http://www.npr.org/player/embed/464856716/464857106

This is a 20 minute podcast from NPR's podcast "Planet Money". It's an excellent podcast that I listen to regularly.

This particular podcast does not explicitly mention the cult, but it does mention that Utah is home for a huge number of these "work from home" and "start your own business" scams. Of course we here at RfM know that when it comes to law and politics in Utah, the government and the cult are largely one and the same.

A couple of the stories here, complete with audio recordings of phone conversations, are just painful to listen to. It pisses me off to no end that while the empty suits in SLC bloviate about modesty and sabbath observance, these kinds of scams have found such a safe haven in Zion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2016 03:50AM by Strength in the Loins.

Is it because TSCC has one of the best sales training colleges in the world, and teaches students to sell a product that doesn't exist?

They sell sizzle and no bacon.

It is no wonder they fall into creating or falling victim to scams or things that are not scams but are of very limited value?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2016 04:23AM by matt.

Studies have suggested that good salespeople are often easier to sell to. They end up selling themselves on the product. You just need to trigger their sales impulses.

Hi!

I stay at home and make $5-10K a week, part-time, on my computer! It's easy and doesn't require special education or college degrees. Any out-of-work Dad or Stay-At-Home Mom can do it!

Just send or wire $500 to "Caaffiend," Boston, Mass for full details to get started right away! Your only regret will be not having done this sooner!

Har.

;o)

Stupid me. I guess I'll just have to earn a living the honest way.

I had a criminal law instructor in Police Academy who had his share of stupid-crook anecdotes. He usually ended them saying, "Remember, you're not dealing with rocket scientists out on the street."

Wandering off-thread a bit, in Boston three numb-nuts were arrested after pulling an armed robbery in a convenience store. All THREE of them were wearing their court-ordered GPS ankle bracelets at the time. They were arrested an hour later, a block away.

Sure, but why don't you just give me your checking account information and your bank's routing number and I'll transfer the money right into your account.

Citizens trained to pat themselves on the back for believing the unbelievable are called gullible and are ripe for the pickings.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Brethren had a revelation to change the mission of the Strengthening the Members Committee from witch-hunting to strengthening the members?

Kathleen

I think the culture of creating families with stay at home moms plays into it, too. I mean, what family can survive now a days on one income.....yet mothers are always supposed to be home at the crossroads. Simple!!!!! Just MLM your way to MILLIONS while bilking all of your ward family. ;)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2016 07:12PM by idahobanana.

It doesn't seem to matter how often people are alerted to the same old, same old scams. They still fall for them. It's on the news all the time. Is the fantasy of getting rich quickly just too strong? When someone is a mark, does she/he ever feel in the back of her/his mind that something is hinky?

I agree with anagrammy. It would be nice if the so-called prophets of the church would warn their members of actual, real life dangers such as MLMs. Wouldn't it be nice if all churches did this? Or if there was a public education drive that regularly sent out the word on various scams? We get regular vaccinations as a public health drive, why not this? Here's what I do to cut down my possible exposure to fraud: if I don't recognize the phone # that's calling, I don't pick up. If it's something important, they leave a message. Works like a charm.

They can't take the chance.

If they teach the members to be less gullible, they might look more closely at the LDS scam.


Also, regarding SAHMs. If they really believed SAHMs should stay at home, they should refuse tithing money based on their incomes as "filthy lucre." But no, they choose rollin' in the dough.


Kathleen

The whole Mormon way of life is based on a major scam, so it's no surprise that scam culture pervades the entire state of Utah and beyond.

Of course many scammers think that they're really doing their "customers" a big favor by offering the scam. They're offering, you're buying, so it's all great.

of Mormonism.

The other one is "the end justifies the means"

and

There's a sucker born every minute



K

My TBM ex was always looking for ways for God to "bless her."

Her idea was that, since she was so awesomely righteous, God
was just DYING to bless her with riches, but needed a way. So
she would enter the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstake, and be
disappointed when she lost. I was good with trivia so she
wanted me to go to Los-Angeles (from Provo) to be on some TV
Game show. She bought into all the MLM scams, which ended up
only piling up debts that I got after the divorce. She was
going to write a book on human relations and be on the
"Donahue" show to plug it (she told me this one as if the
Donahue appearance had already been finalized).

Being awesomely righteous, she divorced me and now lives close
to the poverty line. But, hey, God's gonna bless her with
riches any day now.

The problem with TBMs and scams is that they don't think that
the normal rules that work for everyone else also work for
them. No, they are too damn righteous for that. For them
things are, well, different.