Scammers are always looking for new ways to dupe victims. If you battle your weight, you think about it a lot and are always looking for easier ways to lose some pounds. There is no easy way, but we are always looking for an easier way.

With the advent of GLP-1 weight loss drugs and their popularity, it has been reported that it is more difficult to obtain weight loss drugs, and they are in high demand. Scammers are using this craze to find vulnerable victims desperate to find drugs and scam them out of money. According to McAfee’s Threat Research Team, “in the first four months of 2024, malicious phishing attempts centered around Ozempic, Wegovy, and Semaglutide increased 183%” compared to the last quarter of 2023.

The phishing schemes offer the drugs online and accept payment through Bitcoin, Zelle, Venmo, and Cash App. McAfee found “449 risky website URLs and 176,871 dangerous phishing attempts centered around these drugs” in the first quarter of 2024. McAfee also found that scammers are impersonating doctors from outside the U.S. on Facebook, promising to send weight loss drugs without a prescription. Scammers are also using Craigslist and other online marketplaces to offer phone services. McAfee researchers found “207 scam postings for Ozempic” in just one day in April 2024.

The results of falling for these scams can be serious. They can steal your information and your money and harm your health. In most instances, you pay, and they send you nothing—in others, they send you fake drugs. McAfee explains that instead of receiving the correct drug, the victim may receive an “EpiPen with allergy medication, insulin pens, or pens loaded with a saline solution.” These drugs are then injected by unaware victims, which can cause serious harm.

McAfee provides the following tips to avoid online weight loss scams:

• Buying weight loss drugs without a prescription is illegal.
• Only buy from reputable pharmacies.
• Watch out for unreasonably low prices.
• Keep an eye out for website errors and missing product details.
• Look for misleading claims.
• Consider AI-powered scam text protection through a text scam detector.
• Stay vigilant.

Stay on top of the newest scams so you can protect yourself. Understand that scammers are always using the newest craze to find new victims.