Transcription
Have you ever had the thought that if people just gave you money, their life would be pretty comfortable, right? Well, if that's what you're wondering right about now, then what if I told you a group of rural Gen Z girls on Douyin have come to the realization that as it turns out, in order for free money to literally rain down from the sky, all you have to really do is utter the magic words, "Can I please have some money?" in a very, very nice way.
So around 2024, a popular hashtag begins to make waves on Douyin called "Old Man Collapsing" or "blow up the old man." Now, "Old Man Collapsing," the trend, right, doesn't physically involve you pulling up to the nearest mahjong center decking the first elderly man you see in the chin. No, no, it is much worse than that because the trend and related hashtags often includes posts of pictures where people screen capture themselves receiving literal free money upon request from these so-called old men after simply asking for it in a conversation.
The trend then catches mainstream attention in 2025 and recently in 2026, just this month, over 20 articles have been published on Soho detailing the rise of so-called old men allegedly getting rinsed online by Gen Z girls born between the 2000s and 2005. So after looking into the situation, me and the executive brain cells up at the frontal lobe have decided that you, as the shareholders of the JGal channel, this phenomenon is going to be worth your attention investment because who knows, maybe you might be able to learn a few tricks of the trade, if you catch my drift.
But judging from these screenshots that we've already seen so far, you've probably gathered by this point that "Old Man Collapsing" doesn't seem like to be a 4D chess move. It's not an elaborate scam technique or some illegal Nigerian prince email operation requiring a detailed setup. No, you don't have to do all that just to get their money because "Old Man Collapsing" is a completely legal and simple and now gamified way to squeeze money out of the emotionally vulnerable demographic of the male population.
Okay, now let me elaborate on this point. Say you're interested in the business. You, you want to collapse an old man right now. How do you participate in "Old Man Collapse" talk? Well, why don't I give you a detailed pitch of the theory part of the study first and then we'll move on to some examples. So, every scam requires two conditions to be filled. There needs to be a scammer and there needs to be a scam. Right? So, similarly, in order for the "Old Man Collapsing" trend to occur, two conditions must be fulfilled.
The person draining the old man must always be, as what's shown in this photo, stereotypically known in China as the "rural eagle aesthetic" or "spirited sister." Now, this is a direct parallel to a "tingo" or "spirited brother," a rural youth male delinquent stereotype known to dress in Alibaba designer merch and hang out exclusively in pool rooms and your local barber shop where their day-to-day main source of income consists of bullying children and taking their lunch money. So, "Spirited Sisters" is a female equivalent of that stereotype, but their operation is much more complicated than their male Neanderthal counterparts. So the collapser must always be a "jingo," a spirited sister. Oh, but J, I'm not a spirited sister. How can I still participate in this? Well, you can pretend to be one. Put your scamming cap on. Come on.
So then on the other hand, we have the old man. Now, ironically, in this case, the old man here actually does not refer to the old man you see playing chess on the streets. Contrary to the suggestive trend name, people born in the 2000s getting rinsed are referred to as "ching dong" or adolescent "unks." People born in the 90s getting rinsed are referred to as "middles" or "jungs." People born in the 80s getting rinsed are referred to as "unks." And people born in the 70s and 60s are referred to as "supreme unks" or "divine ancient unks," which altogether forms the old man ecosystem.
Okay, so that's the two parties. So upon identifying your designated "unk" in the old man ecosystem, you may participate in the trend where one party, the spirited sister, would request money from the target, the old man. The amount will then gradually increase from there onwards as the old man gets more comfortable to small gifts and limited edition toys costing hundreds of RMBs. So, as you can see, still a relatively small amount to keep the request affordable. Because the goal of the operation here is to drain the old man slowly but surely until he can no longer provide. And as soon as that happens, the old man is then blocked and therefore officially collapsed. It's like a gold mine that's ran out of bling in which the returns are then shared under the hashtag on rural social media apps like Kuaishou or under the "Old Man Collapsed" Douyin ecosystem, therefore recruiting more and more participants in the process as the clips go viral.
