Watched an interesting documentary on Youtube last night, titled "seduced and blackmailed"
( in English with occasional English subtitles )

It tells the tale of Ernani who claimed to have visions from God and collected money from his followers.
They signed over all their possessions so he could build the kingdom of God and worked for free on his estate in Italy.

Meanwhile, he hobnobbed with wealthy people & the wife drove a brand.new Mercedes.

Then he convinced some female followers that his body fluids could heal them,so they had sex with him.

Sound familiar?
Those crooks all work in a similar pattern.

One of Ernani's underlings also hit on lonely, wealthy women and extracted millions of Euros from them by claimimg to "love" them, including BMW heiress Susanne Klatten who handed over 7 million.

It's a cautionary tale - don't to fall for fake religious messiahs - and I highly recommend it.

Why do you think so many women fall prey to obvious frauds?

honklermaga Wrote:
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> Why do you think so many women fall prey to
> obvious frauds?

So far as I am aware, men "fall prey to obvious frauds" in at least roughly equal percentages to women falling prey.

My impression is that this is true of the LDS church, and Scientology, and pyramid schemes, and treasure locating schemes, and real estate frauds, and stock purchase "insider" schemes, and affinity frauds of all kinds.

Why are you singling out women?

It pains me to say this, but I am not convinced women and men are equally susceptible.

There are multiple sources that show women are more religious than men. There are multiple reasons proposed for this (none singularly proven), but these same reasons carry over to being susceptible to other frauds. (Unfounded claims of religion that are accepted by authority work the same way as many fraudulent schemes.)

For example, women may not be as educated and there are other nature and nurture hypotheses.

I hope to be convinced that women and men fall for this equally in the future. Until I see them both questioning religion in the same proportions I remain skeptical.

There are more current references, but this article summarizes potential factors to consider.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-secular-life/201409/why-are-women-more-religious-men

The crazier something sounds, the more likely it is to be believed. That’s the secret to Mormonism’s success. Mainstreaming won’t work.

Yup !

There are a lot of lonely people out there who are vulnerable to scam artists. When I first joined LDS I wanted so much to belong and be accepted I would have turned over more than 10% if the Bishop had asked me to. :(

It is a hard cruel world with many people seeing others as prey.

Good post OP and good reminder.

Odds are, those women were educated by our public school system.

How is it that in 12 years of study, students don't learn how to identify a fraud? If so, the school system is a fraud.

Or they did learn that, and didn't care, in which case, my sympathy is limited, and they apparently got the good feelings they wanted.

And students in private schools ARE able to identify fraud ? The problem with public schools is that they are forced to educate your dimwitted children who refuse to learn and are only there to cause disruption.

I believe Free Man was for a long time a Mormon, so his ability to detect fraud appears comparable to that of Ernani's acolytes.

My wife always, more or less, believes the last person in the room. She also has a severe case of "man-on-the-street syndrome." Man-on-the-street says, "Your husband is doing whatever it is he's doing wrong. You need to do it like this." She comes to me and says, "Well, man-on-the-street says we need to do it like this." I ask, "Who is this man-on-the-street, exactly? Do you know him?" She says, "No, I don't know him, but he says you're doing it wrong." "How long have we been married?" I ask. "Almost 50 years." "So, after almost 50 years of marriage, man-on-the-street is the one you trust over me?"

Anyway, you get the drift. She has been hoodwinked more times than I care to tell. She's very religious, and open to all these frauds.

The next best thing is a guy who has no superpowers, but is able to convince people that he has superpowers. Meet Joseph Smith, Jr. and just about every cheesy cult leader in history.

It's the bigness and boldness of the lies that catch people off guard. "Surely he wouldn't lie about something as huge as this!"

I guess their ability to brazenly lie, lie and lie again with a straight face and a voice of authoritative confidence may qualify as a kind of superpower relative to ordinary guys who just can't tell convincing lies at that level.

Douglas Adams:

"The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks.

How often have you been presented with an apparently rational explanation of something that works in all respects other than one, which is just that it is hopelessly improbable? Your instinct is to say 'Yes, but he or she simply wouldn't do that."

He goes on to say when something is improbable, it goes against what you do know. Impossible means you just don't know.

All the cult leaders seem to want power, money and sex. We know about that. They knew about that in the 1800's.

My view of a superior being wouldn't go around saying stupid things. It is all too improbable.