You have heard and read a great deal about people using slimming jabs to lose weight, it feels like the moment has come to give it a go ahead of the festive season. The problem is cost.
But it seems alternatives exist rather than obtaining a doctor's script and going to the pharmacy. A text message comes through providing a URL to a website with much cheaper drugs – and requiring no necessity to go through proper procedures. And you saw a comparable advertisement on social media the other day, prompting you to take the plunge.
The problem is such promotions are highly likely to be scams. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive nothing and lose whatever money you paid. In the worst, you receive a counterfeit item, with unknown ingredients which may result in severe health problems.
The widespread use of authentic slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in fake goods hitting the market and scams set up to simply take people’s money.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding buying these illegal weight loss medicines absent a doctor's order from beauty salons, fake pharmacy websites or via social media, saying they might include “harmful substances and additional components which may provoke genuine injury”.
New figures from a major retail bank show a significant surge in the quantity of clients who have been impacted by the fraud. The bank says, the amount of money lost to fraudulent activities involving weight loss injections, injector pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions during the third quarter this year, was over twice the total sum stolen in the prior quarter. The average scam costs victims £120, it says.
“Scammers 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 communication platforms and social networks. Across platforms, an account may imitate the company that you are looking for, but there will typically be slight variations in text or brand marks.
The messages or updates will frequently use urgency-laden phrases such as “limited-time offer”, “exclusive deal” or “free giveaway”.
As the price of some legitimate slimming injections, rose recently, the scammers will price their “item” more cheaply.
“Buying from unverified sellers on the internet can come at a significant monetary, medical and emotional cost,” says the fraud expert.
What to do
As with all scams, the wise saying holds true: should something seem overly advantageous, then it probably is.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be highly vigilant when purchasing medications online. These products must only be obtained from a licensed chemist using a prescription provided by a medical practitioner, it says. If sourced elsewhere, they can present significant dangers to wellbeing.
Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to design their webpage or social media page appear completely genuine. Should they state to be an online pharmacy located within Great Britain, it's possible to verify the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure this is correctly licensed.
