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when his mother asked for money to "save her life" out of embarrassment, mr. yuan realized the seriousness of the problem. in just over a year, his mother had spent more than 300,000 yuan in her account at the so-called "health institution" and now urgently needed 128,000 yuan.

mr. yuan first said that he reported the matter to multiple departments, but there was no progress after two months. he had no choice but to post the matter on social platforms to protect his rights online.

shocked: "a lot of smelly water was drawn out of my stomach at a foot massage parlor", a 60-year-old woman borrowed money from her son to "save her life", saying she spent more than 300,000 yuan in a health care institution in more than a year

mr. yuan is from wuxi, jiangsu. his mother is over 60 years old and has a monthly pension of more than 2,000 yuan. after retirement, mr. yuan's mother pays more attention to her health and often goes to some medical institutions to see various diseases. she also often collects various chinese and western medicine prescriptions in her life. she is also a frequent visitor to various health clubs and believes in the publicity of the efficacy of various equipment.

"but i didn't restrict her too much." mr. yuan said that as early as the end of 2022, mr. yuan found a consumption record of 8,000 yuan on his mother's mobile phone. when he asked, his mother said that it was a recharge at a foot bath shop for foot soaking, a total of 24 times. "i thought it was a bit expensive at the time, so i told her that the service was 400 yuan per time, and she shouldn't go after that." mr. yuan said that he also joked that his mother lived a more carefree life than him. the old woman agreed readily, so mr. yuan did not take it to heart.

at the end of 2022, mr. yuan found a consumption record of 8,800 yuan on his mother's mobile phone.

however, the truth was finally revealed on the evening of june 10, 2024.

"when i returned home that night, i found that my grandmother, eldest aunt and younger aunt were all there. i thought that my three daughters had made an appointment to play mahjong with my 80-year-old grandmother." mr. yuan said that unexpectedly, after dinner, he found his mother lying on the bed in the bedroom with a serious face. he went to ask about the situation. his mother seemed very embarrassed, but finally spoke up, "he asked me to give him 128,000 yuan to save her life." mr. yuan said that then the grandmother came into the house and asked his mother to get the money, saying that a lot of smelly water was drained out of her stomach at the foot massage parlor and she needed 128,000 yuan to save her life.

in the subsequent repeated inquiries, mr. yuan gradually learned that his mother had started shopping at the foot bath shop on the second floor of the rt-mart supermarket on lihu avenue, binhu district, wuxi city since november 2022.

the first time she went to receive a free foot bath, during which the clerk sold her a foot bath membership card. she applied for a card for 50 sessions for 2,400 yuan. during the subsequent foot baths, the clerk said that the items in the store could treat some elderly diseases, and recommended different products and items one after another, ranging from several thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan per set. under the enthusiastic salesmanship of the clerk, the old woman thought it was effective and started to buy.

over a period of more than a year, mr. yuan's mother purchased several products and paid about 320,000 yuan in fees.

in the following year, mr. yuan's mother bought several products and paid about 320,000 yuan in fees. "i paid in cash, and the store did not provide any receipts or agreements." mr. yuan said that the items sold to his mother by the store mainly included foot bathing, massage, hot steaming and acupuncture. in more than a year, the original 300,000 yuan in his mother's account was spent.

mr. yuan said that his mother said that the 128,000 yuan this time was a new project, and the other party claimed that it was worth a million yuan, and many people were rushing to buy it. his mother paid a deposit of 500 yuan and promised to go to the bank to withdraw the money as soon as possible.

merchants involved

evidence collection: the client entered the store accompanied by his family and recorded the process of two shop assistants "coercing and tempting" to ask for project funds

on the afternoon of june 11, the store called mr. yuan's mother and asked her to do the project. in order to find out the details of the matter, mr. yuan asked his mother to agree. that afternoon, mr. yuan arranged for his 80-year-old grandmother to accompany his mother to the store and secretly recorded the conversation for evidence.

