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/
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
The views and opinions stated within this web page are those of the
author or authors which wrote them and may not reflect the views and
opinions of the ISP or account user which hosts the web page. The
opinions may or may not be those of the Chairman of The Skeptic Tank.