You have heard and read a great deal regarding the use of slimming jabs to lose weight, it feels like it is time to try them out in the run-up to the festive season. The problem is expense.
But it seems alternatives exist rather than obtaining a doctor's script and visiting the pharmacy. An SMS arrives providing a URL to a site with much cheaper medication – and requiring no necessity to navigate official channels. And you saw a comparable advertisement on social media the other day, prompting you to take the plunge.
The catch is such promotions are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive nothing and lose whatever money you paid. At worst, you obtain a counterfeit item, with unknown ingredients that could lead to severe health problems.
The widespread use of legitimate slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in counterfeit products hitting the market and deceptive practices established to merely steal consumers' cash.
Health authorities have warned against purchasing these illegal weight loss medicines absent a doctor's order from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or via social media, saying they might include “harmful substances and other ingredients which may provoke genuine injury”.
Recent statistics 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 total sum lost to fraudulent activities involving weight loss injections, injector pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions during the third quarter , was over twice the total sum lost in the previous three months. The average scam costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and health concerns, with these scams skyrocketing in recent months,” notes a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
The majority occur on messaging apps and social media. On socials, an account may imitate the company that you are looking for, but you'll often notice slight variations in text or logos.
The messages or posts will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of certain authentic weight loss jabs, rose recently, the scammers will set the cost of their “item” more cheaply.
“Purchasing from unapproved vendors on the internet can come at a significant monetary, medical and psychological toll,” warns the security specialist.
Recommended Actions
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 extremely cautious when purchasing medications via the web. They should solely be acquired from a registered pharmacy with a valid script issued by a healthcare professional, they advise. If sourced elsewhere, they can present significant dangers to wellbeing.
Criminals can go to great lengths to design their webpage or online profile appear completely genuine. Should they state to be an internet-based chemist based in the UK, it's possible to verify the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to confirm this is correctly licensed.
