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Get startedWe found illegal vitamin supplements on Etsy – and the seller threw in some erectile dysfunction medication for free
It was shockingly easy to buy injectable supplements, and the unlabelled 'male enhancement' freebies were the final straw
Consumers are being put at risk by a lack of appropriate safeguards on online marketplaces, where sellers are flogging health products illegally.
The latest Which? investigation into the online supplements market has uncovered unscrupulous sellers listing injectable vitamin supplements on Etsy, and throwing in risky extras too.
Etsy failed to stop third-party sellers peddling products to us labelled as injectable vitamins – in this case unauthorised medicines which are illegal to sell in the UK.
Etsy describes itself as the 'home of handmade, vintage, and custom gifts', but it has thousands of listings for food supplements, and based on our ability to buy from a very suspicious listing, a dangerous lack of oversight of what is being sold.
Suspect supplement listings
As part of our ongoing investigations into the food supplement market, we spotted some strange listings on Etsy that showed plain AI-generated boxes displaying text like ‘Vitamin C 10 x 5mL’ or ‘Vitamin D3 5 x 1mL’.
Many had none of the legally required nutritional information for food supplements that we would expect to be displayed for a product in Etsy's supplements category. For example, there was no information on how much of the active ingredient the product contained, any warnings about dosage, or a list of any ingredients at all.
None of this seemed to have been flagged as problematic by Etsy.
In fact, the sellers were able to take out ads on their vitamin D product which brought it right to the top of our search results.
Concerned, we bought four products from two different sellers to see if it was possible to buy them without intervention, and to find out what was really being sold.
Illegal vitamin injections and a handful of unlabelled pills
Every product we ordered arrived, but instead of food supplements, we received four sets of injectable vials. And it looked like we weren't the only ones buying from these sellers - Etsy's site displays the number of products sold on listings and this data suggested at least 129 others had bought from them.
The products we received all had packaging showing they were intended for injection for medical use.
The packaging said the products came from India and Spain, but they are not authorised for sale in the UK, so they were illegally sold to us.
Vials of vitamin B12 from a seller called LuminaSkin came in an already opened box with instructions exclusively in Spanish and a bold and all-caps warning ‘MEDICAMENTO SUJETO A PRESCRIPCIÓN MÉDICA’ (medication subject to a medical prescription).
The vitamin D3 and multivitamin vials we got from a seller called MummyWorldTreasures displayed the warning ‘not to be sold by retail without the prescription of a Registered Medical Practitioner’.
The multivitamin box had leaked during transit, which means the contents of at least one of the vials had been exposed to air and contaminants, increasing the risk of infection if anyone was to use them.
The vitamin C vials stated that the dosage should be set by the physician – but as we bought these on Etsy, this was not going to happen.
All three products we got from MummyWorldTreasures were missing information leaflets of any kind with safety warnings, and the vitamin C vials came without any box at all.
We know that online marketplaces can be rife with counterfeit goods, but we didn’t lab test these products to confirm their contents. Either they’re real and unauthorised to sell in the UK, or they’re counterfeit and therefore illegal to sell anyway.
In both cases, these products pose a health risk to buyers.
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Risky extras included
When our orders turned up, we were in for an extra surprise. MummyWorldTreasures included three loose and unnamed pills as a freebie.
It provided a note with the order plugging the other products it offers including ‘100mg Blue Tablet – Famous diamond-shaped’ and ‘80mg Yellow Tablet – Slim, elongated oval’.
Given the concerning lack of information about what these pills actually contained, we asked the seller directly what the tablets were.
They replied: ‘Free sample of Men’s enhancement supplement to help with blood flow and stamina. Sorry I didn’t realise it was addressed to a female. Apologies.’
We found a listing for the blue men’s enhancement supplement on the seller’s other page 'VitaminsByAmy' which said, ‘The Original Stuff 😉The V ingredient’.
We sent the tablets off to a lab for testing to confirm they were what we suspected.
