Fraudsters' Fake Products 'May Lead to Real Harm'
You have come across a great deal about people using weight loss injections to get slim, you feel the moment has come to try them out in the run-up to the festive season. However, the issue lies in cost.
But it seems alternatives exist rather than getting a prescription and visiting the pharmacy. A text message arrives providing a URL to a website with much cheaper drugs – and with no necessity to go through official channels. And you saw a comparable advertisement on online platforms recently, so you decide to take the plunge.
The catch is these ads are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. At best, you'll receive no product and lose whatever money you spent. In the worst, you receive a fake version, with unknown ingredients that could lead to severe health problems.
The widespread use of legitimate slimming drugs has led to a increase in fake goods entering circulation and scams set up to merely steal people’s money.
Medical regulators have warned against purchasing such unlawful slimming medications without a prescription from beauty salons, fake pharmacy websites or via social media, stating they could contain “toxins and additional components which may provoke genuine injury”.
New figures from a high street bank show a sharp rise in the quantity of customers who have been affected by the scam. The bank says, the amount of money stolen through fraudulent activities related to weight loss injections, injector pens, tablets and fat-dissolving products between July and September this year, was more than double the total sum lost in the prior quarter. The average scam costs victims £120, it says.
“Fraudsters are deliberately targeting individuals' self-doubts and medical worries, with such frauds skyrocketing in the past few months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
The majority occur on messaging apps and social media. Across platforms, a profile may mimic the brand that you seek, but you'll often notice subtle differences in spelling or logos.
These communications or posts will often use pressure-inducing language such as “limited-time offer”, “exclusive deal” or “free giveaway”.
With the cost of some legitimate weight loss jabs, rose recently, the fraudsters will set the cost of their “item” lower.
“Purchasing from unapproved vendors on the internet can entail a serious financial, medical and emotional cost,” says the security specialist.
What to do
Like any deceptive scheme, the old adage holds true: should something seem too good to be true, it likely isn't genuine.
Health regulators have cautioned people to be highly vigilant when buying medicines online. They should only be obtained from a licensed chemist using a prescription provided by a medical practitioner, it says. When procured from other sources, they can present significant dangers to wellbeing.
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 located within the UK, it's possible to verify the website of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to ensure this is properly registered.
