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 in the run-up to the festive season. However, the issue lies in cost.
Yet it appears alternatives exist rather than getting a prescription and visiting the pharmacy. A text message 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 online platforms the other day, prompting you to go for it.
The problem is these ads are almost certainly scams. At best, you'll receive nothing and lose whatever money you paid. In the worst, you obtain a fake version, containing unspecified components that could lead to severe health problems.
The widespread use of legitimate weight loss medications has led to a increase in counterfeit products entering circulation and scams set up to merely steal consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding purchasing such unlawful slimming medications without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, fake pharmacy websites or via social media, saying they could contain “harmful substances and additional components which may provoke genuine injury”.
New figures from a high street bank show a sharp rise in the quantity of customers who have been affected by the scam. The bank says, the total sum stolen through scams related to slimming jabs, injector pens, pills and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was more than double the total sum lost in the previous three months. Each incident typically sets back sufferers £120, reports indicate.
“Scammers are actively exploiting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with such frauds skyrocketing in the past few months,” notes a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
Most take place on messaging apps and social media. On socials, a profile may mimic the company that you seek, but you'll often notice subtle differences in spelling or brand marks.
The messages or posts will frequently use pressure-inducing language such as “limited-time offer”, “exclusive deal” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of some legitimate slimming injections, rose of late, the scammers will price their “product” more cheaply.
“Buying from unapproved vendors on the internet can come at a significant monetary, medical and psychological toll,” says the security specialist.
Recommended Actions
As with all scams, the wise saying applies: should something seem too good to be true, then it probably is.
Medical authorities have warned people to be extremely cautious when purchasing medications online. These products must solely be acquired from a registered pharmacy with a valid script provided by a medical practitioner, they advise. When procured from other sources, they may pose serious risks to wellbeing.
Criminals can expend considerable effort to design their webpage or social media page appear completely genuine. If they claim to be an internet-based chemist based in Great Britain, you can check the online portal of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to ensure this is correctly licensed.