Sure enough, the blue pill contained sildenafil, and the yellow pill contained tadalafil, both active ingredients in erectile dysfunction medications.
These are illegal to sell without a prescription or the supervision of a pharmacist. This is because you need to have some essential health checks first to ensure they are safe for you to take.
We were especially concerned that these tablets were added to a random order without the legally required information about what they were or how to take them safely.
Erectile dysfunction medications can pose serious risks to those with heart and liver conditions.
Find out more about erectile dysfunction medications including what's available, prescription vs pharmacy versions and how to take them safely
Expert view: why is this so dangerous?
Professor Azeem Majeed
Head of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London and award-winning GP
‘The possibility of unregulated online sale of vitamin injections (such as vitamins B12, C, and D) is concerning from a public health perspective.
These products can be classified as medicines because their use requires professional assessment and supervision to ensure they are clinically necessary, correctly dosed, and administered safely.
‘Buying injections from unregulated sources carries significant risks; including exposure to counterfeit or substandard medicines, as well as infection if the products are contaminated.
‘Some vitamins, such as vitamin D, can also cause serious side effects, including dangerously high calcium levels, if taken inappropriately.
‘There are also clear risks from taking unlabelled pills that may contain erectile dysfunction drugs. These may be counterfeit or substandard and taking them without medical advice can increase the risk of side effects and dangerous interactions with other medications or medical conditions.’
Dodgy listings are a persistent problem
While we were researching this article, the shops we bought from were both closed on Etsy.
But MummyWorldTreasures had a notice re-directing users to its other open Etsy shops 'VitaminsByAmy' and the imaginatively named 'MummyWorldTreasures2', as well as its own website off the platform.
We also saw a new listing pop up that was more brazenly advertising photos of (AI-generated) vitamin B12 injectable ampoules, again with none of the legally required information for supplements given.
We reported everything we found, including this new product, to Etsy.
A spokesperson for Etsy said: 'Medical drugs, medical devices, and any other items that claim to treat, prevent, mitigate, cure or diagnose a disease or medical condition are prohibited on Etsy. The listings flagged by Which? are no longer available on our marketplace, and our team is actively monitoring for any injectable supplements that violate this policy.'
Four days after we received this comment, we found another listing advertising injectable vitamin B12. A week later this was taken down. Another week after this, we saw one more listing for injectable vitamin B12 using the same product image had popped up.
MummyWorldTreasures2 was also still active on the website.
Etsy removed the additional product and seller shop after we followed up with them again but did not provide further comment.
The sellers behind the shop MummyWorldTreasures did not respond to requests for comment on our findings, and we were unable to contact LuminaSkin for comment as the shop had closed with no forwarding information.
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More must be done to protect consumers
We shared our findings with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which regulates medicines and medical devices in the UK.
A spokesperson for the MHRA said: 'The illegal sale and supply of unauthorised medicines can put consumers at significant risk of harm, including contamination, adverse reactions, and unknown interactions.
'While the MHRA’s Criminal Enforcement Unit cannot comment on specific operational steps or ongoing investigations, we take intelligence of this nature extremely seriously.
'The MHRA continues to work closely with major online marketplaces to prevent illegal medicines being offered for sale, and we welcome any action taken to remove unlawful online listings.
'We also maintain public-facing guidance advising individuals on how to source medicines safely and legally, including through the Yellow Card scheme and FakeMeds campaigns. These initiatives aim to reduce demand for illegal medicines by highlighting the dangers of purchasing from unverified online sources and guiding the public toward legitimate suppliers.’
Protect online shoppers
Which? has worked for years to expose the growing list of unsafe products sold on major online marketplaces and to urge the Government to update the UK’s product safety framework for the digital age.
We’re working with a broad coalition representing consumer groups, safety organisations, and hundreds of responsible UK businesses to hold online marketplaces to account.
In this case, we have found products that are clearly illegal and shouldn’t have been offered for sale – and then repeatedly offered for sale. It’s crucial that regulators take a tougher approach to policing online marketplaces and making sure that they don’t put people’s health at risk.
