You've come across so much about people using slimming jabs to get slim, it feels like the moment has come to give it a go in the run-up to the festive season. The problem is expense.
Yet it appears there are other options instead of obtaining a doctor's script and going to the pharmacy. An SMS arrives giving a link to a site with more affordable drugs – and with no need to navigate proper procedures. You also noticed a comparable advertisement on social media recently, prompting you to take the plunge.
The catch is such promotions are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive nothing and lose whatever money you spent. In the worst, you receive a fake version, containing unspecified components that could lead to severe health problems.
The popularity of legitimate weight loss medications has led to a rise in fake goods entering circulation and scams established to merely steal consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have warned against purchasing these illegal weight loss medicines absent a doctor's order from aesthetic clinics, bogus online chemists or via digital platforms, saying they could contain “harmful substances and other ingredients that could cause real harm”.
New figures from a high street bank show a significant surge in the number of clients who have been affected by the fraud. The bank says, the total sum lost to fraudulent activities related to weight loss injections, pens, pills and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was over twice the overall amount stolen in the previous three months. Each incident typically sets back sufferers £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and health concerns, with these scams skyrocketing in recent months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
Most take place on communication platforms and social networks. Across platforms, an account may imitate the brand that you are looking for, but there will typically be slight variations in spelling or logos.
These communications or posts will frequently use pressure-inducing language such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of some legitimate weight loss jabs, has increased recently, the fraudsters will price their “product” more cheaply.
“Buying from unapproved vendors on the internet can come at a serious financial, medical and emotional cost,” says the security specialist.
Like any deceptive scheme, the wise saying applies: should something seem too good to be true, then it probably is.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be extremely cautious when purchasing medications online. They should only be obtained from a registered pharmacy using a prescription issued by a medical practitioner, it says. When procured from other sources, they may pose serious risks to wellbeing.
Criminals can expend considerable effort to make their site or online profile appear completely genuine. If they claim to be an internet-based chemist based in the UK, it's possible to verify the online portal of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to ensure this is correctly licensed.
