Tuesday, October 27, 2009

France fines Scientology 600,000€ for fraud

A French court has convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France.
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They should have been banned. Their methods of recruitment are very deceptive and totally unethical..They approach people in the street disguising who they are and ask people to undergo an IQ test or an EQ test for exemple( methods keep changing). Only later they start to distill information about themselves as an organised religion. I've witnessed this phenomenon in France AND in Sydney.

7 comments:

  1. tgia:

    If The Church Of Scientology is committing crimes, then the guilty people should be punished. But banning an idea doesn't work, even a dumb idea like L Ron Hubbard having some great wisdom. People have got to be a little smarter. Don't take any e.q. tests from people who come up to you on the street. It's a very simple principle.

    Are they really any more deceptive or manipulative than any other religion or cult? How about telling a five year old kid they will go to Hell if they are bad-and God is watching all the time? I think that's worse than taking money for indulging some self absorbed sucker. But banning either would be useless. It would only allow the government to decide which religions-or ideas-are legitamite, and to persecute people who hold unpopular opinions.

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  2. <span>Don't take any e.q. tests from people who come up to you on the street.</span>
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    They prey on the unsuspecting, the innocent and the vulnerable. At least with the church or others like the Jehovah witnesses etc. one can see them coming. Not with those shits. They hide who they are. Last time I saw them in Sydney they had a stall in a very busy area. Nothing was indicating what they were about. They were asking people if they wanted to undergo a test of sorts. I immediately smelled a rat because it was the same method they used in Paris and of which I was made aware of. I bluntly asked if they were the Church of Scientology but the guy who was caught unguarded muttered something which didn't make sense but I insisted until he confessed. I asked him why don't you say so before hand why do they use deceptive methods. He told me to wait a second and he went to talk to another guy, obviously his "superior" who came to give a helping hand and tried to bullshit me. I'll pass you the details but I told him what I thought of them. Such things shouldn't be allowed because not everyone is aware. Kids get caught in the system. My young sister in London did and found herself involved in very costly scheme, having to pay for courses and books. She only escaped when it became clear to her what the whole thing was about.

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  3. <span><span>Don't take any e.q. tests from people who come up to you on the street.</span>  
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    They prey on the unsuspecting, the innocent and the vulnerable. At least with the church or others like the Jehovah witnesses etc. one can see them coming. Not with those shits. They hide who they are. Last time I saw them in Sydney they had a stall in a very busy area. Nothing was indicating what they were about. They were asking people if they wanted to undergo a test of sorts. I immediately smelled a rat because it was the same method they used in Paris and of which I was made aware of. I bluntly asked if they were the Church of Scientology but the guy who was caught unguarded muttered something which didn't make sense but I insisted until he confessed. I asked him why don't you say so before hand why do they use deceptive methods. He told me to wait a second and he went to talk to another guy, obviously his "superior" who came to give a helping hand and tried to bullshit me. I'll pass you the details but I told him what I thought of them. Such things shouldn't be allowed because not everyone is aware. Kids get caught in the system. My young sister in London did and found herself involved in very costly scheme, having to pay for courses and books. She only escaped when it became clear to her what the whole thing was about. Even her escape wasn't all that easy. She was harassed and they didn't take no for an answer for quite a while. Phone calls, letters etc. She described them to me as disingeneous, liars and unscrupulous scammers.
    </span>

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  4. tgia:

    I'm sorry to hear about your sister. I know people who were taken in by different groups-and there are a lot of them:est, unification church, a sect of Buddhism where you chant...and that's not counting the conventional religions that take advantage of people at their most vulnerable times. But how can you write a law that will not outlaw all religions? And how can it be enforced? If someone is an out and out thief, lock them up. But for everything else, more information is the answer.

    By the way, my uncle and my cousin spent a lot of money on est seminars when they were going through a hard time. And I have been approached by too many cults over the years. I just keep walking. That's why God invented the mp3 player.

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  5. I do believe Scientology is far worse than other religions and should more appropriately be labeled a cult. It does not have official recognition in the U.K. or France as a religion--I think in Germany also--and for good reason.

    Scientology really does run its affair in a vastly different way from any other church. I'm not talking about beliefs here because if you really look at them, every religious belief system is pure lunacy, but at the way they recruit, indoctrinate, and terrorize their own adherents. People who have left Scientology, especially those who criticize it afterward, are hounded and threatened by the cult's followers.Its leaders refuse to answer any questions openly or come clean with the press about anything.

    Check out this BBC documentary about what happens to an intrepid British reporter who tries to get at the truth about Scientology. It's frightening:

    http://www.videosift.com/video/Panorama-Scientology-and-Me

    ReplyDelete
  6. I do believe Scientology is far worse than other religions and should more appropriately be labeled a cult. It does not have official recognition in the U.K. or France as a religion--I think in Germany also--and for good reason.

    Scientology really does run its affair in a vastly different way from any other church. I'm not talking about beliefs here because if you really look at them, every religious belief system is pure lunacy, but at the way they recruit, indoctrinate, and terrorize their own adherents. People who have left Scientology, especially those who criticize it afterward, are hounded and threatened by the cult's followers.Its leaders refuse to answer any questions openly or come clean with the press about anything.

    Check out this BBC documentary about what happens to an intrepid British reporter who tries to get at the truth about Scientology. It's frightening:

    http://www.videosift.com/video/Panorama-Scientology-and-Me

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Opossum for the link..And you're right about the "church" of Scientology..It's a cult and it's modus operandi is highly questionable..In France they're seen with suspicion everywhere but not In Australia..People just don't care. If Tom Cuise and Travolta are part of it that it can't be all that bad..

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