Consumers are being warned of the alarming number of illicit practices where diet pills can be bought online without the necessary prescription, after new research from brand protection agency MarkMonitor.
MarkMonitor analysed 358 ecommerce websites which have over 67 million visits annually that are selling or redirecting consumers to sites that ship diet pills to the UK.
The results showed a staggering 93% of these sites are selling and shipping without a prescription, which is an illegal practice in the UK. Of these 93%, some 22% of the sites request only an ‘online consultation’ in order to purchase the drugs, which neither replaces the legal requirement for a prescription nor guarantees the provision of accurate information.
The extent of the problem was revealed in the MarkMonitor findings with just two of the 358 sites analysed being authorised retailers to sell diet pills with a prescription to UK consumers.
“Selling drugs without valid prescriptions is a lucrative business and we are seeing more and more of these suspicious practices online. The statistics speak for themselves – an increasing number of unregulated websites are supplying quantities of slimming pills to unsuspecting consumers,” says Charlie Abrahams at MarkMonitor.
“With obesity now affecting one in four adults in the UK, more people are looking for ways to quickly and easily lose weight and turn to the internet for the solution. This captive audience provides big business for internet fraudsters.”
“It is so important that brands take responsibility and effectively monitor their online sales channels to help ensure that any non-authentic sites are closed down as soon as possible. I cannot stress how business critical brand protection is, particularly within this market where people’s lives could be at risk.”
Source: www.markmonitor.com