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DPP councilman exposes `nanowater' health scam

A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilman yesterday held a second news conference exposing a scam by a businessman who passed off ordinary mineral water and saline solution as "nanowater" -- water purportedly with amazing curative properties.

DPP Taipei City Councilor Chou Wei-yu (羅威佑) and former legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said that Miaoli businessman Tsai Fu-gui (蔡富貴) had tricked members of the public into buying ordinary mineral water or receiving saline solution through intravenous drips for up to NT$8,000 per bottle of water or bag of saline.

The scam first came to light when a member of Tuan's staff noticed "nanowater" for sale on the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co (TAPMC) Web site for what seemed like an unreasonably high price for bottled water.

After some investigation, Chou and Tuan held the first news conference questioning the TAPMC's judgement in selling the product, which has since been pulled from the shelves.

After Tuan's first news conference, a victim came forward to him providing more information concerning the details of the scam, including products and promotional literature.

On one of the bottles of water provided by the woman, the label of the original mineral water company is still visible.

"Once the water had been immersed in the `energy trough,' it became `nanowater,'" Tsai said.

"He would sell them to sick people down south for NT$2,000 to NT$8,000 per bottle as a cure-all," Tsai said.

The "nanowater" sold by the TAPMC was only sold at NT$200 per bottle -- still more than 10 times the price of a comparable bottled water product.

"I guess we're lucky and got a big discount here up north," Chou said.

Even worse than financial losses was the delay in treatment that could have been caused by desperate people who chose to believe in Tsai's "nanowater" as opposed to getting conventional treatment, Chou said.

"He listed everything from `coughing up blood' to `diarrhea' to `degradation of eyesight' as `signs that the nanowater is in the process of working,'" Chou said.

Chou put in an official request to the TAPMC asking how much "nanowater" had been sold through TAPMC supermarkets and who made the decision to promote "nanowater" as a "quality brand."

The TAPMC said that since this case has already entered legal proceedings, it could not provide further information.

Taipei Chief Prosecutor Lin Jinn-tsun (林錦村) was quoted by the Central News Agency yesterday as saying that the case will probably eventually go to his colleagues in Miaoli.
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