceptive practices established to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding purchasing these illegal weight loss medicines without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or via social media, stating they might include “harmful substances and other ingredients which may provoke genuine injury”.
New figures from a major retail bank show a significant surge in the number of clients who have been affected by the scam. According to the bank, the amount of money stolen through fraudulent activities involving weight loss injections, pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions during the third quarter , was over twice the overall amount lost in the prior quarter. Each incident typically costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Scammers are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with such frauds soaring in the past few months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
The majority take place on communication platforms and social media. Across platforms, an account may mimic the company 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”, “exclusive deal” or “free giveaway”.
As the price of some legitimate weight loss jabs, rose recently, the scammers will price their “product” lower.
“Purchasing from unverified sellers on the internet can entail a significant monetary, medical and psychological toll,” says the security specialist.
Recommended Actions
As with all scams, the wise saying holds true: should something seem too good to be true, then it probably is.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be extremely cautious when buying medicines via the web. These products must solely be acquired from a licensed chemist using a prescription issued by a healthcare professional, it says. When procured from other sources, they may pose significant dangers to health.
Fraudsters can go to great lengths to make their site or online profile look as authentic as possible. If they claim to be an internet-based chemist located within Great Britain, you can check the online portal of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to confirm this is correctly licensed.
