Gala calls out scammers, authorities shut down livestreaming channels

Scams targeting seniors took center stage at this year's annual "315 Gala" event hosted by State broadcaster China Central Television on Wednesday, which coincides with World Consumer Rights Day on March 15.

The gala took aim at livestreaming hosts who try to sell "magic drugs" to elderly people by appealing to their sympathy and gullibility.

They call themselves "sons" and "daughters" to their elderly viewers and put on made-up dramatic shows where the drugs are used to save people's lives and solve family disputes.

In one of the livestreams, the host, Ma Hongliang, claimed that a worker for a company died while trying to harvest snow lotus (Saussurea involucrate), a rare plant in high altitude that people believe can cure diseases.

To make amends, the company then decided to give the employee's mother its products made of snow lotus, which cured her disease.

Ma claimed that the drug can cure tumors and that snow lotus can be harvested only once every nine years.

She had decided to destroy the product, but was talked out of it by an "expert" who claimed to be from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, after which she decided to sell the product to her viewers.

However, the product is only general food that called snow lotus seed and not a medicine.

A manager surnamed Yin said his company is responsible for selling such products to live-streaming hosts, which are all normal food products such as candy and drinks.

"All the stories are fake ones and people in the live-streaming shows are hired actors. It's all fake," Yin said.

The channels of all the livestreaming hosts exposed during the gala have been suspended.

The market regulation bureau of Handan, Hebei province has arrived at the supply company Yin works with and sealed off the food products found there, according to CCTV.

Market regulation authorities also took away the company's computers and other data found there. The live-streaming hosts have not been found and local police have started an investigation into the event.