You have come across a great deal about people using slimming jabs to lose weight, you feel it is time to give it a go in the run-up to the festive season. The problem is cost.
But it seems there are other options rather than obtaining a doctor's script and visiting the pharmacy. An SMS arrives giving a link to a site with more affordable medication – and requiring no necessity to navigate proper procedures. You also noticed a comparable advertisement on social media recently, so you decide to take the plunge.
The problem is these ads are highly likely to be scams. At best, you'll receive nothing and lose whatever money you paid. At worst, you receive a counterfeit item, with unknown ingredients that could lead to severe health problems.
The popularity of authentic slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in fake goods hitting the market and scams established to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have warned against purchasing such unlawful slimming medications without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or via digital platforms, stating they might include “harmful substances and additional components which may provoke genuine injury”.
Recent statistics from a major retail bank show a sharp rise in the number 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, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was over twice the overall amount stolen in the prior quarter. The average scam costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Scammers are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and health concerns, with such frauds soaring in the past few months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
Most take place on messaging apps and social networks. Across platforms, a profile may mimic the company that you are looking for, but there will typically be slight variations in text or brand marks.
The messages or posts will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “limited-time offer”, “special promotion” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of certain authentic weight loss jabs, rose recently, the scammers will set the cost of their “product” more cheaply.
“Buying from unverified sellers online can come at a significant monetary, health-related and emotional cost,” warns the fraud expert.
What to do
As with all scams, the wise saying applies: if it appears overly advantageous, then it probably is.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be highly vigilant when buying medicines via the web. They should only be obtained from a licensed chemist with a valid script issued by a healthcare professional, it says. If sourced elsewhere, they may pose significant dangers to wellbeing.
Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to design their webpage or social media page look as authentic as possible. Should they state to be an internet-based chemist based in Great Britain, it's possible to verify the online portal of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to confirm they are properly registered.
