”Witness the miracle!” “It is a shocking breakthrough in the history of medicine!” “It has caused the nine major system diseases of the human body to continuously reverse and recover!” Leaflets and pamphlets that convey such exciting news often appear in the cases of many elderly people. , At hand. In the eyes of many old people, the information that young people regard as unthinkable is hope and miracle.
They have not received the correct life education. Some of them are trying their best to grasp all the urgency of the moment-this is the “overseas travel drug sales scam”, “warmth-experienced drug sales”, “health-care lecture-style scam”, etc. that have repeatedly succeeded to the elderly. main reason. Moreover, even if old people have escaped medical scams, they often can’t escape retirement scams, travel scams, investment scams, shopping scams…
Scam Escalation: Cancer Panic
Some people joked. Many old people sneered at the legend of “Did Qin Shihuang ever eat the elixir”, but they absolutely couldn’t escape the temptation of local health care products.
A friend of the author complained that her grandmother usually lived a frugal life. She ate a few meals with a single dish, but was tricked into spending tens of thousands of yuan every three to five to buy some useless things: these “three noes” products include health care. Products, goat milk powder, hot water bottles that claim to have special health benefits, and necklaces that are said to not wrestle.
The shop selling health equipment is full of elderly people
On March 22, 2017, Xianyang, Shaanxi, the bedroom of an old man’s home was filled with various health products
The “five tactics of medical fraud” turned out to be: cheating with ancestral secret recipes, cheating at pharmacies, cheating with medical care, cheating with low prices, cheating with the patient’s presence. The money of the elderly is often invested in a bottomless pit. Some elderly people who were ill believed in various anti-cancer remedies, but they missed the opportunity for treatment. This is even more embarrassing.
What’s more frightening is that the fraud gangs are “upgrading” their money-gathering model from the original promotion of health products to cancer screening, and the bureau is more “tall” and “luxury”, and the amount involved is even greater. Towards “internationalization”-“overseas medical tourism” is a typical example of this “upgraded version”.
A lady in Hunan was invited by a beauty shop she often visited to participate in a luxury free overseas medical tour, and was arranged to listen to a “foreign medical expert lecture”. After receiving a full set of free medical examinations, she learned that she had “lung cancer” results. In a hurry, she spent 625,000 yuan on an “anti-cancer shot.”
This is definitely not the case. “Overseas medical tourism” is the combination of overseas tourism and health services, so that treatment can be carried out during the trip, so that patients can “recover”. Some media previously exposed its routine: “Overseas medical tourism” groups are looking for agents and beauty salons across the country, conducting overseas medical fraud business training and guidance, and defrauding their customers.
Industry insiders analyzed the reasons for their success, mainly because they seized the customer’s “love of beauty” and “fear of death”, and the mentality of not understanding overseas medical care but blindly thinking that “the overseas medical care must be more developed”.
According to public reports, from 2018 to 2020, there were as many as 6,614 cases of illegal fund-raising related to the domestic elderly care industry. A case of fund-raising scams for elderly care services traps elderly people in their sleeves because of the temptation of cheap travel, high-quality services, booked beds for the elderly, and high return on investment.
Similar to this method, there are financing guarantee companies that sell “dog meat” with the “goat head” of medical institutions and illegally absorb public deposits. Once people go to the empty building and wake up from dreams for old-age care, in order to save their lives, some elderly people become angry and cause illnesses, and some even choose to commit suicide, leaving behind resentment and sighs.
Buy wealth management and become a partner in a shell company
Most elderly people often stay away from financial products, but when scams come around, they are often unable to resist.
In March of this year, a local China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau reminded the attention of “elderly scams”: under the banner of “house for the elderly”, promised pension scammers tricked the elderly into mortgage their real estate, and then let them use the mortgage to purchase “financial products “. The scammers promised to pay high interest rates, but once their capital chain breaks or they run away with money, the old man’s house may be forced to auction.
The money-making model has been “upgraded” from the original promotion of health products to cancer screening.
At the same time, investment scammers use emerging financial concepts such as “private equity crowdfunding”, “partners”, and “overseas equity” to confuse their audiences. The elderly become partners in shell companies after purchasing products, and they are likely to face the commercial risk of capital loss.
Why do seemingly bad methods often succeed? Why are the elderly who have experienced decades of cold and warm life frequently deceived?
A judge who has handled many cases of deception of the elderly analyzed that the elderly are vulnerable to deception, mainly because the elderly’s eagerness to seek medical treatment is exploited; limited by the knowledge structure and social information, the ability to distinguish right from wrong is weak.
Today, birth, old age, sickness and death are still the laws of life that everyone must face. Many elderly people suffer from illness and fear of death, and do their best to save their youth and extend their life. When the medical system is not yet perfect, when the elderly fail to master the scientific methods of health care and fail to understand through formal channels, they pin their hopes on private channels. Health care products that can prolong life and delay death are extremely attractive to the elderly.
At the same time, the supply of social services for the elderly does not match the needs of the elderly, and there is a gap, which gives criminals an opportunity to make plans for the elderly. Some scholars have proposed that the development of urban intelligence and population aging should be synchronized. For example, the font size of fixed websites and mobile apps need not be adjusted. Another example is to increase website platforms and mobile apps specifically developed for the elderly. Another example is for the elderly. People use the online medical consultation platform to provide convenience, etc.
Some legal persons also said that in order to strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly, it is necessary to establish a “green” channel for rights protection, strengthen the construction of the legal system for the elderly, improve the legal aid system for the elderly, smooth the path of judicial relief, and even set up a special elderly court.
Breaking the game: regaining courage and confidence
Many people agree that some elderly people are deceived because they lack care for their children, have a lonely lifestyle, are easily moved by warmth, and relax their vigilance. Whether it is a medical scam or an investment scam, the secret to the success of fraud is to a large extent “playing the emotional card.”
The movie “Empty Nest”, released in 2020, tells the story of an empty nest old man who was defrauded of 500,000 yuan under the warmth of a health product salesman, but still hopes to redeem him. This type of story happened to many empty nesters.
When some articles still list the absence of children as the main responsibility of the deception of the elderly, and further alienate the parent-child relationship and deepen the generation gap as a social issue for discussion, an elderly man’s “chic” remarks provide another way of thinking. : “I told the children, I have been busy all my life, now I have to do what I like. We can communicate more, but live separately.”
”Age and physical health restrict the elderly from participating in social activities, coupled with the fetters of the family, and sometimes even from the idea that the children take for granted that the elderly should take care of their children and grandchildren, making them focus on their lives and their attention to the family and children. As a result, they are more dependent on their children, or have higher requirements for their children’s companionship.”
A researcher pointed out that in addition to advocating children to care more about the elderly at home, they should also encourage healthy and capable elderly people to participate more in the community. , Social activities, and support them to realize lifelong learning through online and offline educational resources, thereby enhancing their own social value.
The elderly have the ability to learn and are creative. The elderly are also likely to become a force for social innovation-when the fast-moving external world slows down a bit; when they experience the facilities and equipment that this society has created specifically for them that match their learning steps; when everyone When they are given more kindness, understanding and respect; when they re-establish their confidence in the world…
At that time, if they encounter the above-mentioned scams again, they may be more courageous and confident, saying that the Japanese TV series ” The heroine in “The Trap”, every time she sees through the sly time, she blurts out the lines-“Everything you have done has been seen through!”
