Episode 194 – Satan Scams

SHOW LINKS

• • From The anatomy of Illuminati scams, BitDefender, 2023: Not everyone gets invited to join the Illuminati, right? This week, however, users from around the globe received a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to join an ultra-secretive organization of rich and highly influential elites. The recruiter, whom for the sake of this expose will be named the ‘Grand Master,’ invites any ‘interested’ parties to become a member of the global elite with a powerful combination of perks including a brand new home anywhere in world, $50 million in your bank account, and monthly payments of $50,000: “Bringing the poor, the needy, and the talented into the limelight of fame, riches, and power, this is the right time for you to put all your worries, having divorcing problems, and finance problems to an end by joining the Illuminati. Are you sick, barren, or you wish? If Yes! Then join the Illuminati. And this offer is for unique ones only: if you are not serious, then you are advice [sic] not to contact us at all. Disloyalty is not highly tolerated here. This message was created solely for this recruitment scheme, which will end next month. Do you agree to be a member of the new world order?” They offered us the possibility to join by filling out a membership form. The form required us to provide personal information that could allow the scammers to conduct identity theft crimes; this includes full name, date of birth, address, phone number, occupation, email address, marital status, age and a current photo. “You are texting with the Lordship master, worry not, you are in safe hands,” one of the scammers said. We even told one of the scammers that we had just received another email/invitation to join the Illuminati that we assumed was from one of his colleagues. When asked if he knew the sender, “Brother Anthony” gave us some very good tips and advised us on what to do if we are contacted by Illuminati impostors. https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/hotforsecurity/the-anatomy-of-illuminati-scams-we-spoke-to-the-grand-masters-so-you-dont-have-to 
  •  From the multi-platform scam exploiting a globalist conspiracy, Maria Giovanna Sessa, and Francesco Poldi, EU DisinfoLabm, 2022: Historically, the Order of the Illuminati referred to a secret society founded in Bavaria that sought to promote secular, intellectual, and philanthropic values among elites. The Illuminati became one of the oldest conspiracy theories when in 1797, physicist John Robison published “Proofs of a Conspiracy”, a book that accused the Illuminati of infiltrating Freemasonry. Usually, conspiracy believers refer to the Illuminati in derogatory terms, whereas instead our research found cases in which people are trying to join this alleged powerful sect and are willing to pay to do so. There are multiple disinformers recycling identical content and graphics to push the same conspiracy scam. These malign actors exploit people’s credulity and ignorance, claiming to offer access to a secret society, despite the fact that the Illuminati does not exist, and secret societies have been outlawed everywhere for centuries. Different chats, allegedly administered by different actors, recurrently share the exact same content, whether these are photos or copy-pasted text messages. To convince people to join, fabricated finance-related claims are made about global control of banks, and, for this reason, members of the group can allegedly print money limitlessly, which explains their fortune. This and other messages contain occasional references to Satanism, shown in the repeated use of the Antichrist number “666” and salutations as “Hail Lucifer”, although we ran across the reassurance that there is “no blood sacrifice involved” for joining.
