You have come across a great deal regarding the use of slimming jabs to get slim, you feel the moment has come to try them out in the run-up to the holiday period. The problem is expense.
Yet it appears alternatives exist instead of obtaining a doctor's script and going to the pharmacy. An SMS comes through giving a link to a website with more affordable medication – and requiring no necessity to go through official channels. And you saw a similar ad on social media the other day, prompting you to go for it.
The problem is such promotions are almost certainly fraudulent schemes. At best, you'll receive no product and lose whatever money you spent. At worst, you obtain 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 counterfeit products entering circulation and scams set up to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding purchasing these illegal slimming medications without a prescription from beauty salons, bogus online chemists or through digital platforms, stating they might include “harmful substances and additional components which may provoke real harm”.
New figures from a high street bank reveal a sharp rise in the number of clients who have been impacted by the fraud. The bank says, the total sum lost to scams related to slimming jabs, injector pens, tablets and fat-dissolving products between July and September , was more than double the overall amount stolen in the previous three months. Each incident typically sets back sufferers £120, it says.
“Scammers are deliberately targeting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with such frauds soaring in the past few months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
Most take place on communication platforms and social networks. On socials, an account may imitate the company that you are looking for, but there will typically be slight variations in text or logos.
These communications or updates will often use urgency-laden phrases such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of some legitimate weight loss jabs, has increased recently, the scammers will set the cost of their “product” lower.
“Buying from unapproved vendors online can come at a significant monetary, health-related and emotional cost,” warns the fraud expert.
What to do
As with all scams, the wise saying applies: if it appears overly advantageous, then it probably is.
Medical authorities have warned people to be extremely cautious when buying medicines online. These products must only be obtained from a licensed chemist using a prescription provided by a healthcare professional, they advise. If sourced elsewhere, they can present significant dangers to health.
Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to design their webpage or online profile appear completely genuine. Should they state to be an internet-based chemist located within the UK, you can check the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to ensure they are correctly licensed.
