Author Topic: Just because they're blinkered by superstition doesn't mean it's OK to scam them  (Read 2062 times)

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Offline dpareja

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/12/05/toronto-curse-fraud.html

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Two women have been defrauded of nearly $100,000 by a team of con artists pretending to be psychics who said they could remove a curse from the victims.

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After frightening the women, police say, the fraudsters would tell them to gather cash and other valuables and bring them to a meeting place in Chinatown where they would put the goods in a bag and then perform a "blessing."

“The suspects would switch that bag, and the suspects would tell them don’t open this bag until you get home,” Vella said. “When they got home the victims … realized there was nothing in that bag. All their valuables, cash and jewelry were stolen by the three women.”

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“You have to know their cultural background,” Chen said. “They believe in ghosts; they believe in ancestors; they believe when people die their ghosts live and they would come back and demand or give you advice, or that something bad is going to happen.”
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It doesn't concern you, Sister, that kind of absolutist view of the universe? Right and wrong determined solely by a single all-knowing, all powerful being whose judgment cannot be questioned and in whose name the most horrendous acts can be sanctioned without appeal?

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Offline Sylvana

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I agree completely that there are far too many religious con men out there scamming people. Unfortunately, in this case, I am going to side with the victims being on the naively stupid. When your exorcists want you to bring all your valuables including cash and put them in a bag for them to be blessed, you are being asked to be robbed.

I have heard of hundreds of traditional medicine and occult rituals that are supposed to do everything from keeping bad spirits away to resurrecting the dead. However, none of them have ever blessed cash before. Most of the time they ask for a sizable payment, and then provide a placebo.

Offline Her3tiK

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Yeah... goin' with Sylvana on this one. If something like that doesn't raise ANY alarms in the back of your head, you've got bigger problems than losing that much money. Don't get me started on what's wrong if the alarms go off and you hand the money over anyways.
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Offline Old Viking

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Regardless of the victims' cultural and religious background, I find it very difficult to sympathize.
I am an old man, and I've seen many problems, most of which never happened.

Offline Dakota Bob

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I wanna feel sympathy, but when somebody says "Put all your valuables in a a bag and let us bless it" the correct answer is NOT "Sure, why not"

Offline Radiation

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Yes, while common sense would tell us not to fall for this trap you got to remember that these people truly do believe in things like this and it is often a belief that the spirit world will bless or curse those that are living. I have sympathies for the victims because they were so manipulated with fear tactics based on their beliefs that they did not do the research or weren't able to do so and were so entrenched in their belief system that they were easily gullible to being scammed. It probably happens with other shamanistic path such as Vodou, Native American Spiritualism, Santeria, New Age and Far Eastern religions. It probably happens with people in the three major Abrahmic religions. Either way, some people are scammed by being manipulated via their beliefs.
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