A 70-year-old elderly woman allegedly went into a salon for a $18 massage and ended up signing treatment packages worth $40,000 for three months, according to Shin Min Daily News.
The massage parlour has since denied pressuring the elderly woman into signing anything.
The elderly woman was walking around People’s Park Centre on 6 April when she happened upon a worker promoting massage services for $18 per hour.
She then confirmed the details of the service and the employee told her that it was a fixed price, before getting three more staff members to attend to her.
They then helped her wash her face and massage her body and feet, and the elderly woman was shocked to find out that she was charged $180 for that.
The employee then said that the price increased because there were multiple people attending to her, and added that they used “medicinal oil” to help her massage.
The elderly woman then said that she didn’t ask for any of the additional services.
The worker then started hard selling a $2,000 package to the elderly woman, which included 20 massages, before adding that if the elderly woman signed up right now, she would get a $100 discount – and the elderly woman then signed for the package.
During the elderly woman’s subsequent visits, the staff would find and identify all kinds of different ailments with her in order to get her to sign more packages.
They told her in May that her “meridian points” were blocked and if she didn’t clear them, she could get cancer. And this spooked the elderly woman, who then signed an $8,000 package with them.
During another visit in June, the elderly woman was then told that the blood flow to her feet was blocked, and she ended up signing a $12,000 package.
Then in July, the elderly woman was told that she had a spine problem and ended up buying a $10,000 package.
The incident was then reported to CASE on 5 August, but she only managed to get back $20,000 after they intervened.
The store also vehemently denied pressuring or tricking the elderly woman into signing the packages with them, saying that she was satisfied with their services that’s why she signed for so many packages.