AT LEAST 175 people in Oxfordshire have been scammed buying diet pills on the internet.

Slimmmers looking to lose weight and take advantage of ‘risk-free trials’ have found themselves stuck in contracts that cost them an average of £150 each.

Oxfordshire Trading Standards is warning residents not to get “sucked in” by deals from dodgy websites.

The sellers offer a free trial inviting people to try a set of diet pills, asking for £2.99 to cover postage.

Customers have to give their bank card details for the “one-off” payment, but buried in the terms and conditions they are signing up to a longer-term contract.

Sums between £79 and £86 are then taken out in the second week, and again in the fourth week.

Oxfordshire Trading Standards team leader Kate Davies said: “It’s really nasty because it clearly plays on human nature and our insecurities over our weight.

“They understand human psychology, and that’s how they suck people in.”

She said that between January 2014 and August 2015, 175 people registered a complaint, but more were likely to have been duped.

She added: “Often these companies will take a lump sum in the first two weeks and then again two weeks later. This is because it is hoped that people don’t check their bank statements until the end of the month.

“When people do eventually find out the money has already been taken, they try to get a refund but, more often than not, the customer services line goes to answerphone or doesn’t exist.”

Cancelling only works if the goods delivered are sent back to the company within 14 days of agreeing to the contract.

Banks do not have an obligation to return the money as the terms and conditions agreement says the person has agreed to the compulsory purchase.

One of the Oxfordshire victims, who did not want to be named, said: “I’m one of the lucky ones because I managed to get my money back. Others weren’t as lucky.”

The Banbury resident had £314 taken from her account immediately, but with persistence she got the money back through writing to the company, based in the Netherlands.