The expert warned Russians about a new fraud scheme in Telegram

Fraudsters began offering Russians to purchase popular diabetes medications, in particular Ozempik and its analogues, at a discounted price. This was announced to Izvestia on July 24 by Alexandra Pozharskaya, an expert of the project "For Borrowers' Rights" and the Moshelovka initiative.

According to the interviewee, over the past month and a half alone, over 100 requests from users who faced fraud attempts have been recorded. The scheme of the attackers is standard: they post offers on the messenger for the sale of drugs at a discount, arranging channels according to the style of large pharmacy brands. To place an "order", customers are offered to go to a separate chat.

Next, scammers convince potential buyers to transfer an advance payment or the full cost of the goods, often under the pretext that delivery is impossible without an advance payment, allegedly due to the lack of suitable thermal containers or couriers. In some cases, they frighten with rising prices for the drug and offer to have time to purchase Ozempik at a bargain price.

After the transfer of funds, the money is usually sent to the accounts of individuals whom the scammers represent as employees or managers. Users do not receive any contracts or official confirmations of the transaction. As a result, they are either supplied with counterfeit drugs, or nothing is sent at all, and the sellers themselves disappear from the network.

As Pozharskaya notes, the organizers of such schemes rely on the growing demand for drugs that, in addition to treating diabetes, are often used to reduce weight. At the same time, most buyers tend to lose weight quickly by the summer and are ready to act impulsively. However, these medications should be prescribed only by a doctor and only after a set of tests and examinations, the expert emphasized.

Ozempik is a medicine for the treatment of diabetes, its active ingredient is semaglutide. It also reduces blood glucose levels by stimulating insulin secretion and suppressing glucagon secretion, which is why it is sometimes used for weight loss.

In full force: Russians are being deceived with the sale of "Ozempika" on Telegram

Why scammers switched to messenger and how not to become their victim

Earlier, on July 21, Telegram founder Pavel Durov warned users on July 21 about scammers extorting paid gifts, names and money in the messenger under threat of revealing personal data. According to him, gifts and user names once cost several dollars, but now they can be sold for more than $ 100 thousand.