You've come across so much regarding the use of weight loss injections to get slim, it feels like the moment has come to try them out ahead of the holiday period. The problem is expense.
Yet it appears there are other options instead of obtaining a doctor's script and going to the chemist. An SMS comes through giving a link to a site with much cheaper drugs – and requiring no need to navigate official channels. And you saw a comparable advertisement on social media recently, so you decide to go for it.
The catch is these ads are almost certainly scams. In the best-case scenario, you will be sent nothing and forfeit any funds you paid. In the worst, you receive a fake version, with unknown ingredients which may result in serious medical issues.
The widespread use of legitimate slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in counterfeit products entering circulation and scams established to simply take consumers' cash.
Health authorities have warned against buying these illegal weight loss medicines without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or via social media, saying they might include “harmful substances and other ingredients that could cause real harm”.
Recent statistics from a high street bank show a significant surge in the number of clients who have been impacted by the scam. According to the bank, the amount of money lost to scams involving slimming jabs, pens, pills and fat-dissolving products during the third quarter , was over twice the overall amount stolen in the previous three months. Each incident typically costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Scammers are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with such frauds skyrocketing in the past few months,” notes a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
What it looks like
The majority occur on messaging apps and social media. Across platforms, a profile may imitate the brand that you seek, but there will typically be subtle differences in spelling or logos.
These communications or updates will frequently use urgency-laden phrases such as “limited-time offer”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
With the cost of some legitimate slimming injections, rose recently, the fraudsters will set the cost of their “item” more cheaply.
“Purchasing from unapproved vendors online can come at a serious monetary, medical and emotional cost,” says the security specialist.
What to do
Like any deceptive scheme, the wise saying holds true: should something seem overly advantageous, 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 with a valid script provided by a healthcare professional, it says. When procured from other sources, they can present serious risks to health.
Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to design their webpage or social media page look as authentic as possible. Should they state to be an online pharmacy based in the UK, it's possible to verify the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure this is correctly licensed.
