You've come across a great deal regarding the use of slimming jabs to lose weight, it feels like the moment has come to give it a go in the run-up to the festive season. The problem is cost.
Yet it appears alternatives exist rather than getting a prescription and visiting the pharmacy. An SMS arrives providing a URL to a website with much cheaper medication – and with no necessity to go through proper procedures. And you saw a comparable advertisement on online platforms the other day, so you decide to go for it.
The catch is such promotions are highly likely to be scams. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive nothing and lose whatever money you spent. In the worst, you receive a counterfeit item, containing unspecified components which may result in severe health problems.
The popularity of legitimate slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in fake goods hitting the market and deceptive practices set up to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding buying these illegal slimming medications without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or via social media, saying they could contain “toxins and additional components that could cause genuine injury”.
New figures from a high street bank show a significant surge in the quantity of clients who have been impacted by the scam. According to the bank, the amount of money stolen through scams related to weight loss injections, pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was more than double the total sum stolen in the prior quarter. The average scam costs victims £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
Most take place on communication platforms and social media. On socials, a profile may mimic the company that you are looking for, but you'll often notice subtle differences in text or logos.
These communications or posts will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
As the price of certain authentic weight loss jabs, rose recently, the scammers will price their “product” lower.
“Buying from unapproved vendors on the internet can come at a serious financial, health-related and emotional cost,” warns the security specialist.
What to do
Like any deceptive scheme, the wise saying holds true: should something seem too good to be true, then it probably is.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be extremely cautious when buying medicines online. They should only be obtained from a licensed chemist with a valid script provided by a healthcare professional, they advise. When procured from other sources, they can present significant dangers to wellbeing.
Criminals can expend considerable effort to design their webpage or social media page appear completely genuine. Should they state to be an online pharmacy based in Great Britain, it's possible to verify the online portal of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to confirm they are properly registered.
