You have heard and read so much about people using slimming jabs to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to try them out in the run-up to the festive season. However, the issue lies in cost.
But it seems alternatives exist rather than getting a prescription and visiting the pharmacy. A text message arrives providing a URL to a website with more affordable medication – and with no need to navigate official channels. You also noticed a comparable advertisement on online platforms recently, so you decide to take the plunge.
The catch is such promotions are highly likely to be scams. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive no product and lose whatever money you spent. At worst, you receive a fake version, containing unspecified components that could lead to serious medical issues.
The popularity of legitimate slimming drugs has led to a increase in fake goods entering circulation and deceptive practices established to merely steal people’s money.
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 might include “harmful substances and additional components which may provoke genuine injury”.
New figures from a major retail bank reveal a sharp rise in the number of customers who have been impacted by the scam. The bank says, the amount of money stolen through fraudulent activities involving slimming jabs, injector pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions during the third quarter this year, was more than double the overall amount lost in the previous three months. Each incident typically costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are actively exploiting individuals' self-doubts and medical worries, with these scams skyrocketing in the past few months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
The majority occur on messaging apps and social networks. Across platforms, a profile may imitate 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 pressure-inducing language such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of certain authentic slimming injections, has increased of late, the scammers will price their “item” more cheaply.
“Buying from unverified sellers on the internet can come at a serious financial, medical and emotional cost,” warns the fraud expert.
What to do
As with all scams, the old adage holds true: should something seem too good to be true, then it probably is.
Medical authorities have cautioned people to be highly vigilant when purchasing medications via the web. These products must solely be acquired from a licensed chemist using a prescription issued by a healthcare professional, it says. When procured from other sources, they can present significant dangers to health.
Criminals can expend considerable effort to make their site or social media page look as authentic as possible. If they claim to be an online pharmacy based in the UK, it's possible to verify the website of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure this is correctly licensed.