Yeah, TikTok trends ain't got [ __ ] on Douyin trends. They're kind of like data miners of the dating market. Start small. They start with a request on Douyin and they move on to your more personalized social media and ask for more over there. That's got to be an abuse for your personal information which Proton, oh yes sir, our old friend, can help you stop. With more than 100 million users today, that's 100 million users harder to scam now because Proton has everything you need to be productive and safe. A tool that I really like is the PhishGuard protection, which offers advanced phishing protection, flagging potential attacks to keep your inbox secure. Although Proton is larger than that, since it includes a suite of privacy-first tools that includes Proton Drive, VPNs, Docs, and Pass, all designed to help users de-Google their lives, in which if you do decide to do then they have a migration tool for an easy switch, allowing users to easily transfer emails and calendars and contacts from Google or other providers with just a few clicks. But more on the privacy because Proton's encryption email works by ensuring that only you and the intended recipient can read the contents of the messages. This allows you to control who can access your information, helping you maintain ownership of your communications. So, if that's what you value, take back your privacy, start using Proton Mail for free with my link. But then, hey, if you're willing to let yourself get scammed, then Proton probably can't help you.
Okay, so with that in mind, now that we're through with the theory part of the business workshop, uh, let's get into some practical examples and victim responses. Yeah. Uh, so, in this screenshot, for example, shared by an account called Rono. As we can see in her portfolio, she was able to diversify her investments simultaneously collapsing 16 "unks" ranging from Gen Z's to Gen X's where the "unk" in question is shown willingly sending red packet transfers right as you can see detailed in the chat over here, same day after she went for the kill by dropping the "Have a nice weekend, big bro." I also do like the fact that she responds with a "Why are you so nice to me?" which is an excellent maneuver instead of a regular "Thank you for this week" compared to that, as the man is clearly into the innocent little sister vibes she's giving him. The red packets obviously then adds up significantly when you do this to a group of people with reports of some girls even able to make up to 25,000 RMB per month with a more concentrated "unk" portfolio, which is multiple times the average monthly wage.
So, some people might be wondering at this point, why convince me, you know, as a, as a scam, you know, why would anybody willingly do this? Give free money to some stranger on the internet. Well, I'm glad I raised that point. But the reason why the operation is so easy to pull off is because the spirited sisters participating in the trend have firstly, through the trials of time, learned to utilize the "People Around You" feature in the social media apps, which conveniently shows them who is single and lonely in their area. So this maneuver then grants them authorization to access hundreds and millions of "unks" potentially across the same city, provided that the city is big enough, which it always is, 'cause, you know, that [ __ ] can't happen in Melbourne. Therefore, guaranteeing firstly an endless supply of old men for you to collapse, a higher pool of leads for cold emailing, as well as a higher success rate since the old man you're collapsing could very well be in the building complex next door, giving them an actual emotional incentive to give you the money in hopes that they could one day see you face to face since you both live so close. Matter of fact, I'll show you an example of this in real life.
So in this interview conducted with these morally flexible individuals of society, we witnessed multiple spirited girls gathering in an underpass in rural Hebei. And when prompted the question on what they are doing, they replied to the camera saying they just be busy taking down old men all year round, which is a god-tier sentence. Uh, in which then the interviewer was taken on a day in the life living as a member in their spirited sister friend group where at a certain point, a member in the group details that her prices, if you want to go out and spend a day with her, it's 1888 yen. And the interviewer, matter of fact, was even encouraged to try send a few texts to see if anybody bites. The interviewer even shows concern and expresses the question, "Well, what if I get blocked?" And she was seen replying that, "Can't physically happen." As you can probably tell, this is obviously a business in high demand. And, and of course, I do want to note that the whole day's activity recorded in the video is also funded exclusively by old men in their contact list.
