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SCMP Reporter

AIDS, cancer, poor digestion and lousy hi-fi sound quality - there was little the rubber band and stomach tablet gang allegedly said they could not cure.

  Allegedly selling tablets for $200 each, the four mainlanders from Wuhua County in Guangdong persuaded scores of Hongkong women the pills would rid takers of any ailment, from AIDS to fatal cancers, with one woman paying $260,000 for the ''miracle'' remedies.

  They are also said to have duped one woman into paying $200,000 for 20 boxes of ordinary rubber bands worth $20 each, after convincing her they were sophisticated hi-fi wiring which would improve the sound on any stereo system.

  Peddling their wares mainly in Shamshuipo, Hunghom and Kowloon City, the gang apparently took a total of $6 million from 80 women who took their smooth patter at face value.

  Unfortunately for the self-styled miracle workers, the police were not convinced of the four men's extravagant claims and arrested them on charges of attempting to obtain property by deception and resisting a police officer.

  While the gang has hotly denied any knowledge of the alleged frauds, it admitted to police it had been told in Shenzhen that Hongkong people were gullible.

  Tests carried out on the tablets seized from the four revealed they were ordinary stomach upset cures, worth $1.20 a pill, and that the rubber bands could be bought in any stationery store.

  Detective Senior Inspector Wong Wai-tak of the Kowloon Regional Crime Unit said one of the men would stop a woman at a market or on the roadside, asking her to help one of his friends keep an eye on a consignment of goods.

  The two men would proceed to spin a rich tapestry of words, telling the woman that the goods were expensive drugs, selling for $200 a tablet.

  The slick routine continued when a third man would appear with a briefcase claiming he was from a medicine company wanting to buy the tablets. The victim would then be persuaded that she, too, should purchase some of the pills.

  Their luck ran out when the men were arrested after they entered Hongkong on a two-way permit while on a tour of the territory that started in Shenzhen.



Remedy that wasn't, from the rubber band gang