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

Scammers are massively deceiving Russians by selling them fake "Ozempika" on Telegram. There have been more than a hundred signals in a month and a half, the Popular Front reported. At the beginning of the year, similar cases appeared on various websites, copies of the Danish drug were even sold in pharmacies, but this attracted the attention of law enforcement officers. Now the criminals have switched to Telegram. The victims find tempting discount offers in the messenger, the purchase is made in a separate chat, but in the end they either supply a fake or simply steal the money. How not to become a victim of a scam, what else is the danger — in the material of Izvestia.

How scammers deceive Telegram users

Fraudsters began to massively deceive Russians on Telegram with the sale of drugs for diabetics, which are also used for weight control (Ozempik and Generics), Alexandra Pozharskaya, an expert at the Popular Front project For Borrowers' Rights and the Moshelovka platform, told Izvestia. She added: over the past month and a half, they have already received more than 100 signals. Victims report that they find tempting offers of discounts or low prices for drugs in special messenger channels.

They are decorated and named using the brand symbols of large pharmacy chains, according to the Popular Front. To purchase the drug, the attackers suggest going to a separate chat. In one of the popular deception schemes, victims often had conversations with manager Alexander. In all cases, he requested an advance payment for the drug.

In case of refusal to make an advance or full payment, as a rule, very strange stories follow. So, the attackers begin to talk about the lack of deliverers with the necessary thermal containers and convince them that if you do not pay now, the drug will become more expensive later, Alexandra Pozharskaya said.

If the victim does transfer the money, then they are transferred to the accounts of individuals, allegedly managers. At the same time, no contracts are concluded. As a result, the attackers either sell pacifiers, or — which is technically simpler and safer — they simply extort money and disappear.

There were already similar cases of deception at the beginning of the year, but such a scheme unfolded through various websites and pharmacy chains, Izvestia wrote. After that, several criminal cases were initiated against the pharmacy owners. But the scammers switched to Telegram, as the supervisory authorities cannot influence it due to the fact that the messenger does not have a legal entity in the Russian Federation. Moreover, Telegram scammers are focused specifically on those who are independently looking for this and other drugs for weight control, Alexandra Pozharskaya clarified.

In deceptions with such drugs, scammers obviously focus on the desire of Russians to get in shape for the beach season. However, only a doctor should prescribe such drugs and only after a set of tests and examinations, Maria Rumyantseva, Director of Communications at the Association for the Development of Financial Literacy, reminded. Not everyone has the time or patience to visit him. Therefore, the search for alternative suppliers begins, which can lead to serious health problems.

The experts interviewed by Izvestia told how not to fall for the trick of "resellers". First of all, it is important to purchase medicines in pharmacies only as prescribed by the attending physician, said Vladimir Ulyanov, head of the analytical center at Zecurion.

In addition, given the wide range of fakes, domain addresses, website names should be carefully checked, applications should be downloaded only from official online stores, and calculations should be carried out only with checks and without any intermediaries, recommends Alexandra Pozharskaya.

— Almost all foreign drugs already have certified Russian analogues, which are in no way inferior to them in quality. This is especially true in the field of vital medicines and drugs for weight control," the expert concluded.

WHOIS services (services that collect domain information) can be used to check unknown online stores. You should especially be wary if the domain is completely fresh and registered to a private individual, said Kaspersky Lab content analyst Tatiana Shcherbakova.

Izvestia also appealed to the Russian Interior Ministry with a question about whether similar fraud schemes are being reported there on Telegram.

What is the danger of counterfeiting?

The fact that the "gray" semaglutide-based drug is freely sold in Russia, including in pharmacies, was previously confirmed by Izvestia during its own investigation. According to experts, its illegal turnover can reach 1.5 billion rubles a year, even despite the presence of domestic analogues.

So, in March 2025, in Moscow, investigators opened a criminal case into the sale of substandard and unregistered medicines in the drugstore "Leksfarm", the Investigative Committee reported. This is, in particular, the drug Ozempik, a law enforcement source told Izvestia. "Leksfarm" has about a dozen outlets in the capital. The CEO of the network was detained, and investigators seized 17 million rubles in cash from her apartment.

And on February 25, the Lefortovo district Court began considering a criminal case on illegal drug trafficking in a Moscow pharmacy. According to investigators, the doctor of one of the capital's polyclinics and the owner of the pharmacy sold the popular medicine after the official withdrawal from the country of its manufacturer and the cessation of official supplies. The "gray" drug was not authenticated and did not have mandatory labeling confirming its quality.

The last official delivery of the drug to Russia, which underwent all these procedures, took place at the end of 2023, the analytical company RNC Pharma told Izvestia. Since then, manufacturers of the drug have refused to supply it to the Russian Federation.

Almost all drugs from the latest official batch have already been sold out. Until 2023, the Danish medicine was the only one based on semaglutide in Russia. But then Russian companies began to bring its analogues to the market.

The first was "Semavik" from Geropharm. In December 2023, the pharmaceutical company received a compulsory license for it from the government of the Russian Federation. The companies "PSK Pharma" and "Promomed" also have preparations based on semaglutide. The latest analogue, Velgia from Promomed, was registered in October 2024.

The active substance semaglutide belongs to the group of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP—1) agonists, a hormone formed in the small intestine during food intake, said Valeria Ivanitskaya, an endocrinologist at Invitro.

"The semaglutide molecule is 94% similar to GLP—1, but has a longer duration of action," the doctor explained. — Acting on the pancreas, like GLP-1, semaglutide reduces glucagon secretion and increases insulin production. This leads to a decrease in blood glucose levels. Semaglutide also affects the centers of hunger and satiety, slows down the movement of food from the stomach to the intestine. All this leads to a decrease in appetite, increased satiety and, as a result, to a decrease in portions and caloric intake of food.

Semaglutide-based drugs are prescribed for type 2 diabetes, severe obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. Olga Makhrova, an expert at the Hemotest laboratory and an endocrinologist, explained that such drugs can cause nausea, vomiting, headaches, and in rare cases— inflammation of the pancreas. In addition, they have quite a few contraindications: they cannot be taken for thyroid cancer, severe renal or liver failure, pregnancy and breastfeeding. On June 6, it became known that, among other things, the European Medical Agency (EMA) discovered a very rare side effect of Ozempika, which can lead to vision loss.

The use of any drugs that are not officially registered as a medicinal product is potentially dangerous to health, endocrinologist and nutritionist Alexei Kalinchev told Izvestia.