Chinese man scammed into buying 300-year gym membership

A resident of Hangzhou, China, lost over 870,000 yuan after trusting gym employees' offer. He planned to buy memberships at a cheap price and resell them to others at a higher price to make a profit. However, he ended up with 300 years' worth of gym memberships and 1,200 personal training sessions.

According to Chinese media reports, a man known as Jin had been attending Ranyan Fitness gym for three years. One day, a sales representative told him there was a special offer for regular customers. According to the offer, memberships could be bought cheaply and later resold for double the price.

The gym staff promised a full refund if the memberships were not sold within two months.

Believing in the promise of profit, he spent a large sum of money

"They offered me to buy a membership for 8,888 yuan. Then they said they would sell it for 16,666 yuan and take only a 10 percent commission," Jin said.

A few days after purchasing the one-year membership, the sales representative approached him again, saying that only a few promotional memberships were left. Seizing this opportunity to increase his income, the man spent more money. Later, he was introduced to the gym manager, who offered him an even more attractive investment plan.

The man stated that between May 10 and July 9, he bought nearly 1,200 personal training sessions and 300 annual memberships. In total, he spent 871,273.27 yuan, which is about 121,000 dollars.

"As a result, I was given 26 thick contracts. Each of them stated that the memberships were non-transferable," he said.

Considering that the average life expectancy in China is about 78 years, it is practically impossible for Jin to fully use 300 years of memberships.

When the refund time came in mid-July, the gym's sales representative, branch manager, and owner had vanished. Their phone numbers also stopped working. Jin could not get a single penny back of the money he spent.

Realizing he had been scammed, the man reported it to the Hangzhou police and filed a lawsuit in court hoping to recover some of his money.

However, lawyers note that this process will not be easy. This is because the suspects in the fraud have not been found yet. Furthermore, the contracts Jin signed prohibit the transfer of memberships to others.

This incident shows what kind of financial losses blindly trusting offers that promise huge profits can lead to. Experts emphasize the importance of carefully studying contract terms in such situations and verifying promises of refunds.