You've heard and read a great deal regarding the use of slimming jabs to lose weight, it feels like the moment has come to try them out 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 chemist. A text message comes through giving a link to a website with much cheaper medication – and requiring no necessity to go through official channels. You also noticed a similar ad on online platforms recently, so you decide to take the plunge.
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 any funds you spent. In the worst, you obtain a counterfeit item, with unknown ingredients that could lead to severe health problems.
The popularity of legitimate slimming drugs has led to a rise in counterfeit products hitting the market and scams established to merely steal people’s money.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding buying such unlawful weight loss medicines without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, fake pharmacy websites or through digital platforms, stating they could contain “harmful substances and additional components that could cause genuine injury”.
Recent statistics from a high street bank show a significant surge in the quantity of clients who have been impacted by the fraud. The bank says, the amount of money lost to scams related to weight loss injections, pens, pills and fat-dissolving products between July and September this year, was over twice the overall amount lost in the previous three months. Each incident typically costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are deliberately targeting individuals' self-doubts and health concerns, with these scams soaring in recent months,” says a bank’s head of fraud.
How It Appears
Most take place on messaging apps and social media. Across platforms, an account may mimic the brand that you are looking for, but you'll often notice subtle differences in text or logos.
The messages or updates will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
With the cost of some legitimate slimming injections, has increased of late, the fraudsters will set the cost of their “item” lower.
“Purchasing from unverified sellers on the internet can entail a significant monetary, medical and psychological toll,” warns the security specialist.
What to do
Like any deceptive scheme, the wise saying holds true: if it appears too good to be true, then it probably is.
Medical authorities have warned people to be extremely cautious when buying medicines via the web. These products must solely be acquired from a registered pharmacy with a valid script provided by a medical practitioner, it says. When procured from other sources, they may pose significant dangers to wellbeing.
Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to make their site or social media page appear completely genuine. If they claim to be an internet-based chemist located within Great Britain, it's possible to verify the website of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to ensure this is correctly licensed.
