Fraudsters' Fake Goods 'Could Cause Serious Damage'
You have heard and read so much about people using weight loss injections to lose weight, you feel the moment has come to try them out ahead of the holiday period. The problem is expense.
But it seems there are other options instead of getting a prescription and going to the chemist. An SMS comes through giving a link to a website with much cheaper drugs – and requiring no need to navigate official channels. You also noticed a comparable advertisement on online platforms the other day, prompting you to take the plunge.
The catch is these ads are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. At best, you'll receive nothing and forfeit any funds you spent. At worst, you obtain a counterfeit item, with unknown ingredients that could lead to serious medical issues.
The popularity of legitimate slimming drugs has resulted in a rise in counterfeit products entering circulation and scams established to merely steal consumers' cash.
Medical regulators have advised avoiding purchasing such unlawful slimming medications without a prescription from beauty salons, fake pharmacy websites or through social media, saying they might include “harmful substances and additional components which may provoke real harm”.
Recent statistics from a high street bank reveal a sharp rise in the number of clients who have been affected by the scam. The bank says, the amount of money stolen through scams involving slimming jabs, pens, pills and fat-dissolving products between July and September this year, was over twice the total sum stolen in the prior quarter. Each incident typically costs victims £120, reports indicate.
“Fraudsters are deliberately targeting individuals' self-doubts and medical worries, with such frauds soaring in the past few months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.
How It Appears
The majority take place on messaging apps and social media. On socials, a profile 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 frequently use urgency-laden phrases such as “limited-time offer”, “exclusive deal” or “complimentary gift”.
As the price of certain authentic slimming injections, rose recently, the fraudsters will set the cost of their “product” more cheaply.
“Purchasing from unverified sellers on the internet can come at a serious monetary, health-related and emotional cost,” says the security specialist.
Recommended Actions
Like any deceptive scheme, the wise saying applies: should something seem too good to be true, then it probably is.
Medical authorities have cautioned people to be highly vigilant when purchasing medications online. These products must solely be acquired from a licensed chemist using a prescription provided by a medical practitioner, it says. When procured from other sources, they can present serious risks to wellbeing.
Criminals can go to great lengths to make their site or online profile look as authentic as possible. Should they state to be an online pharmacy based in Great Britain, you can check the online portal of the medicines oversight organisation to confirm this is correctly licensed.
