Ningbo — Although it is rampant in showbiz, fake online ads that claim that a celeb uses their products or services are common and ethically wrong.

It was reported recently that a netizen talked about being convinced to get treatment for an unspecified condition by a hospital in Ningbo after she saw their ad that featured Hong Kong actress Ada Choi.

The Ningbo hospital advertised the actress as one of their successful patients and it managed to convince the netizen to spend 4500 yuan (SGD930) for a single injection, as reported by 8days.sg.

A fake ad featuring Ada Choi was spotted at a Ningbo hospital. Picture: Instagram

It was believed that the netizen then felt a great deal of pain and discomfort after the jab so she then complained about her terrible experience online. Choi then discovered the netizen’s post and she quickly issued a statement through her company to say that she has never received any sort of treatment in Ningbo. According to the statement, the hospital will be held accountable if they are found to have marketed themselves using Choi’s name. They also revealed that the hospital had already been punished for violating medical regulations.

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There were some netizens who were sympathetic towards the netizen who got duped while others were not so kind, saying that she was a “fool for believing such blatant lies”.

As one netizen said: “Ada lives in Shanghai. If she needed treatment for something, she’d receive it in the best hospital in Shanghai, and not a small city like Ningbo.”

Born on September 17, 1973, Ada Choi is a Hong Kong actress best known for her work for TVB television, notably as an evil empress in the Chinese television series Zhen Huan Chuan and to a lesser extent, for her film work.

Choi participated in a modelling contest held by TVB at age 15. Two years later, she was a contestant in the 1991 Miss Hong Kong beauty pageant. During the semi-finals she placed first with an overall score of 483. She eventually finished as the second runner-up during the finals. She won the TVB Anniversary Award for Best Actress for her performance in Secret of the Heart (1998)./TISG