You have heard and read a great deal about people using weight loss injections 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 expense.
Yet it appears there are other options rather than getting a prescription and going to the pharmacy. A text message comes through providing a URL to a site with much cheaper drugs – and requiring no necessity to navigate official channels. And you saw a comparable advertisement on online platforms the other day, so you decide to go for it.
The problem is these ads are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. At best, you'll receive no product and forfeit whatever money you spent. In the worst, you obtain a fake version, with unknown ingredients which may result in serious medical issues.
The popularity of legitimate weight loss medications has resulted in a rise in counterfeit products hitting the market and deceptive practices established to merely steal people’s money.
Medical regulators have warned against purchasing such unlawful weight loss medicines absent a doctor's order from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or via digital platforms, saying they might include “toxins and additional components that could cause real harm”.
New figures from a high street bank show a significant surge in the number of customers who have been impacted by the fraud. The bank says, the total sum lost to fraudulent activities involving slimming jabs, injector pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was over twice the total sum stolen in the prior quarter. Each incident typically costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are actively exploiting individuals' self-doubts and medical worries, with such frauds soaring in the past few months,” notes a bank’s head of fraud.
How It Appears
Most occur on communication platforms and social networks. Across platforms, an account may imitate the company that you seek, but there will typically be slight variations in text or logos.
The messages or updates will frequently use pressure-inducing language such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
As the price of some legitimate weight loss jabs, has increased recently, the scammers will set the cost of their “product” lower.
“Buying from unverified sellers online can come at a significant financial, medical and emotional cost,” warns the fraud expert.
What to do
Like any deceptive scheme, the wise saying applies: should something seem too good to be true, it likely isn't genuine.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be highly vigilant when purchasing medications online. These products must solely be acquired from a licensed chemist using a prescription provided by a medical practitioner, they advise. If sourced elsewhere, they may pose serious risks to health.
Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to make their site or social media page look as authentic as possible. Should they state to be an internet-based chemist located within the UK, it's possible to verify the website of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to confirm this is correctly licensed.
