I couldn't figure out where to put this, so.....
After seeing the sell off the properties in England, kingdom hall grabs etc. I thought of the JW's that would passively go along with it. I certainly would have. What will happen when they realize all of their donations, wills, loaning of money and property has simply been part of a scam?
I found an article on scammers and how they accomplish fooling people. This is part.
Appeals to trust and authority: people tend to obey authorities so scammers use, and victims fall for, cues that make the offer look like a legitimate one being made by a reliable official institution or established reputable business.
Visceral triggers: scams exploit basic human desires and needs – such as greed, fear, avoidance of physical pain, or the desire to be liked – in order to provoke intuitive reactions and reduce the motivation of people to process the content of the scam message deeply.
Scarcity cues. Scams are often personalised to create the impression that the offer is unique to the recipient.
Induction of behavioural commitment. Scammers ask their potential victims to make small steps of compliance to draw them in, and thereby cause victims to feel committed to continue sending money.
The disproportionate relation between the size of the alleged reward and the cost of trying to obtain it. Scam victims are led to focus on the alleged big prize or reward in comparison to the relatively small amount of money they have to send in order to obtain their windfall.
Lack of emotional control. Compared to non-victims, scam victims report being less able to regulate and resist emotions associated with scam offers. They seem to be unduly open to persuasion, or perhaps unduly undiscriminating about who they allow to persuade them.
And here’s a couple of counter-intuitive kickers:
This pretty much sums up the WT and it's practices. Here is the link to the article.https://mindhacks.com/2009/05/17/the-psychology-of-being-scammed/Scam victims often have better than average background knowledge in the area of the scam content. For example, it seems that people with experience of playing legitimate prize draws and lotteries are more likely to fall for a scam in this area than people with less knowledge and experience in this field. This also applies to those with some knowledge of investments. Such knowledge can increase rather than decrease the risk of becoming a victim.
Scam victims report that they put more cognitive effort into analysing scam content than non-victims. This contradicts the intuitive suggestion that people fall victim to scams because they invest too little cognitive energy in investigating their content, and thus overlook potential information that might betray the scam.
Surprisingly (or not) scammers are looking for those who have already been scammed. All those that were unhappy with their religion, look elsewhere and if they find the WT, they are ripe for being scammed again.
“It’s pretty well known in the fraud world that the best list to get is the list of people who have already been taken.”
That might suggest a genetic vulnerability to sweet talk. But it is more likely that the explanation is entirely psychological and rests on a powerful and irrational desire to believe in a special relationship with another person who wants to help you.
Such a desire in most cases is probably rooted in early disappointment. Having faith in someone who lets you down – when you are particularly needy or inexperienced – leads to one of two likely consequences: you become cynical and mistrustful, generalizing from that experience to others, protecting yourself from being hurt again.
Or else you deny that it has happened. That denial can stem from feeling that the person who disappointed you is too important for you to give up, like an inconsistent parent whom you still need to offer protection. So you soft-pedal your hurt, explain it away, or you refuse to remember it, preserving the offender, while also sparing yourself the embarrassment or shame of having been gullible.
Full article https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hidden-motives/201407/how-people-are-scammed-again-and-again
The most vulnerable to the negative affects of finding out you've been scammed, are the older people. Suicide, depression etc.
I guess this is why Catholics didn't leave the church when the pedophile priests were exposed. Why many JW's will be uncomfortable about the sell offs and hall closures, but deny it all has to do with being taken.