You have come across a great deal about people using slimming jabs to get slim, you feel it is time to try them out ahead of the festive season. The problem is expense.
Yet it appears there are other options rather than getting a prescription and going to the chemist. An SMS comes through giving a link to a website with much cheaper drugs – and requiring no necessity to navigate official channels. And you saw a similar ad on online platforms the other day, so you decide to take the plunge.
The catch is these ads are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. At best, you'll receive nothing and forfeit whatever money you paid. In the worst, you obtain a fake version, with unknown ingredients which may result in severe health problems.
The popularity of authentic slimming drugs has resulted in a increase in fake goods hitting the market and scams established to merely steal consumers' cash.
Health authorities have warned against buying such unlawful weight loss medicines without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, fake pharmacy websites or through social media, stating they could contain “toxins and other ingredients that could cause real harm”.
New figures from a high street bank show a sharp rise in the quantity of clients who have been impacted by the fraud. The bank says, the total sum lost to fraudulent activities related to weight loss injections, injector pens, tablets and fat-dissolving products during the third quarter , was over twice the overall amount lost in the previous three months. The average scam costs victims £120, it says.
“Fraudsters are actively exploiting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with these scams skyrocketing in the past few months,” notes a bank’s head of fraud.
How It Appears
The majority occur on communication platforms and social media. On socials, a profile may mimic the brand that you are looking for, but you'll often notice subtle differences in text or brand marks.
These communications or posts will frequently use pressure-inducing language such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
As the price of certain authentic weight loss jabs, rose of late, the fraudsters will set the cost of their “item” lower.
“Purchasing from unapproved vendors on the internet can come at a significant monetary, health-related and emotional cost,” warns the security specialist.
Recommended Actions
As with all scams, the wise saying applies: should something seem too good to be true, then it probably is.
Medical authorities have cautioned people to be highly vigilant when buying medicines via the web. These products must only be obtained from a registered pharmacy using a prescription issued by a healthcare professional, it says. If sourced elsewhere, they can present serious risks to health.
Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to make their site or social media page look as authentic as possible. Should they state to be an online pharmacy based in Great Britain, you can check the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure this is correctly licensed.
