Frauds prey on seniors' frailties

For some elderly people, going to health clubs and buying health supplements has become part of their daily routines.

In Shanghai, small health clubs can be found in most old neighborhoods, where many senior citizens live.

In November, a Shanghai Consumer Council report on the consumption of health supplements by the elderly said 13.8 percent of elderly people spent more than 10,000 yuan a year on such products. About 90 percent of the 1,000 elderly people who took part in the survey said there are stores selling health supplements in their neighborhoods.

The council also received 375 complaints about frauds totaling more than 3 million yuan last year.

Cui Lijuan, a psychologist at China East Normal University who focuses on the elderly, said the phenomenon is a result of elderly people's growing concerns over their health and their desire to stop aging.

"The anxiety grows as one's health declines," Cui said. "Since many health supplements claim to be high-tech and effective in improving one's health, they become elderly people's natural resort. Although everyone knows aging cannot be stopped, when emotion meets reason, the former wins."

'Sound like an expert'

Around the corner of a farmers' market in Shanghai's Changning district stand two small health clubs. Every morning, from 7 to 11, the small rooms are filled with elderly people listening to health lectures mixed with the implicit promotion of health supplements.

Their glass doors are all frosted. The 28-year-old manager of one club, who has been in the industry for six years, said only people older than 50 were allowed to enter.

He said its products include a liquid tonic that supplies the body with various minerals and a krill oil that strengthens immunity.

"They are all legal products," he said, although he refused to show them. "Around 15,000 health supplements have been approved by the China Food and Drug Administration, and one cannot paint them all with the same brush."

One elderly woman said she had been invited to the health lectures twice. Though she had not bought any products, she was happy to receive free gift cards that could be redeemed for daily groceries such as cooking oil, soy sauce and rice at the health club.