You have heard and read a great deal about people using slimming jabs to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to give it a go ahead of the festive season. However, the issue lies in cost.
But it seems alternatives exist rather than getting a prescription and going to the pharmacy. An SMS comes through giving a link to a website with much cheaper drugs – and requiring no necessity to go through official channels. And you saw a comparable advertisement on online platforms recently, so you decide to take the plunge.
The catch is these ads are almost certainly scams. At best, you will be sent nothing and forfeit any funds you paid. In the worst, you obtain a fake version, with unknown ingredients that could lead to serious medical issues.
The widespread use of legitimate slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in fake goods entering circulation and deceptive practices established to merely steal consumers' cash.
Health authorities have advised avoiding buying these illegal slimming medications without a prescription from beauty salons, bogus online chemists or through social media, saying they could contain “harmful substances and additional components that could cause real harm”.
Recent statistics from a high street bank show a sharp rise in the number of clients who have been affected by the fraud. The bank says, the total sum lost to scams related to weight loss injections, pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was more than double the total sum stolen in the prior quarter. The average scam sets back sufferers £120, reports indicate.
“Scammers are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and health concerns, with such frauds soaring in recent months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
Most occur on communication platforms and social networks. On socials, an account may imitate the company that you are looking for, but there will typically be subtle differences in text or logos.
The messages or updates will frequently use urgency-laden phrases such as “time-sensitive deal”, “exclusive deal” or “complimentary gift”.
As the price of some legitimate slimming injections, rose of late, the scammers will set the cost of their “item” more cheaply.
“Purchasing from unverified sellers online can come at a serious monetary, health-related and emotional cost,” says the security specialist.
What to do
As with all scams, the old adage applies: should something seem too good to be true, it likely isn't genuine.
Medical authorities have cautioned people to be extremely cautious when buying medicines online. They should only be obtained from a registered pharmacy with a valid script issued by a healthcare professional, it says. When procured from other sources, they may pose serious risks to wellbeing.
Criminals can go to great lengths to make their site or social media page look as authentic as possible. If they claim to be an online pharmacy based in Great Britain, it's possible to verify the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure they are correctly licensed.