the recording lasted more than 90 minutes in total, of which the time spent on the project was no more than 1 hour, and persuading mr. yuan's mother to find a way to pay the project fee of 128,000 yuan as soon as possible almost ran through the entire process.

the recording shows that there were three people in the store who had contact with the two elderly people. one of them was a female clerk who soaked the feet of mr. yuan's grandmother without speaking a word. another man named zhang claimed to be an expert from beijing who provided services all over the country and did not stay in this store. another woman named song was a staff member who had served mr. yuan's mother many times before.

during the process, the woman surnamed song suggested that the man surnamed zhang give mr. yuan's mother a discount, but zhang said that the product of this project is very popular in beijing, shanghai and guangzhou, and many people cannot buy it even if they increase the price. this set was temporarily given by someone else who went to another place. song said that mr. yuan's mother suffered when she was young, which led to her poor health now. she must be conditioned, otherwise it would be useless to earn money without a good body. then, the two people asked mr. yuan's mother why she didn't make an appointment to withdraw money from the bank. the two elderly people said that they had no money because they spent too much money here, more than 300,000 yuan. song said that it was because they spent a lot that they got the discount.

later, zhang said that in order to help mr. yuan's mother occupy this product, he used his credit card to help advance 28,000 yuan, and in order to give an explanation to the company, the elderly must first collect 50,000 yuan and pay it before 6 o'clock that day. when the two elderly people said that they had no money and needed to ask their family for money, the other party's attitude began to deteriorate. first, he asked mr. yuan's mother to return the 28,000 yuan he advanced, and then said that if the money could not be paid, mr. yuan's mother's account would be frozen.

in the end, the store put a band-aid on mr. yuan's mother's stomach and said that medicine had been used, but the other party said it was a trial and did not charge any money.

rights protection: after reporting to multiple departments that there has been no substantial progress in the past two months, the relevant staff suggested that the parties file a lawsuit

mr. yuan said that after the incident, he went to the store involved many times to try to find the person in charge of the store, "but i never saw their person in charge. everyone in the store said that they had just arrived and knew nothing." mr. yuan believed that this was a manifestation of the store staff having received special training in shifting blame.

mr. yuan said that on the night of june 10, he took his mother to the police. after understanding the situation, the police told the old lady that she might have been cheated. the next day, he took his mother to the local market supervision and administration bureau to report the incident. the reception staff immediately judged that she must have been cheated. after multiple inquiries, mr. yuan's mother gradually told him that she had invested more than 300,000 yuan in the store in just over a year, but had no receipts, contracts or other documents.

at this point, mr. yuan felt the situation was serious and called the police again. after the market supervision bureau staff explained the situation to the police, the police said that the market supervision bureau would handle it first, and if it involved a crime and needed their assistance, they would transfer the case to them, and then left. "i thought it shouldn't be a big problem at the time."

mr. yuan said that he had consulted a lawyer afterwards, but the lawyer said that more evidence was needed for the police to file a case and for him to have a chance of winning the lawsuit in court.

on june 21, staff from the market supervision administration stated that they had negotiated with the store, and the store agreed to refund the more than 40,000 yuan that had not yet been spent. mr. yuan firmly rejected this decision and requested that a statement be made for his mother for record.

on june 26, the old man from the market supervision and administration bureau took a statement. during the statement, the market supervision and administration bureau staff said that the store owner claimed that he took over the store from someone else. currently, there is only a consumption record of about 200,000 yuan from mr. yuan's mother in the store, and no other consumption records can be found.

"but my mother has been working on projects in this store. they changed their business license twice, but the storefront has always been hanfang shijia." mr. yuan said that although the other party said that some consumption records were missing, he had seen all of his mother's check-in records in the store in question since 2022. "at that time, the market supervision bureau said that the matter was of a serious nature and would be investigated and dealt with. if it involved fraud, it would be handed over to the police, and asked me to go back and wait for news." mr. yuan said, however, he waited for two months, but there was no progress.

