A 47-year-old man who had been suffering from a lowered sex drive thought he had finally discovered the solution to all his problems after spotting an online advertisement for a special kind of magnetic underwear that promised to boost his libido.
According to the ad, the underpants came with 18 magnets, strategically embedded around a man’s package, which would emit remote rays that resulted in stronger erections, ending premature ejaculation and impotence in the wearer.
Convinced, the man, surnamed Yang, purchased three pairs of the magnetic undies for 268 yuan, believing that he had got a great deal, according to Jiemian News report from earlier this month which was relayed yesterday by the Global Times.
They arrived with a lengthy message stating that results may vary and that if the customer did not experience any change then he should contact a company “coach” for further consultation. After wearing the underpants for a while and finding no improvement to his sex drive, Yang called the toll-free helpline and spoke with a 26-year-old woman surnamed Dai who told him that his genitals were clogged with toxins that must be flushed out.
After being persuaded by Dai, Yang agreed to purchase a “specialized treatment package” for 3,680 yuan. He was sent some various ingredients including mugwort leaves and slices of ginger which he was instructed to boil into a soup before soaking his magnetic underwear in the liquid for 15 to 20 minutes. Also, he was instructed to spray the concoction on his private parts before engaging in sex.
Yang carefully followed these instructions to the letter. But again, found his libido as low as ever.
50,000 men just like Wang were taken in by this same scam, cheated out of a total of 7.68 million yuan ($1.16 million). Eventually, nearly 700 of them complained about being swindled and demanded their money back, leading to a police investigation and prosecution.
The mastermind of this con was a man named Xie Qinrui who has now been sentenced by a Guangzhou court to 12 years in prison for fraud. Xie had purchased around 100,000 pairs of these magnetic undies from a distributor, costing him only 17 to 30 yuan each. However, his real money came when men called the helpline to say that the underpants weren’t working.
Xie hired a team of more than a hundred women to answer phone calls. They were told to always refer to themselves as “coaches,” not “doctors” or “experts,” and were given a script that they should follow in order to coax men into investing in a “specialized treatment package.” As incentive, after selling more than 10,000 yuan of merchandise, they could earn a commission off further sales.
The script instructed the coaches to tell men that most members of their gender had sex two or three times a week, lasting for at least 15 to 20 minutes each time, anything less than that was considered abnormal. Meanwhile, if a man said that his lovemaking sessions lasted only a few minutes, he was told that he suffers from premature ejaculation.
The concept of “Magnetic Therapy Pants” appears to come from a British company called Vince Pants which claims that its underwear will increase the size of your penis, cure erectile dysfunction, flush away waste products, moderate your calcium flow, alter your cell chromosome alignment, etc, etc.
These sort of undies (英国卫裤) remain on sale on Taobao with prices ranging from 69 to 300 yuan per pair.
A favorite brand appears to be one called Vince Klein.
