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I got solicited by scientology

hgc said:
I think if you are falling for Scientology in 2015, you're not so much dumb (necessarily; you might be anyway) as you are profoundly uninformed, lacking all curiosity about world around you and unfamiliar with this newfangled thing called the Internet.

They haven't attracted much in the way of new members from English speaking countries in the last 10 years. Their new incoming are mostly children of Scientologists and desperately uninformed poor saps from Eastern Europe.
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Correct.
They've had to turn to scamming people in third world countries who's grasp of the English language is lacking.

Latest estimates are that there are only about five thousand of them *worldwide*, despite Miscavige's wild lies about there being many millions.

The only "millions" in this horrible cult are the tax exempt dollars they are investing into empty buildings in order to keep their U.S. Tax Exempt status.
 
Why do Nigerian 419 scammers keep doing what they do? Only an idiot would fall for one of those, right? That means that no-one's falling for it, so why do they keep doing it?
 
arthwollipot said:
Why do Nigerian 419 scammers keep doing what they do? Only an idiot would fall for one of those, right? That means that no-one's falling for it, so why do they keep doing it?
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Oh. Oh. Even I can answer that one. The reach of the 419ers, 2.9-million Internet users. Number of people approached by $cientology pushers, 2.9 per Dianetics Centre (or whatever they are called now) per day.

I'll leave the calculations as an exercise for any non-dummies present. :w2:
 
arthwollipot said:
Why do Nigerian 419 scammers keep doing what they do? Only an idiot would fall for one of those, right? That means that no-one's falling for it, so why do they keep doing it?
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Simple answer?
For every 50 million poorly written emails, one dumbass will fall for it.
Ker-Ching.
And, the Nigerian Prince scammers are as dumb at hiding their scam as Scientology is.

Throw a lot of poo at the herd, there will always be one dumbass who thinks its caviar.
 
ComfySlippers said:
Simple answer?
For every 50 million poorly written emails, one dumbass will fall for it.
Ker-Ching.
And, the Nigerian Prince scammers are as dumb at hiding their scam as Scientology is.

Throw a lot of poo at the herd, there will always be one dumbass who thinks its caviar.
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Then why is it that you think no-one is dumb enough to fall for Scientology?
 
ComfySlippers said:
Ok, I'll rephrase.
One person in 50 million will be a sucker.
That's life. They're incredibly dumb but so be it.
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Okay. They may be dumb (though probably not) but they undeniably do exist.

It's hard to get reliable statistics out of the church, but from what I've heard, their takeup rate has slowed, but certainly hasn't dropped to zero.
 
arthwollipot said:
Then why is it that you think no-one is dumb enough to fall for Scientology?
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Actually I think his original claim was that, in 2015, if you fall for scientology you are dumb.

The counter claim was that people who arent dumb fall for scientology.

I agree with the former, and chuckle at the latter.
 
devnull said:
Actually I think his original claim was that, in 2015, if you fall for scientology you are dumb.

The counter claim was that people who arent dumb fall for scientology.

I agree with the former, and chuckle at the latter.
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Fair enough. Nit picked.

But unless you've looked into their methods, you might be surprised at how easy it is for smart people to fall for apparently dumb scams.
 
arthwollipot said:
Fair enough. Nit picked.



But unless you've looked into their methods, you might be surprised at how easy it is for smart people to fall for apparently dumb scams.
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I'm sensing naivety here.
Their "methods", despite hiding them at all costs, have been public knowledge since the early '80s.

Swap "smart" for "dentist" or "chiropractor ".
 
The pigeon drop has been exposed everywhere, including international blockbuster movies. Smart people still fall for it.

Scams are designed to appeal to traits other than intelligence, like greed, emotional needs or a perceived spiritual void.

Of course it's very easy to say all victims are dumb, but smart people do dumb things all the time.

I have read too much about woo to naively believe only dumb people fall for ********.

There are thousands of well educated nurses who believe in reiki, homeopathy, chiropractics, full moon effects, etc.

Many doctors believe in Jeebus as a saviour of souls.

Micheal Shermer initially fell for a 419 scam, sending them a serious reply before coming to his senses.

I don't have the type of arrogance it takes to believe I'd never fall for a scam.
 
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If a scammer ever learns to spell or invents something that anyone over the age of four would fall for, I'll remove my hat of arrogance.

This thread is about Scientology though.
I maintain my position, if you fall for it in 2015 you are a dumbass.
 
Maurice Ledifficile said:
The pigeon drop has been exposed everywhere, including international blockbuster movies. Smart people still fall for it.

Scams are designed to appeal to traits other than intelligence, like greed, emotional needs or a perceived spiritual void.

Of course it's very easy to say all victims are dumb, but smart people do dumb things all the time.

I have read too much about woo to naively believe only dumb people fall for ********.

There are thousands of well educated nurses who believe in reiki, homeopathy, chiropractics, full moon effects, etc.

Many doctors believe in Jeebus as a saviour of souls.

Micheal Shermer initially fell for a 419 scam, sending them a serious reply before coming to his senses.

I don't have the type of arrogance it takes to believe I'd never fall for a scam.
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If you fall for any of these you are "dumb". By definition. QED.
 
When I was a kid (16) I took the personality test, watched a lengthy video, and chatted with an auditor (no cans). A friend and I went there because we were both looking for part-time jobs and knew very little about Scientology but followed a vague ad in the newspaper. At the time I was inclined to believe a lot of nonsense but once they explained that I would be paid based on how much money they made in a particular month with no minimum, it was a hard pass. :)
 
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