You have come across a great deal about people using slimming jabs to lose weight, it feels like it is time to give it a go ahead of the festive season. The problem is expense.
Yet it appears there are other options rather than getting a prescription and going to the pharmacy. A text message arrives providing a URL to a website with more affordable drugs – and with no necessity to go through official channels. You also noticed a comparable advertisement on social media recently, so you decide to go for it.
The catch is such promotions are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you will be sent no product and lose whatever money you spent. In the worst, you obtain a counterfeit item, with unknown ingredients which may result in severe health problems.
The widespread use of authentic weight loss medications has resulted in a rise in counterfeit products entering circulation and deceptive practices set up to simply take people’s money.
Health authorities have advised avoiding buying these illegal slimming medications absent a doctor's order from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or through digital platforms, stating they might include “harmful substances and additional components that could cause real harm”.
New figures from a high street bank reveal a sharp rise in the quantity of customers who have been impacted by the fraud. The bank says, the total sum lost to scams involving weight loss injections, injector pens, pills and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was over twice 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 medical worries, with such frauds soaring in the past few months,” notes a bank’s head of fraud.
How It Appears
The majority occur on communication platforms and social media. Across platforms, a profile may imitate the company that you are looking for, but there will typically be slight variations in spelling or logos.
The messages or posts will frequently use pressure-inducing language such as “limited-time offer”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
With the cost of some legitimate slimming injections, has increased of late, the scammers will set the cost of their “item” lower.
“Buying from unapproved vendors online can come at a serious financial, health-related and psychological toll,” says 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.
Health regulators have warned people to be extremely cautious when purchasing medications online. These products must solely be acquired from a registered pharmacy using a prescription provided by a medical practitioner, they advise. If sourced elsewhere, they can present serious risks to wellbeing.
Fraudsters can go to great lengths to design their webpage or online profile appear completely genuine. If they claim to be an online pharmacy based in Great Britain, it's possible to verify the online portal of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to confirm this is correctly licensed.
