A good rule to live by: If someone asks you for money to fund a scheme involving toilets, your cash will probably just be flushed down the drain (unless it’s some kind of magical talking toilet that gives out great advice and also cleans your entire house while singing a delightful ditty*).

Cops arrested a Florida woman this week for allegedly swindling four people out of $100,000 for her “Pan Fan,” a device that attaches to your toilet and purifies air.

Police say the woman convinced four people to give her a total of $100,000 for the device, reports the Sun Sentinel, but that she then took the funds to buy clothes, spa services, dinners and more, according to subpoenaed bank records.

As for the money she put into her Pan Fans? Only about $4,900 went into those.

Her first alleged scammed investment was a $30,000 payment from a local hairdresser, who signed an agreement that she’d receive all her money back by the end of the month plus, plus a percentage of profits and $50 for every fan sold.

Lo and behold, the end of the month arrived and the victim met with the alleged scammer, ostensibly to get her money. She did receive checks, but the woman told her not to deposit them because her account was closed. That set off a few alarm bells, as it very well should have.

On the day the suspect wrote those checks, police found she only had $242 in the account, not the $40,000 she was pretending to hand over.

Three others notified the cops that they had also loaned money to the suspect for her toilet fans but were also left hanging.

She’s now facing a fraud charge and dirty bathroom air.

*Those are the coolest things I could think of for a toilet to do. 

Cops: Deerfield woman nets over $100K in toilet fan scam [Sun Sentinel]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.