You've heard and read so much about people using weight loss injections to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to give it a go ahead of the festive season. However, the issue lies in expense.
Yet it appears there are other options rather than getting a prescription and visiting the pharmacy. An SMS arrives giving a link to a website with much cheaper medication – and requiring no necessity to go through proper procedures. You also noticed a comparable advertisement on online platforms the other day, so you decide to go for it.
The problem is such promotions are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you'll receive no product and forfeit any funds you paid. In the worst, you receive a fake version, with unknown ingredients which may result in severe health problems.
The popularity of legitimate weight loss medications has resulted in a increase in fake goods hitting the market and scams established to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have warned against purchasing these illegal weight loss medicines without a prescription from aesthetic clinics, fake pharmacy websites or via social media, saying they could contain “harmful substances and additional components that could cause real harm”.
New figures from a high street bank reveal a significant surge in the number of customers who have been impacted by the fraud. The bank says, the total sum lost to scams involving weight loss injections, injector pens, tablets and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was over twice the total sum stolen in the previous three months. Each incident typically sets back sufferers £120, it says.
“Scammers are actively exploiting individuals' self-doubts and health concerns, with these scams soaring in the past few months,” notes a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
What it looks like
Most occur on messaging apps and social networks. On socials, an account may imitate the company that you seek, but you'll often notice slight variations in text or logos.
The messages or posts will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “limited-time offer”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
With the cost of some legitimate weight loss jabs, rose recently, the fraudsters will price their “product” more cheaply.
“Purchasing from unverified sellers online can come at a significant monetary, medical and psychological toll,” warns the fraud expert.
What to do
Like any deceptive scheme, the old adage applies: if it appears overly advantageous, then it probably is.
Health regulators have warned people to be extremely cautious when buying medicines via the web. They should solely be acquired from a licensed chemist using a prescription issued by a medical practitioner, it says. When procured from other sources, they can present significant dangers to health.
Criminals can expend considerable effort to make their site or social media page look as authentic as possible. If they claim to be an internet-based chemist based in the UK, you can check the website of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure this is properly registered.
