Fraudsters' Fake Products 'Could Cause Serious Damage'
You have come across so much about people using weight loss injections to lose weight, you feel it is time to give it a go ahead of the holiday period. However, the issue lies in cost.
Yet it appears alternatives exist instead of getting a prescription and going to the chemist. An SMS arrives providing a URL to a site with much cheaper medication – and with no necessity to navigate official channels. And you saw a comparable advertisement on social media the other day, prompting you to go for it.
The problem is such promotions are almost certainly scams. In the best-case scenario, you will be sent no product and forfeit whatever money you spent. In the worst, you receive a fake version, containing unspecified components that could lead to severe health problems.
The widespread use of legitimate weight loss medications has led to a rise in counterfeit products hitting the market and deceptive practices established to simply take consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding buying such unlawful weight loss medicines absent a doctor's order from beauty salons, bogus online chemists or through social media, saying they might include “toxins and additional components that could cause real harm”.
Recent statistics from a high street bank show a significant surge in the quantity of clients who have been affected by the scam. According to the bank, the amount of money stolen through scams involving weight loss injections, pens, tablets and fat-dissolving products during the third quarter , was over twice the total sum stolen in the previous three months. Each incident typically costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are actively exploiting people’s insecurities and medical worries, with these scams skyrocketing 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 mimic the brand that you are looking for, but there will typically be subtle differences in spelling or brand marks.
These communications or posts will frequently use urgency-laden phrases such as “time-sensitive deal”, “special promotion” or “complimentary gift”.
With the cost of certain authentic slimming injections, rose of late, the scammers will price their “item” more cheaply.
“Buying from unapproved vendors on the internet can entail a serious monetary, medical and emotional cost,” warns the security specialist.
What to do
As with all scams, the wise saying holds true: should something seem 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 issued by a medical practitioner, it says. When procured from other sources, they may pose serious risks to wellbeing.
Fraudsters can go to great lengths to make their site or social media page 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 medicines oversight organisation to confirm they are correctly licensed.
