OT con artists

Question answered by honorarykid in Scientology

formerscientologist asked this question on 7/26/2000:

I just read freezone's response. She mentioned an OT took advantage of her trust and cheated her out of a few dollars.

I know about another OT who took advantage of my sister. She's an OT VII and supposedly a producer. She told my sister that she knew David Miscavige and that he was a real nice fellow.

The last I heard she managed to borrow $60,000 without any collateral from my sister. My sister is normally a very shrewd business woman, yet she was taken in by this OT VII.

Does anyone else on this forum know of any OT con artists?

honorarykid gave this response on 8/1/2000:

You're thinking small.

What about the con of the registrars themselves?

And how about the cons of the Estate Projects Force and the equally free labor wrung from people assigned to the Rehabilitation Project Force?

And how about all those Author Services Inc. OTs who convinced rank and file Scientologists to invest in the making of "Battlefield Earth?"

The financial problems which can result from Scientology crush-selling of services to it's members, demands for donations and investments from them, are very real, and very troubling.

And that's why some critics of Scientology have playfully modified the term "OT" to read "Owe-T".

honorarykid gave this follow-up answer on 8/2/2000:

I just wanted to add that in Scientology, the whole area of business scamming seems quite healthy and easily tolerated as well.

About 2 years ago, a WISE company was marketing those phoney plastic blue laundry balls, until several states banned their sales as fraudulent.

The company then tried to simply switch to a new scam, saying the same phoney "magical" blue fluid that was in the blue laundry balls would also boost the mileage of your automobiles by 200% or some such ridiculous amount.

Many Scientologists also turn a blind eye to the fundamental unfairness intrinsic to Ponzi scheme type investment and business practices. Many of them embrace MLM features in their companies, depending on some form of mathematical "magic" to bail out the poor saps at the bottom of the Ponzi pyramid. Then some will act surprised, hurt, or indignant when those injured people criticise their scamming behaviors.

formerscientologist rated this answer:

formerscientologist asked this follow-up question on 8/19/2000:

My mother was using a think round blue disk in her laundry for a while to replace laundry detergent. Could it be the same product?

honorarykid gave this response on 8/19/2000:

It probably wasn't the same exact product, because the laundry balls were actually spherical and filled with blue water.

But there were a number of other scam laundry products on the market as well. In fact, there were some similar "miracle" laundry discs in the "Real Goods" catalog.

formerscientologist asked this follow-up question on 8/19/2000:

Can you refer to a website that explains the WISE scam and the Ponzi pyramid?

honorarykid gave this response on 8/20/2000:

"Ponzi schemes" are named for a 1920s era Boston con artist named Charles Ponzi. Ponzi scammed investors with schemes that paid off early investors with the investment capital of later investors. The early investors get paid, handsomely. But no real material assets were ever purchased with the investment money, and so even more investors are needed to pay of and actually provide a return to the second tier of investors. The number of investors required to pay off subsequent investors grows geometrically, and the number soon exceeds the number of humans ever born, throughout history. The scheme collapses and all the bottom rung investors lose everything. Their collective losses exactly equal the gains of the early investors.

Probably 99.99% of the spam e-mails that annoy us (or lure the gullible few) with a promise of "Make Money Fast" are Ponzi schemes of one sort or another. Be very wary of them.

Read all about Ponzi at:

http://www.mark-knutson.com/

(or)

http://www.impulse.net/~thebob/Pyramid.html

As for the myriad problems and risks that WISE poses for society, that's a huge topic. There isn't just one scam going on there, but many.

The whole WISE organization was supposed to be disbanded according to the secret agreement between the IRS and Scientology.

Article 10 of Section E (Sec. E outlines the agreed upon operational modifications to be made by Scientology) of the secrete deal states, "The members of the CTCC shall, no later than December 31, 1995, effectuate the dissolution of WISE, Inc. and the transfer of all of its assets, including but not limited to its rights to the Scientology religious marks, to the Inspector General Network."

Obviously, Scientology has refused to honor tthis committment.

Information on the myriad feuds between Scientology and the IRS can be found at:

http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/irs.html

An article by Chris Owen about the secret IRS agreement may be read at:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/IRS/corp_veil.html

An OT Scientologist Mike McCloughry is currently suing a WISE company for illegal religious discrimination, after they fired him following his being officially "declared" as a suppressive person, because he argued that the current leadership of the CoS is altering the documents written by Hubbard.

The Mike McCloughry story as reported in the SpokaneNet webzine may be viewed at:

http://www.spokane.net/news-story.asp?date=081600&ID=s839228

Letters to the Editor on the McCloughry story (including one from yours truly) may be viewed at:

http://www.spokane.net/interact/pulse/buzz/dh.asp

And of course, WISE's official web site is at:

http://www.wise.org/

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