You've come across a great deal regarding the use of slimming jabs to lose weight, it feels like the moment has come to give it a go ahead of the festive season. However, the issue lies in cost.
Yet it appears alternatives exist rather than obtaining a doctor's script and visiting the chemist. An SMS comes through providing a URL to a website with much cheaper medication – and with no necessity to go through proper procedures. And you saw a comparable advertisement on social media recently, so you decide to take the plunge.
The catch is these ads are highly likely to be scams. At best, you will be sent no product and forfeit whatever money you paid. At worst, you receive a fake version, with unknown ingredients that could lead to severe health problems.
The popularity of legitimate slimming drugs has resulted in a increase in fake goods hitting the market and scams established to merely steal consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding purchasing such unlawful weight loss medicines absent a doctor's order from aesthetic clinics, fake pharmacy websites or through social media, saying they could contain “harmful substances and other ingredients which may provoke real harm”.
Recent statistics from a high street bank reveal a sharp rise in the quantity of clients who have been impacted by the scam. According to the bank, the amount of money lost to fraudulent activities related to weight loss injections, injector pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions during the third quarter , was more than double the total sum stolen in the prior quarter. The average scam costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are actively exploiting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with these scams skyrocketing in the past few months,” notes a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
The majority occur on communication platforms and social media. Across platforms, an account may mimic the brand that you seek, but there will typically be slight variations in spelling or brand marks.
The messages or updates will frequently use urgency-laden phrases such as “limited-time offer”, “special promotion” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of some legitimate slimming injections, rose of late, the fraudsters will price their “item” more cheaply.
“Buying from unverified sellers online can entail a significant financial, health-related and psychological toll,” warns 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.
Medical authorities have cautioned people to be highly vigilant when purchasing medications via the web. They should only be obtained from a licensed chemist using a prescription issued by a healthcare professional, they advise. If sourced elsewhere, they can present serious risks to health.
Criminals 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 located within the UK, it's possible to verify the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure this is correctly licensed.
