You have come across so much regarding the use of slimming jabs to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to try them out ahead of the holiday period. However, the issue lies in cost.
But it seems alternatives exist rather than getting a prescription and visiting the pharmacy. A text message comes through providing a URL to a site with much cheaper drugs – and with no need to navigate proper procedures. You also noticed a comparable advertisement on online platforms recently, so you decide to go for it.
The problem is such promotions are almost certainly scams. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive no product and lose any funds you paid. At worst, you receive a fake version, with unknown ingredients which may result in severe health problems.
The popularity of authentic slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in fake goods entering circulation and deceptive practices established to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding buying these illegal slimming medications without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or through social media, stating they might include “harmful substances and additional components that could cause genuine injury”.
Recent statistics from a high street bank show a significant surge in the number of customers who have been impacted by the scam. The bank says, the amount of money lost to scams related to weight loss injections, pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September this year, was over twice the total sum lost in the previous three months. The average scam sets back sufferers £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with these scams 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. On socials, an account may mimic the brand that you are looking for, 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 “free giveaway”.
As the price of some legitimate weight loss jabs, has increased of late, the scammers will set the cost of their “item” lower.
“Buying from unapproved vendors online can entail a serious financial, medical and emotional cost,” says 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.
Health regulators have warned people to be highly vigilant when buying medicines via the web. These products must solely be acquired from a licensed chemist using a prescription provided by a medical practitioner, it says. When procured from other sources, they can present significant dangers to wellbeing.
Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to make their site or online profile appear completely genuine. If they claim to be an online pharmacy based in Great Britain, it's possible to verify the website of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure they are properly registered.
