"A new year means a new start it's time to get fit and there are quite a few deals out there. On Facebook you see a local gym advertising a discount on membership if you sign up within the next few hours. There are limited spaces so you act quickly. It's only after you pay that you realise the ad was a fraud: you've received no membership details and when you contact the gym it has no record of your payment."
"It can be difficult to discern between the real and the fake, although the web address may have a couple of different characters. Criminals can also use sponsored results on search engines so that if you search online, you will be presented with their fraudulent site. The new year fitness rush creates the perfect environment for scams, because people are often signing up quickly without taking the time to check who they're dealing with, says Briedis."
January fitness promotions attract scammers who create fake gym offers, bogus personal trainers, and counterfeit fitness apps to obtain payments or harvest user data. Criminals clone legitimate ads and websites, introduce subtle web address changes, and use sponsored search results to direct users to fraudulent pages. Tactics include urgent limited-time offers, extreme discounts, pressure to sign up immediately, sparse contact details, and copied training plans presented as bespoke. Freely available AI can alter images to exaggerate results and lure users. Consumers should verify contact details, seek independent reviews, and confirm vendor payment records before paying.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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