In Wuhan, a mother is seeking justice for her 19-year-old intellectually disabled son. She revealed that her son, who has the mental capacity of a 5-year-old, was deceived into undergoing expensive breast augmentation surgery by someone who promised him the opportunity to make a lot of money through live streaming. This incident has once again sparked public outrage.
The teenager surnamed Lu had hoped to find a job at a plastic surgery clinic in Wuhan. The clinic convinced him that cosmetic surgery could help him with live streaming and gain more fans to make money.
His mother told Hubei TV Channel “Beauty Helping Women in Action” last week that the clinic even persuaded him to borrow 30,000 yuan (4,180 USD) to pay for the surgery.
The news of this incident quickly spread on Weibo, with netizens condemning such behavior that prioritizes money over basic humanity.
“Money is making people lose their humanity.”
“Worse than animals.”
“No moral boundaries.”
“These people will face severe consequences!!!”
With the assistance of the television station and lawyers, the mother managed to cancel the loan, but the breast augmentation surgery had already been completed.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, Lawyer Hu Junjie from “Today Law Firm” in Hubei stated, “If the person involved is incapable of filing a legal suit, their guardian must take legal actions,” adding, “Refunding the money is not enough, compensation should also be sought.”
The mother of the Wuhan teenager surnamed Lu mentioned on television that eventually, her son had to undergo a second surgery to remove the breast implants, exacerbating the trauma he had endured.
She expressed, “Seeing the two scars on my son’s chest, my heart aches.”
A Weibo user commented, “Indeed, there are unethical cosmetic surgeons… I have encountered cases where people were swindled out of over 20,000 yuan, unnecessary expenses entirely.”
As reported by Reuters, with the economic downturn, various types of fraud cases are on the rise in China, including recruitment scams, advertising fraud, and loan fraud. The Chinese authorities have acknowledged that an increasing number of current students and recent graduates are falling victim to these schemes.
This summer, China had a record-breaking 11.79 million new graduates. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is grappling with crises ranging from trade wars, the aftermath of COVID-19, ongoing real estate problems, to sluggish consumer demand, creating a challenging situation for the government.
In June of last year, the youth unemployment rate hit a historic high of 21.3%, prompting the CCP to stop publishing this closely watched data, excluding students in school from the statistics, making it difficult to track the situation of job seekers aged 16 to 24.
However, a spokesperson from the CCP’s National Bureau of Statistics stated last year that around 33 million people in that age group were job-seeking. Previous data indicated that China’s overall unemployment rate in July rose to a four-month high.
Last month, another scam made headlines. A college student named Xiao Chen, who was looking for a part-time delivery job, was tricked into signing a one-year contract for renting an electric bicycle.
According to the Xinmin Evening News, the staff at the bicycle rental shop who signed the contract with him pretended to be recruiters from the popular food delivery service Meituan, informing the student that he needed to rent a bicycle before starting work.
Weeks later, Xiao Chen discovered that his earnings were far below the promised “tens of thousands” by the “recruiters,” and he could barely afford his monthly rent.
A Weibo post in response stated, “It’s already difficult enough to find a job, and now we have to be cautious of scams.”
Meanwhile, with the uncertainty in the job market, some students have turned to fraudulent activities.
The CCP’s procuratorial organs stated in November of last year that in the first 10 months of 2023, the number of minors under the age of 18 prosecuted for telephone and internet fraud surged by 68%, with an increase in incidents of young graduates with higher education degrees joining fraud groups.