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You have heard and read so much about people using slimming jabs to get slim, you feel the moment has come to try them out in the run-up to the holiday period. However, the issue lies in expense.

Yet it appears there are other options rather than getting a prescription and visiting the pharmacy. An SMS comes through providing a URL to a website with much cheaper drugs – and requiring no need to go through proper procedures. You also noticed a comparable advertisement on online platforms recently, so you decide to go for it.

The catch is these ads are highly likely to be fraudulent schemes. In the best-case scenario, you will be sent nothing and lose whatever money you paid. In the worst, you obtain a fake version, with unknown ingredients which may result in severe health problems.

The popularity of legitimate weight loss medications has led to a rise in counterfeit products entering circulation and scams established to merely steal people’s money.

Health authorities have advised avoiding buying these illegal weight loss medicines absent a doctor's order from beauty salons, fake pharmacy websites or via digital platforms, saying they might include “toxins and additional components that could cause genuine injury”.

Recent statistics from a high street bank reveal a sharp rise in the quantity of customers who have been impacted by the scam. The bank says, the amount of money stolen through scams related to weight loss injections, pens, pills and lipid-reducing solutions between July and September , was over twice the overall amount lost in the previous three months. The average scam sets back sufferers £120, reports indicate.

“Scammers are deliberately targeting individuals' self-doubts and medical worries, with these scams skyrocketing in the past few months,” says a financial institution's fraud prevention lead.

How It Appears

The majority occur on communication platforms and social networks. On socials, a profile may imitate the brand that you seek, but there will typically be subtle differences in spelling or brand marks.

The messages or updates will frequently use pressure-inducing language such as “limited-time offer”, “special promotion” or “free giveaway”.

With the cost of certain authentic weight loss jabs, has increased of late, the fraudsters will set the cost of their “item” more cheaply.

“Purchasing from unverified sellers on the internet can entail a significant financial, medical and emotional cost,” says the security specialist.

What to do

Like any deceptive scheme, the old adage holds true: if it appears too good to be true, it likely isn't genuine.

Health regulators have warned people to be extremely cautious when buying medicines via the web. They should only be obtained from a licensed chemist using a prescription provided by a medical practitioner, it says. If sourced elsewhere, they may pose serious risks to wellbeing.

Fraudsters can expend considerable effort to make their site or online profile look as authentic as possible. If they claim to be an internet-based chemist located within the UK, you can check the online portal of the pharmaceutical regulatory body to confirm this is correctly licensed.