Okay, so that was a little peek into the megalodons of the industry. So now allow me to present the other perspective, now the plankton. Because another interesting point to observe is that majority of the victims here willingly fall into the trap anyways. Uh, actually, so I guess in a sense, they're not really victims if I'm being honest, as detailed by a few comments on this article. Right. So, I like how we get a bit of insider information on the collapsers and now the collapses. A lot of transparency in the field. So, this collapsy says that it's just a matter of perspective. So, we're going to hear him out on this one. "Spending a few dozen yen to start my day well and adjust my work routine. It's better than being scolded by my spouse first thing in the morning." Uh, so it's a win-win situation. Besides, is even a few dozen yen worth a lot of money? So basically, to this fella over here, as we just read, sending these girls money for a milk tea here and there, and in return receiving good morning texts, I suppose, or "Do your best at your job" texts, is worth the investment. It's a little boost, a little mental espresso to kickstart your day. And I mean, he's an adult. If he's weighed up the options and have decided that it's a pretty good idea to keep this transactional relationship going rather than fix his marriage, then who am I as a random YouTuber across the country to say otherwise?
Of course, if we then refer to the comment down under, this man, for example, is in it because he has decided that the reason why he's pursued this relationship is because he's figured out how to game the system. Turn the odds against the house. Turns out you can just drop some ad hoc requests and ask them to call you uncle in a cutesy way and then have them send a photo or a video, and they will do it all for money, right? So, in his head, this is a generational W in his favor. And once again, no comment besides the fact that if this is how it is, [ __ ] go get the bag then. It clearly looks like both parties here are benefiting. But of course, the most genuinely eye-opening argument in an attempt to justify this behavior that I have probably seen is from this article by Hanfe Observation where a 52-year-old victim, I mean interviewee, bluntly stated that this is 70% cheaper than psychological counseling and saves 800,000 yen compared to a divorce lawsuit.
Okay, so in his case, he's pulled out the Excel spreadsheet and hammered in the numbers and figured out that by not doing this, by not talking to another woman besides his wife, he is essentially making a financially irresponsible decision. Hey, I mean, 'cause it even sounds like the article is justifying it. Like, yeah, but when you learn that his daily routine involves submitting the final version of a proposal at 2:00 AM and opening the door to find his wife and children sleeping soundly in the dark, breathing evenly, the allure of this low-cost emotional replenishment becomes concrete. Yeah, but for real, I do like the fact that the most valid argument being pulled out here is, "Well, my wife and kids aren't giving me the attention and my job sucks. Surely you understand."
But on a larger note, it seems like with the rise of the industry and the phenomenon gaining more attention in the recent months, many accounts have been also popping up this year on Douyin and other platforms offering "old man collapsing" crash courses, usually ran by pickup artists to help you kickstart your career in the field where the victims that get targeted in the cases of these crash courses is now referred to as the "low-tier emotional market," which is contrary to the socialite training camps designed to use the same tactic on billionaires, which is known as the "Hermes of the emotional market." So, they've now gone ahead and segmented the market, which makes sense if you think about it. Social training camps target billionaires. That's got to be a high-risk, high-reward, but high-investment operation 'cause I'm assuming getting to the billionaire is not cheap. But then again, what are the chances you're going to pull a yuck or go through a socialite training camp and marry Hong Xiaoying, the A-list celebrity? Allegedly, I don't want no lawsuits.
So for the average person with, I suppose, average ambitions, just wants to scrape by, uh, an old man here, an old man there, nothing crazy. Then you go the quantity over quality type [ __ ] So puts on the dating market. Anybody? Although a most recent addition to the news is that it seems like people are now posting complaints that there are now too many "old man scammers" online causing people to lose some faith in the dating market when they're trying to date for real because all they're finding is people looking to conduct this operation. Will the situation get worse? I don't know. But the last thing anybody needs is one more service designed to target emotional vulnerability. But on the other hand, there wouldn't be supply if there wasn't demand at the first place. How about you subscribe? Said since you made it this far.