"later, several departments said it was normal consumption, and the police station clearly told us to file a lawsuit." mr. yuan said that the response to the local 12345 work order provided to the reporter showed that the local police station and the market supervision and administration bureau went to the store to verify and found no illegal business operations. on the afternoon of august 8, the police station suggested that the complainant resolve the consumer dispute through litigation.

post: posted online to tell about the experience, the public security department is still investigating, and the unspent money has been refunded

in desperation, mr. yuan posted his mother's experience on his own social media account, which attracted widespread attention.

on the morning of august 30, a reporter from huashang daily dafeng news learned from mr. yuan that on the evening of the 29th, the local public security, market supervision and administration bureau, street office and other relevant departments met with him and refunded the unspent project funds of 49,000 yuan. "now all departments have taken it seriously, and the higher-level public security department said it would intervene in the investigation."

the reporter from the huashang daily dafeng news tried to contact the store involved, but could not find any relevant contact information based on the company's business license. the reporter also tried many times but failed to contact the police in charge of the case.

afterwards, the reporter contacted the local wuxi binhu district market supervision and administration bureau, and a staff member said that there had been new progress in the matter, but did not specify the specific details.

warning: free trials, "family" services, exaggerated publicity, "expert" threats, member "benefits", an inventory of the "routines" of health institutions

the situation reflected by mr. yuan on the internet has attracted widespread attention. however, before it was exposed on the internet, the local public security, market supervision and other departments intervened in the investigation and responded that the store had not engaged in any illegal business activities. currently, the relevant investigation seems to be underway, and it is still unclear whether the store involved has engaged in any illegal activities.

however, over the years, some tricks targeting the physical health of the elderly have undoubtedly been prevalent, and many elderly people have unknowingly fallen deeper and deeper into them, spending all their savings.

a reporter from the huashang daily dafeng news interviewed a mr. liu who used to work in this field. "i started working in this type of institution, but after my father was cheated once, i decided to quit." mr. liu said that these institutions do have a complete set of routines.

"they all take advantage of the elderly's desire to live longer and their desire for small bargains." mr. liu said, so the routine often starts with free experience projects. the agency will arrange some free experiences, free gifts, free travel, and free lectures. such small favors can successfully attract most elderly people;

then they would arrange for some young employees to constantly say sweet words to the elderly, ask about their well-being, accompany them at home, chat at any time, "and many of them directly recognize them as their parents." mr. liu said that many elderly people fell into the trap successfully in this process.

the third step is to hire outside experts to conduct examinations and exaggerate the efficacy and charge exorbitant prices. "this is an important link." mr. liu said that some institutions often use words such as "natural ingredients", "quantum technology", "rapid effect", and "complete cure for chronic diseases" to deceive the elderly without any bottom line. some unscrupulous businesses will also use outside experts to conduct consultations, falsely claiming that the elderly's condition is serious to scare the elderly, causing fear and psychological burden to the elderly, and then charge exorbitant prices.

finally, they use membership discounts to further trick the elderly，some unscrupulous businesses pay so-called patients to "tell their stories" and brag about the "successful cases" of treatment in the ears of the elderly, give them psychological hints, and promise preferential prices after purchasing products or services and becoming their members, in order to lure the elderly into continuously developing "membership."

mr. liu also said that there are two typical characteristics of this type of institution, that is, the store will frequently change the company name and legal representative, and in the prepaid model that deceives the elderly to recharge, the merchants do not sign paper consumption contracts with the elderly, and the elderly do not care about this. when the elderly found that something was wrong and tried to defend their rights, they found that the company where they had previously spent a huge amount of money no longer existed, and there was no paper contract to clarify the number of services, duration, quality, effect, and whether refunds were available. after a dispute arises, it brings considerable obstacles to defending rights according to law.