  • The Illuminati conspiracy is often connected to the Freemasonry, as the latter organisation asks its members for discretion, which feeds into prejudice, suspicion, and a misleading idea of secrecy. From these considerations, we had reasons to believe that the images of Freemasons present on the chats were stolen from elsewhere and shared to make subscribers believe they belonged to alleged members of the Illuminati. Another recurrent character is former U.S. President Barack Obama, portrayed as he awards the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom, together with masonic symbols and piles of cash. Pretending to be members of a non-existent society, disinformers exploit people’s vulnerabilities and aspirations to enter a rich and influential elite. This is carried on through a combination of solemn-sounding messages, empty promises of a lavish lifestyle, and the systematic use of stolen images of religious chiefs and politicians. This exacerbates conviction in a dangerous conspiracy theory that, once the deception is unveiled, risks reinforcing anti-establishment and discriminatory sentiments. This deceptive approach is further enabled by platforms, as in the case of the Google ads, verified account on Twitter, as well as merchandise sold on Amazon. https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/want-to-get-rich-apply-today-and-join-the-illuminati/
  • From Scams, conspiracies, and why we fall victim to them, Lisa Godfrey, CBC, 2023: Stephen Greenspan, a retired professor of psychology and author of several books on gullibility experienced a major fraud despite his areas of expertise after Wall Street titan Bernie Madoff was revealed to have been operating a $60 billion Ponzi scheme in late 2008. Greenspan discovered that he had lost more than half a million dollars in invested retirement savings. “Even though I’m an expert on gullibility and know a lot about things like politics, I didn’t know anything about finance,” Greenspan said.To analyze fraud victimization, Stephen Greenspan developed a psychological model of gullibility. The psychologist says he was emotionally excited about an investment opportunity that had reliable advocates and high returns. He mentions the Dunning-Kruger effect, a theory of cognitive bias that sees people overestimate their own knowledge or abilities in a given area. Greenspan sees it in the wider culture, as a widespread aversion to admitting ” ‘I don’t know.’: “ I see that in anti-vaccination conspiracies, I see it in politics. It’s driven by emotion, and it’s driven by ignorance.” For Greenspan, “It may be more scary, in a way, than financial vulnerability, because it puts our whole democracy at risk.” Historian Carolyn Biltoft and essayist Phil Christman have explored the how and why of people drawn into believing conspiracy thinking: Christman spent time in online communities like the flat earth movement and when considering why many are drawn into conspiracy thinking and information unsupported by facts, the writer and academic said “it feels like you don’t really have to extrapolate that far. You look as far as the general sense that a lot of people have that things are very wrong: a pervasive but vague sense of wrongness.” He thinks that people find a sense of community, interest, and identity in these movements, and that in uncertain times, “a lot of conspiracy theories are exciting simply because they draw a bunch of disconnected dots together.” 
  • For Biltoft, credulity is a deep and long-standing human tendency that she recognizes, having grown up in a Fundamentalist Christian community, where belief is central. A skeptic herself, she says her academic work “really helped me not judge and dismiss believers that I loved, by trying to investigate why they needed those forms of faith. The path of the historian is to not begin from a place of moral judgment.” She has also analyzed misinformation and conspiracy thinking through a historical lens, to try to understand the cultural question of “why people need to believe crazy things.” Biltoft said the existence of religion has always meant that humans operate with multiple realities. A farmer in centuries past may live an earthbound life, but “then also going ritualistically to the church to pray to an unseen God.” From communications technology to cryptocurrency, Biltoft points out that so much around us relies on intangible things, and “requires that same leap of faith that religion does.” When information sources such as the media or the internet present people with other religions, lifestyles, and ways of being, she theorizes, some feel threatened. Often, she notes, it’s because they don’t have actual real-life exposure to “other races, other traditions, other religions.” Biltoft said groups that feel left behind in changing societies and culture look for certainties. “They reach for principles and propositions that help them feel good about what their life is, and who they are, and what they desire. It has a lot to do with the beliefs that we reach for, religious or otherwise.” https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/scams-fraud-credulity-1.6816036 
  • From Fraud and the Online Occult Community, Storm Faerywolf, The Wild Hunt, 2021: Back when the internet was but a wee young thing, we actually thought this would improve all of our lives. It was a simpler time. As algorithms began to evolve, our social media news feeds became increasingly disconnected and insular, giving rise to the cultural phenomenon of digital “bubbles.” While spam and phishing harm the majority of internet users today, there is another problem that has recently crept into the occult corners of the internet, and one that is causing some very big problems for our teachers, artists, and content creators. I am talking about the rising number of attacks from clones, a type of scam account that duplicates the social media account of a legitimate content creator with the intention of tricking that creator’s followers into providing money or information. Often a scam account will duplicate the photos and written content from an authentic account and then send messages to their followers promising readings or other services. As soon as the unsuspecting victim pays, the account blocks them, and the legitimate occultist is then blamed for perpetuating a scam. This is a serious problem that potentially cheats people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year and undermines the trust in legitimate occultists and creators. 
