Last night I was flipping through the channels, and I caught an infomercial in which Peter Popoff, a multi-generational scam artist, proclaimed that he wanted to give everyone his “Miracle Spring Water”. This immediately grabbed my attention, and I really had no choice but to watch, and let my rage grow.

During the infomercial, clips of him running his scam to large groups of mostly-obese people in some kind of southern convention hall were shown. He would walk up to people who were obviously pre-screened, state their problems, and then put his hand on their head, and scream some random catch phrase. Then a few seconds, or a few minutes later the person would show or just tell peter that he or she was cured. Among the things peter has cured are:

• Cancer
• Blindness
• Deafness
• Bad Lungs / Asthma
• Crippled Legs
• Any Disability that stems from old age
• Probably Everything except aids

In addition to the brainwashing footage, peter and his wife also read through poorly written, cracked-out letters from people who were apparently cured of all their problems, except for the one that prevents them from writing a decent letter. A few can be found at peter’s website. Here’s one for starters:

[quote]I laid my hands on yours through the television. You looked right in my eyes and began to tell the financial burden that was depressing me and making me sick to go in the name of Jesus and I felt it leave. You also said I would receive money with the next four days. Well Praise God! Three days later I received enough money to make a house payment. Thank you so much for letting God use you!
–Sister B. Bowen, Constantine, MI[/quote]

It’s no secret that those who aren’t confident in their selves tend to sacrifice their lives to other causes, and that’s just fine. If they feel going to church is going to improve their self esteem, that’s great. However, what peter popoff is doing is complete exploitation. He is using lies to manipulate these people into lining his pockets.

This isn’t even the first time peter popoff has been involved in this racket. During the 80s, Peter did the exact same stuff, and his plans were foiled by a guy named James Randi who did an expose on popoff which aired on the tonight show. In the expose, James proved that his wife was relaying interview data via a radio to him for use in his faith healing stunts. Less than a year after the expose, Peter was forced into bankruptcy.

Peter Popoff needs to be stopped. This asshole should not be as rich as he is, and I won’t be happy until he is publicly humiliated, again.