I noticed an emphasis on scams in the threads today. This is quite a coincidence as I was just telling my therapist yesterday about the scams my parents were involved in. My parent fell hook, line, and sinker for any health fad, pyramid scam, vacation time-share, campground membership, or chain letter that came along. These varied in degree, but all of them were detrimental to my parents in some way.
Even the campground memberships, which they benefited from after retirement, were done to excess. My parent's campground membership allowed them to travel the country and stay at networked campgrounds for only a few dollars a night. This was a great deal for them, until they stayed at campgrounds outside their original member company. At these places the salesman talked them into investing in that company as well. Some of these were in the middle of the Mohave desert!
I am not sure if my parent's gullibility in falling for these scams is linked to their gullibility about the JW religion, but I suspect it could be.
It is interesting how many JWs, Mormons, Born Again Christians, and other religions fall for these scams.I have even heard people say that these scams are opportunities that have been sent by God. The JWs will tell you that this scam will allow you to pioneer. This is, of course, before the scam inevitably goes sour.
Speaking of sour, Culture Farms was one that stands out most prominently. This scam in the 1980's involved buying hundreds of bar glasses, setting them in a warm room, filling them with milk, and in the contents of activator packets that they purchased for $4000 from the parent company. These activator kits supposedly contained bacteria that was essential to the milk souring process.
After a week or so, the whole house reeked of sour milk. The cheesy top was spooned into an envelope and the rest of the milk was dumped. Then my parents mailed in these cheese envelopes to another company that was supposedly making them into skin lotion at a cosmetics factory. This was supposedly the lost formula that Cleopatra used to stay so young looking. They even made a commercial for the product with Jane Powell (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers).
Shortly after sending these packets in, my parents received a check for about three times the amount they paid for the activator kits. But in the end the deal turned sour, and the whole multi-level pyramid scheme fell apart.
These companies were all tied in to each other. The company that bought the cheese was using the money from the company selling activator kits. New members were sending money in for activator kits and this money was used to pay off the older members sending in cheese. Then the old members would reinvest in more activator kits, sending in the money they earned.
My parents went for this deal like a mouse to cheese. On top of that, they started involving other members of the congregation. I was reluctant and dubious about the whole deal. This was about the time I was having real doubts about the JW teachings too. I still liked the people. I liked them a lot. No matter how I felt about "The Truth" I still had many good feelings about these good people in the congregation. There were a few people I disliked, but mostly I liked the people in this congregation.
About the time my folks made back their investment the rumblings started. News reports about this company began to appear and the attorney general's office was investigating. I talked my parents out of reinvesting, but it wasn't easy. Their public accountant (not certified), who first told them of this deal, had already reinvested. My parents wanted to reinvest right away, but I convinced them that there were too many similarities to Nova's General Store, a multi-level scheme with up-lines, down-lines, and catalogs that they lost money on a few years earlier. If they waited, they could still reinvest later, I advised them, and by then the company's problems with the attorney general's office might be cleared up. I doubted that myself, but it worked. They delayed. Several weeks later the checks stopped coming.
My parents made $8000 on that, the only time they ever actually made any money on one of these scams. Unfortunately, our friends and accountant lost. I felt really badly about that. What a fiasco!
Here are some references to this mess on the Internet:
http://www.fraudsandscams.com/pyramid.htm
http://www.mlmlaw.com/library/cases/mlm/state/ksactivator.htm
I think back now and see the parallels between some of these scams and the weird things my parents believed as JWs. Did all of these things help me see a pattern? Did the pattern lead me to doubt? Did I the escape JW hold because of these things, or in spite of them? I'm glad to be away from all of that, but it sure makes me wonder.
Don't take any wooden nickles.
Tammy