Criminal ring gouges elderly

Songjiang district police have busted a criminal ring that sold more than 2 million yuan ($327,123) worth of unapproved and overpriced healthcare products to elderly residents, police said Thursday.

Police busted 41 ring members operating out of a company in Yexie town on August 7. They found more than 20 boxes of unapproved healthcare products on site, according to a press release from the Songjiang District Public Security Bureau.

Members of the ring told customers that the products could help alleviate health problems such as diabetes and high cholesterol, police said. They targeted middle-aged and elderly residents. Some of their victims were retired teachers, doctors and government officials.

In a typical case, a ring member surnamed Peng made frequent sales calls to an elderly man surnamed Li. Peng took advantage of the fact that Li's children did not talk to him very often to build a relationship with him over the phone.

He used that relationship to convince Li to buy a set of expensive healthcare products. Peng first offered the products for about 7,000 yuan and then cut the price to 3,860 yuan after Li said he could not afford them.

Some "salespeople" were selling more than 30,000 yuan of the products each month. They received complaints about the products every day, so they knew they didn't help the victims' health problems, but they turned a blind eye anyway, police said. Police have put 25 suspects in criminal detention.