You've come across a great deal about people using slimming jabs to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to give it a go in the run-up to the festive season. The problem is cost.
Yet it appears alternatives exist rather than obtaining a doctor's script and visiting the pharmacy. An SMS arrives giving a link to a site with more affordable drugs – and requiring no necessity to go through official channels. And you saw a similar ad on social media the other day, so you decide to take the plunge.
The problem is such promotions are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive nothing and lose any funds you paid. At worst, you obtain a fake version, containing unspecified components which may result in serious medical issues.
The popularity of authentic slimming drugs has resulted in a increase in counterfeit products entering circulation and deceptive practices set up to simply take people’s money.
Health authorities have advised avoiding buying these illegal weight loss medicines without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or via social media, saying they might include “toxins and other ingredients which may provoke genuine injury”.
New figures from a high street bank show a significant surge in the quantity of customers who have been impacted by the scam. The bank says, the amount of money lost to scams involving weight loss injections, injector pens, pills and fat-dissolving products between July and September this year, was more than double the overall amount stolen in the previous three months. Each incident typically costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are actively exploiting people’s insecurities and health concerns, with such frauds skyrocketing in the past few months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
What it looks like
The majority take place on messaging apps and social media. Across platforms, an account may mimic the brand that you seek, but you'll often notice subtle differences in spelling or logos.
These communications or updates will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
With the cost of certain authentic weight loss jabs, has increased recently, the fraudsters will set the cost of their “product” lower.
“Buying from unapproved vendors on the internet can entail a significant financial, medical and emotional cost,” says the fraud expert.
Recommended Actions
Like any deceptive scheme, 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 purchasing medications via the web. They should solely be acquired from a registered pharmacy using a prescription provided by a medical practitioner, it says. If sourced elsewhere, they may pose significant dangers to wellbeing.
Criminals can expend considerable effort to design their webpage or social media page appear completely genuine. If they claim to be an internet-based chemist based in Great Britain, you can check the website of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to confirm this is correctly licensed.