  • Services like Twitter and Instagram offer solutions for dealing with scam accounts, but often these prove to be little more than useless as offending accounts are left up for days, weeks, or even months. Often the spammer returns with a new username shortly thereafter. Scam accounts often look like the real deal. Much of this confusion could be avoided if platforms simply provided their users with easier ways to validate or verify their accounts, thus ensuring that users can easily see whether or not they are dealing with a legitimate company, service, brand, or content creator. For example, as someone who uses a name in public that differs from my legal one, I am often left unable to participate in platforms’ verification programs, even as someone with more than twenty years of verifiable internet history and multiple books in publication. Not only is this process frustrating, but it has also given rise to another type of scam. Four months ago, I was approached by someone on Instagram claiming to work for their “verification and traffic department,” who offered to help me through their mysterious process and get my account one of the coveted blue checkmarks. I knew full well that this was a scam – Instagram’s validation process has been widely reported as being mysteriously opaque and difficult, and the account that contacted me did not even have a checkmark of its own. They proceeded to tell me that, for just $300, they could ensure my account could finally be verified. I eventually got bored and stopped responding to them. I did, however, report them to Instagram. Several times. Over the course of months. And nothing ever happened. If Instagram continues to ignore the problem, then the line between the scammer and the platform will be rendered virtually non-existent.
  • From Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction, Jean & John Comaroff, American Ethnologist, 2008: As South Africa casts off its pariah status and seeks ever greater integration with world markets, long-range transaction, the almost instantaneous flow of signs and styles and commodities across the earth—is discernible all around; it is legible in logos on T-shirts and song lyrics, in sitcoms and street-smart television series, in mass-mediated advertisements. The most fabulous narratives in the country were about Satanism, held in the Northwest, where it became a popular fixation in the mid-1990s, believed to be the most robust, most global of all occult enterprises. Less a matter of awesome ritual than of mundane human greed, dabbling in the diabolical was said to be especially captivating to the young. In 1996, when a Setswana TV network broadcast two programs on the subject, the “reformed” ex-Satanists featured, along with their “spiritual counselor,” were juveniles. As they took calls from the public, they told (in flat, prosaic terms) of the power of the black arts—among them, an ability to travel great distances at miraculous speed to garner great riches at will. Satanists, significantly, were said predominantly to be youthful. “It is we,” offered another young ex-practitioner, “who really go for material things. We love the power of speeding around in fast cars.” The devil’s disciples were rumored to travel far and wide, fueling their accumulation of riches and blood. 
