A dubious spa in New York City reportedly coerced an elderly woman into spending over $675,000 on overpriced treatments and questionable beauty products. Phyllis Sousa is one of four women claiming they were conned out of approximately $800,000 by Ole Beauty Clinic’s aggressive tactics. According to them, staff would flatter the women to entice them and then continued to pressure them to surrender their credit cards.
Sousa, who is 76, stated in court documents filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that she spent this staggering amount between 2022 and 2025.
Every time she attempted to decline additional sessions at the East 65th Street venue, employees allegedly scolded her harshly and made her feel guilty for not buying more.
The complaint also reveals that an 87-year-old woman named Dinah Evan was charged more than $27,000 in December 2025 for a fraudulent “membership” after being pressured for quick consent by staff.
The serious accusations against the beauty clinic first emerged in February when Elizabeth Childs Johnson, 77, claimed that she was forced to spend $105,000 on various treatments. She recounted that an employee, in December 2024, sweet-talked her into the spa and subsequently pressured her into purchasing 12 facials for $40,000.
As those sessions were wrapping up in late 2025, Childs-Johnson alleges that employees locked her in an office and wouldn’t take no for an answer, compelling her to spend on expensive treatments touted as originating from Japan.
“It all happened in just a few minutes,” she recounted the chilling moment when she felt trapped by a spa employee and couldn’t exit.
Other women have since joined the lawsuit after reading about the situation in the news.
Andrew Kincaid, an attorney representing the trio, mentioned, “This seems to be a pattern of behavior directed at lonely older women past a certain age.” He pointed out that they were often taken into private areas and pressured into making decisions they would normally reject.
The suit also claims that the spa operates under several different entities, complicating efforts to hold anyone accountable. “There were many oddities in the documentation,” Kincaid noted. “Payments were unnecessarily split among organizations, which my three clients could not comprehend. Frequent address changes and shared email accounts were also evident.”
“The structure is convoluted and hard to navigate, which I believe is part of the issue,” he added.
In response, Ole’s attorney, Avram Turkel, dismissed these allegations as “fabricated.” He contended that the three women were valued repeat customers who agreed to the terms, including the return policy, when they made their purchases.
