GIVEN the current economic climate, Cypriots certainly do not deserve to be conned into wasting their money on fraudulent products.
The item in question is called a “Bios Balance” bracelet, but the scam itself can be used to sell anything. It’s often utilised by ‘holistic’ and ‘alternative’ therapy practitioners to ‘prove’ that their treatment/product works.
What is more worrying is that the sales reps for this “Bios Balance” bracelet are able to convince local pharmacists of the validity of their product through demonstrating a parlour trick on them and getting them to do it on prospective customers, thereby lending an air of credibility to the scam.
My wife was sold this 40 euro plastic bangle on the basis that the pharmacist did the test on her to prove it worked and, when asked about it, replied that she didn’t know how it worked exactly, but that it had also worked on her.
The test is known as “Applied Kinesiology” and, depending on what claims you, as the scammer, want to make, it will ‘prove’ whatever you want to convince the ‘patient’ of.
As the product in this case is supposed to be related to balance and muscle strength the test is conducted as follows:
Get the punter, I mean patient, to stand on one leg with their arms outstretched to the side.
Tell them to hold this position as you press down on one of their arms, usually resulting in them losing their balance.
Put the magical hologram bracelet on the punter, I mean patient.
Do the test again.
Wow! They don’t lose balance this time!
You have just ‘proved’ that the wearing of the 40 euro bracelet improved the punter’s, I mean patient’s, balance through it’s ingenious harnessing and correction of the body’s ‘energy field’!
Only, of course, it’s a blatant con and, unfortunately, one that is stealing a not-insubstantial amount of money from local residents, many of whom are tricked into believing it can genuinely treat their particular ailments.
The trick works because most people will lose their balance the first time but, subsequently, when the test is redone and they are more prepared for the imbalance, they are able to compensate for it better by subconsciously shifting their bodyweight slightly.
Fortunately the pharmacist was more than willing to give us a refund and appeared quite shocked upon being informed about the nature of the fraud. We needed only to tell her to repeat the test on someone else but, this time, have them wear the bracelet for the first pass and then remove it for the second. This would then ‘prove’ that wearing the bracelet made you lose balance instead!
If this con was only to be found at the usual places, ‘mind body spirit’ fairs and the like, where the gullible are parted with their cash in return for the magical properties of [insert fraudulent claim here], then I wouldn’t have bothered writing to you but, as it is being given a serious amount of credibility through being recommended by well-educated pharmacists in Cyprus, there is a potential for hundreds, if not many thousands, of people to fall victim to this con.
Name and address withheld
