Police are warning about a scam involving bogus spiritual healers who are conning thousands of pounds out of vulnerable people. Posing as holy men, they prey on Britain’s religious Asian community and those facing hardship or health trouble, and falsely promise to solve their problems in return for large sums of money. Look in almost any Asian newspaper or glossy magazine and you will find advert after advert for spiritual healers, or peers.
It’s an industry which is condemned by mainstream religions, including Islam, but is thriving nonetheless. I was contacted more than a year ago by someone, who we’ll call Mohammed, who put his faith in one of these men after seeing an advert in his daily newspaper. He told the BBC: “I had a problem, a family problem, and I saw the advert for Haji Imam. It said he could solve any problem within three days.”
Mohammed, a Glasgow taxi driver, called the number in the advert. The man on the end of the phone said he could help him, and all Mohammed had to do was send some personal items including a lock of hair and a toenail, along with £130 in cash in a jiffy bag and send it recorded delivery to a PO Box.
“But then he said he was having difficulty with my problem and needed more money, another £750,” he said. ”I was desperate to have my problem sorted so I sent it.” And it didn’t end there. Over the next six months, Haji Imam persuaded Mohammed to part with more than £10,000. When he realised he’d been conned, the so-called holy man turned nasty. Mohammed said: “Haji Imam said to me, I know you are a taxi driver, if you don’t stop phoning me I can make accident for you. I was scared.” I tried to find out this Haji Imam was, and managed to trace his PO Box address to Leicester.
Mustafa Malik, spokesperson for the Islamic centre in Leicester, said that bogus spiritual healers were a disgrace to Islam and that it was a widespread problem in Leicester’s Asian community. Mr Malik said: “This is a huge industry, in which these men are conning people, simple people, who find themselves in some sort of difficult situation.”There are some out there who genuinely believe they have healing powers, but they do not charge for it. ”As soon as someone tries to make profit, you can be 100% guaranteed that it is a fraud.”
“I had a problem, a family problem, and I saw the advert for Haji Imam. It said he could solve any problem within three days.”
What is it about this time of year and THREE DAYS….no originality I tells ya!
Why stop at just a lock of hair and a toenail? You could have so much fun with beard shavings and bodily secretions, dandruff, armpit hair, used cotton buds and used tissues, I wouldn’t stop until I’d filled a binbag and then I’d mail it minus the cash and pretend I forgot the crucial bit. Hell, perhaps an obliging hair salon or hospital could provide a bag of offcuts destined for the incinerator!
That would make them think twice!
I hate these guys. I know it’s common for people to pretend they can fix things for you, but it’s really bad to hear that there might be a widespread problem with them making “psychic threats” as well, like causing an accident.
A lock of hair and a toenail, thats disgusting..
I wonder what they do with it..
I know someone who went to a spiritual healer… he told my friend that he had to go to the thames himself and collect water from there.. If he wanted a glass of water, he cud\’ve just asked..
Absurd!
x
One only needs look at the ASA adjudications to see how conmen seem to target ethnic communities. I presume this is because they are likely to have a higher percentage of devoutly religious people, who are seen as easy marks for this kind of scam.
I don’t know, Lafayette. We know that people not part of any ethnic minority group get targetted as well by all kinds of psychics, and the article says there’s a problem with people being afraid or ashamed to come forward. It could be that in certain communities it’s less shameful to come forward and admit what’s happened to you, while in others people are more likely to clam up.
I have a friend who was threatened by someone like this – there was no money involved so I guess it was a power thing. Sometimes, people really suck.
I understand how desperate people can be persuaded/conned in to doing stupid things, but i don’t understand how people simply have £750 lying about to sent to some random person they’ve never met – wouldn’t you at least think twice…?
I think i’m naive as to how people can be so naive…
Well, it depends on what the scammer said to him. I can imgaine a scenario in which the mark’s life improves a little after sending the first amount, if only because he feels better because he feels like he’s doing something positive. If the mark then attributes that to the scammer, then he’ll send more money because he has “proof” that it’s working. The scammer can play on that by asking if things have improved. If they have not, he can talk about something blocking him, like a curse or whatever. If the mark says things have improved a little, he can say that it’s because of his psychic abilities but it’s not working well enough and he needs to push harder and needs the money for whatever. If he throws a suggestion in there that he already knew the answer to his question (“Things have improved a little? Yes, I thought so. I’m putting a lot of energy into it but it’s like a black hole sucking at me, most problems like this are gone in 3 days but yours will need more work”). And because your own problems always seem more intense than other peoples’ do, the mark may be inclined to agree that this is worse than “normal”.
“bogus spiritual healers” as opposed to…?
I’m sorry, could you run that by me again?
“Look in almost any Asian newspaper or glossy magazine”
Or look at half of the free London papers.
I consider this as social Darwinism in action.
ScreamingGreenConure, whereas what you say is true, it doesn’t negate what I’ve said. Even Christian “channels” attract this kind of nonsense. It’s an uncomfortable but genuine strategy – ethnic = religious = gullible. Obviously I’m not saying that there is some racial decider of gullibility, just that many of the ethnic subcultures in the UK tend to use religion as a social focal point.
Also many of the wonder workers that are called up by the ASA are caught out through ASA’s own monitoring, rather than through victims coming forward.
This might sound a bit controversial but, the “scam healers” (an oxymoron?) tricking believers out of money by promising them that their lives will improve. That sounds very similar to the church collection plate being passed around on a Sunday. Religions attract gullible and vulnerable people. Once you get these people believing in things that can never be proved, then it is all too easy to take advantage of them.
sorry I meant toutology not oxymoron, I feel stupid now
I think the church collection plate money usually goes to charity. If churches were passing it round to get people to pay for prayer to cure their cancer then it would be more like this kind of scam.
also find it alarming that any imam or someone apologetic to anything done under the guise of islam, would say this is a stain on the reputation of islam.
doesn\’t the koran say something about it being ok to lie to the unbeliever, remember something about suicide bombers drinking alcohol and shaving their beards to fit in with communities in the west so they can go unnoticed easier, and it being ok because of that clause in the koran saying something alone the lines of \”it\’s ok to lie to the unbelieves since we dont have to tell them the truth when we\’re at war with them\”
so you can\’t really trust the sincerity of anyone saying this casts a cloud over the true meaning of islam, since you can readily find a passage in the koran that allows it.
i believe the same idea could be used behind scams of this sort as well as the welfare leeching that people take advantage of in large portions of europe. all the while spouting that the west is decadent and disgusting, at the same time they\’re sucking the welfare system for free money and sometimes disability checks as well.
religion needs a kick in the butt, or at least we need to wake the hell up and change some rules about when and how you get your welfare checks and for how long.
be etnertained
Lancashire has 2 cons like this who prey on asian women. Samia from burnley and her peer friend azma are doing the same to many. Come down to burnley and see.