  • Talk in the public sphere about violence—in official commissions and the press, on television talk shows and in “people’s” courts, in artistic representation and radio debate—expresses a pent up want for the things that apartheid denied, from iconic objects (notably, the BMW) and an omnivorous sexuality unbound by Calvinist stricture, to extravagant self-fashionings and the flamboyant sense of independence communicated by the cell phone. But it also evokes a world in which ends far outstrip means, in which the will to consume is not matched by the opportunity to earn, in which there is a high velocity of exchange and a relatively low volume of production. And yet, we repeat, it is a world in which the possibility of rapid enrichment, of amassing a fortune by largely invisible methods, is always palpably present. Highlynew Protestant denominations rumored to issue charmed credit cards that register no debt promise instant goods and gratification to those who embrace Christ and denounce Satan; but, as the local pastor put it, believers have also to “make their faith practical” by publicly “sacrificing” as much cash as they can to the movement. Here Pentecostalism meets neoliberal enterprise: the chapel is, literally, a storefront in a shopping precinct. It holds services for all manner of passersby during business hours, appealing frankly to mercenary motives, mostly among the young. Bold color advertisements for BMWs and lottery winnings adorn the altar, under the legend: “Delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” 
  • From Children of Lucifer, Ruben Van Luijk, 2016: Pact legends, as stories of this type are commonly called, remain hugely popular in Western Europe. In all these renderings, the basic theme remained the same: a man or a woman taking recourse to demonic magic ends up selling his or her soul to Satan, who in due course appears to exact his Price. In 1679, while being interrogated in the royal prison, Martine Bergerot, “one of the most famous palmists of Paris,” declared that she had been approached by a woman to ask if she would be interested in making her fortune by selling herself to Satan; in return, she would receive the ability “to bring death or harm on anyone she liked,” as well as the power to fulfill the requests listed in the pact of “several persons of quality.” After the Affair of the Poisons, the French king issued a royal edict restricting every person pretending to be a diviner, magician, or sorcerer. These persons were to be banished; in the case of flagrant sacrilege of the Christian religion, death sentences were to be meted out.  It was in the context of enforcing this decree that the one County reported in 1702 to urge immediate action against the guild of “false sorcerers” among the throngs of fortune-tellers, matchmakers, palm readers, treasure seekers, and people who sold waters to restore lost virginities, among whose number were  at least ten persons who occupied themselves commercially with furnishing “pacts with the devil.” We read about a gentleman who ruined himself [financially] in fruitless attempts to seal a pact with the infernal powers, and of an old maid who tried to interest Satan in a pact with her for ten or twelve years but did not succeed. Often, sacrifices have to be made and complicated operations are required; in this limbo where people desperately entreat diabolical favor, fraud seems to have developed, with mediums and magicians claiming to know the secret of obtaining Satan’s signature. This underworld of small-time crooks closely resembles the underground occult circuit that had been brought to light during the Affair of the Poisons. There is no reason to doubt that there was indeed a group of people active in the French capital that sought to make money by negotiating “pacts with the spirits.” We must remain wary of the sweeping terminology of the times, yet throughout his long mémoire, we encounter more or less unambiguous descriptions of people who want to give themselves to the devil “body and soul.”
  • From The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan, 1995: Following a 1986 motorcycle accident, Jose Alvarez, then 17 years old, suffered a mild concussion. After he recovered, those who knew him could tell that he had changed. A very different voice sometimes emanated from him. Psychiatrists discovered that Jose was channeling an entity known as Carlos, a two-thousand-year-old spirit disincarnate who last invaded a human body in 1900. When Alvarez goes into his trance, the spirit of Carlos, focused by a large and rare crystal, enters him and utters the wisdom of the ages. Alvarez and his manager arrived in Sydney first class and travelled everywhere in an enormous white stretch limousine. They occupied the Presidential Suite of one of the city’s most prestigious hotels. Alvarez was attired in an elegant white gown with a golden medallion. In his first press conference, Carlos quickly emerged. The entity was forceful, literate, commanding. Australian television programmes quickly lined up for appearances by Alvarez. On Australia’s Today Show, host George Negus posed a few reasonable and sceptical questions and Carlos laid a curse on the anchorman. It was a sensation in the tabloid press. One Sydney citizen advised taking the curse on Negus very seriously: “The army of Satan had already assumed control of the United Nations, he said, and Australia might be next.” Carlos’s next appearance was on the Australian version of A Current Affair. Interviewed afterwards, many members of the audience described how they had been moved and delighted. But the following Sunday, Australia’s most popular TV programme – named Sixty Minutes after its American counterpart – revealed that the Carlos affair was a hoax: The producers had thought it would be instructive to explore how easily a faith-healer or guru could be created to bamboozle the public and the media, so they contacted magician James Randi. As he was thinking the scam through, his eye fell upon Alvarez, a young performance sculptor who was Randi’s tenant. The Carlos personality was Alvarez’ invention. The substantiating documentation had all been faked. The curse and all the rest were rehearsed. [Despite this], several attendees of the channeling at the Sydney Opera House were incensed after the Sixty Minutes expose: ‘Never mind what they say,’ they told Alvarez, ‘we believe in you.’”
