Thousands of scam pages on social media target GLP-1 shoppers daily; here's how to spot fakes

NORTH CAROLINA (WTVD) -- Scammers continue to target people on social media who want to lose weight. The popularity of GLP-1 weight loss drugs has exploded this past year, and so have the scams.

Consumers are spending a lot of money on these weight loss drugs and are looking for affordable options. Scammers know that and are trying to capitalize.

Chief Information Security Officer Cindi Carter with Check Point says, "They use artificial intelligence to create these deep fakes. They create synthetic videos. They create fake social media profiles, anything and everything, to showcase that they're real, but they're not."

Carter says their analysis reveals a wave of pharmaceutical scams.

"We have uncovered an estimated 500 plus similar fraudulent pages that are getting created daily. So, if there's 500 of these fraudulent pages getting created daily, I mean, there's just 1,000's upon 1,000's of them out there now." Carter adds that the scammers advertise steep discounts or today-only bulk deals.

The Food and Drug Administration issued this alert about unapproved and potentially dangerous versions of the popular GLP-1 drugs.

The US Customs and Border Protection unit showed ABC News some of the illegal GLP-1 they've seized, the agency says, based on suspicious packaging. Eric Zizelman with the US Customs and Border Protection said, "Something that's going to come into the US as a legitimate product is not going to be in Spanish. It has to be in English."

When it comes to weight loss drugs advertised on social media, the FDA says one of the biggest red flags to spot the fakes is to look for posts claiming you don't need a prescription.

For the approved weight loss drugs, you do. Carter adds, "Your health, regardless of whether it's a weight loss product or anything else. It's not a place to click and hope. You need to verify the physician or the prescriber. You need to verify the pharmacy and treat miracle claims, sort of as your cue to just walk away.

Beyond financial loss with fake weight loss drugs, they can also pose a serious health threat, as they could have the wrong ingredients, so experts say it's not worth the risk.

To verify that the pharmacy or state-licensed telehealth is legitimate, you can do that via the NABP Safe Pharmacy. Anything bypassing a prescription or offering "liquid pearls/drops" is a red flag.

SEE ALSO | Counterfeit Ozempic: FDA sounds the alarm, warns consumers about fake weight loss drugs