Those pushy, cult-like Israelis who go abroad to sell Dead Sea cosmetics at shopping mall kiosks are at it again. Israeli Dead Sea cosmetics salespeople were escorted out of New Zealand's Lynnmall Shopping Center by security after they convinced an 82-year-old woman to come with them to an ATM, empty her bank account and buy thousands of dollars worth of anti-wrinkle cream and other cosmetics.
Dead Sea Cosmetics Salespeople Allegedly Sell Elderly And Disabled Vulnerable Adults Thousands Of Dollars Of Unwanted Products
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Those pushy, cult-like Israelis who go abroad to sell Dead Sea cosmetics at shopping mall kiosks are at it again.
Israeli Dead Sea cosmetics salespeople were escorted out of New Zealand's Lynnmall Shopping Center by security after they convinced an 82-year-old woman to come with them to an ATM, empty her bank account and buy thousands of dollars worth of anti-wrinkle cream and other cosmetics, Aukland’s News3 reported Wednesday night.
Over two weekends, the woman was reportedly bullied, cajoled and tricked into buying $5,000 ($4,400 USD) worth of these cosmetics – primarily wrinkle creams for different ranges of skin types – by a Dead Sea Spa salesman.
The Israeli salesman even kept the woman at the kiosk after the mall had closed, maxing out her credit card and then escorting her to several different ATMs to withdraw more cash for them.
The elderly woman went home with plenty of useless beauty products but no money - not even enough money to buy the groceries she actually needed.
The Dead Sea salespeople offer small free samples. But once they begin taking to you, what follows is a “never-ending hard-sell,” News3 reported. “How much they charge depends on how much they think you've got. There are no prices on anything.”
A man reportedly suffering from severe short-term memory loss after undergoing brain surgery was also exploited by the Dead Sea salespeople, and was charged 12 different times for a total amount of $13,000 ($11,416 USD) by an Israeli Dead Sea saleswoman. The man would buy products, and the saleswoman would sell him more products later because the man did not remember the previous purchases. When his card was maxed out, the saleswoman reportedly urged him to go to the bank to withdraw money to pay for more cosmetics.
Also, an autistic man was sold $4,400 ($3,863 USD) worth of Dead Sea products in just 30 minutes at a Dead Sea cosmetics stand.
The company selling the Dead Sea products stood behind their sales policy and said that if customers want to buy products, even large amounts of products, they will sell the products to them.
The company’s manager was unable to tell a News3 reporter how much any of the products actually cost – an extreme oddity in the retail business where managers routinely know the prices of dozens, if not hundreds, of items by heart and what their margins on each item are.
After News3’s first report aired, the shopping mall evicted the Dead Sea company and the Israeli salespeople and banned them from ever returning. The mall also announced that the Dead Sea company had refunded the elderly woman’s money.
There is no word yet, however, on any refunds for the two disabled people.