  • From OCCULT INTERNET FRAUD AND GHANAIAN IDENTIFY, Alice Armstrong, University College London, 2011: ‘Sakawa’ hit Ghanaian headlines in 2007, prompting a nationwide epidemic of rumours which continue today. These rumours accuse young men of manipulating evil occult powers to perform successful internet fraud. In order to gain powers ‘Sakawa boys’ are said to perform socially rituals ranging from sleeping in coffins to committing cannibalism. These rituals endow Sakawa boys with the power to possess the mind of the foreign fraud victim to extract quick and easy money. Supernatural manipulation of the Internet has continuities with longstanding West African cultural archetypes surrounding occult power and wealth that is gained at the expense of others. However with Sakawa this expense is not just paid by family or friends; instead, misfortune is inflicted on the entire nation. A wide range of Ghanaians condemn Sakawa as “not Ghanaian” behaviour, which raises fears for Ghana’s national identity and international reputation. Sakawa is predominately rumoured to be the practice of young men aged 16-30 who gain their powers by joining secret and sinister Sakawa cults. Ghanaian’s definitions of Sakawa are flexible, involving ‘witchcraft, ‘blood money,” juju, or ‘magic’ and most commonly, a combination of them all. Power can be from magic rings, handkerchiefs or enchanted laptops. Sakawa is one form of a wide complex of Ghanaian occult beliefs, and although Sakawa rumours are contemporary, they are not a completely new phenomenon. Although the internet is somewhat emblematic of ‘modernity’ this discussion will be wary of treating Sakawa solely as a reaction to contemporary capitalism. Such an approach can potentially reduce complex witchcraft beliefs to a ‘snap shot’ clash between traditional and modern.
  • Pastors promote their responsibility to halt the Sakawa “epidemic” via prayer as well as by educating the youth about the dangers yet positive uses of the internet. The Church is a massive social and political force in Ghana: Many have travelling pastors, websites and newspapers are simultaneously part of a local and global Pentecostal community (Meyer 2002:68). Like nationalism, African Christianity was predicted to eventually decline as an alien colonial relic, yet since the 1970’s there has been a Pentecostal ‘second wave’ and many have noted the intimate contemporary Ghanaian relationship between Christianity and nationalism. A Christian condemnation of Sakawa further inserts it into a national discourse where ‘not Christian behaviour’ and ‘not Ghanaian behaviour’ can become synonymous. Sakawa is one of many contemporary ambivalences which are negotiated by the Church on a national scale/ “We, as a nation, must continually praise God for His abundant blessings, and well-meaning believers must be concerned about the total breakdown of our social fabric. such as Sakawa… armed robbery, bribery, just to mention a few” [one minister wrote in 2009].  This dichotomy and its diabolisation of ‘traditional beliefs’ such as witchcraft is often cited as a reason for Ghanaian Pentecostalism’s popularity, describing African witchcraft as a force which needs “containing”, a role which Pentecostalism’s can provide. Witchcraft concerns often involve ambiguities surrounding consumption with ‘satanic money’; the problem is not money itself but the means of its acquisition, which must be moral and Christian. Within the big business of West African churches pastors are often powerful and wealthy and are therefore vulnerable to witchcraft accusations themselves. The Church is therefore not just a condemner but a part of Sakawa rumours. By maintaining Sakawa rumours and inserting them into a good/evil dichotomy, the Church reinforces a Christian and often ‘Ghanaian’ community. During church services the congregation would often be instructed to pray for their health, their nation, the youth and the demise of Sakawa: “Let us rid our society of these evil practices such as Sakawa, rid the devil from our lives and open our hearts to god!” https://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/sites/anthropology/files/082011.pdf 

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