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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
 Posted - 11/18/2002 : 10:52:23
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“I'm no psychic, but I can foresee this: if you make deceptive claims, there is an FTC action in your future.” Howard Beales, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Protection Bureau, on an agreement whereby Miss Cleo's psychic hot line had to cancel $500 million in customer bills to settle federal charges of fleecing callers
The response I have to this is dancing in the street.
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 11/18/2002 : 15:22:25 [Permalink]
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I, for one (and I might be alone here), miss Miss Cleo. In a world filled with charlatans, she at least showed a little acting talent, provided a little amusment. Ah well.
Now if they could bust Edward, Geller, Browne and the rest of the psyhic grifters, there would be room for the up-and-coming talent to rip off the foolish (the foolish will certainly be ripped off, one way or another). It'd be good to see some fresh faces.
I find it curious that so many otherwise sane and stable people readly believe their nonsense. But then, lots of otherwise stable and sober folks dote upon the words of Jerry Falwell, et al. I wonder if gullibility is a genetic trait?
f |
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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ChuckV
New Member
USA
6 Posts |
Posted - 11/18/2002 : 17:35:31 [Permalink]
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Even though she had more acting talent, she and Access Resource Services fleeced people out of far more money then the other three. Looking at the figure of $500 million of charges they are not collecting on, how much have they received? Does anyone know if Edward, Geller, Browne et al are anywhere near $100 million?
CV |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/18/2002 : 19:59:13 [Permalink]
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quote:
Even though she had more acting talent, she and Access Resource Services fleeced people out of far more money then the other three. Looking at the figure of $500 million of charges they are not collecting on, how much have they received? Does anyone know if Edward, Geller, Browne et al are anywhere near $100 million?
CV
Hi Chuck. Welcome to SFN!
True enough and I dunno. However, the gullible will always find a way to get fleeced. Witness the various, state lotteries. Grifters like Miss Cleo come and go (remember Psychic Friends?); the foolish and impulsive remain to be preyed upon by the likes of Access Resource Services. The difference between they and solo performers like Edward is merely one of degree. I'm sure that Edward, et al, are kicking them selves for missing out on 'Miss Cleo's' gold mine.
The point is that the quacks are merely the results of the presence of the easily flim-flammed. Predators always hunt the easiest prey.
When the prey wises up and no longer feed dollars to these scumbags, the predators will will find themselves looking for employment. Wising up would also put a lot of preachers on the sidelines. Will this ever happen? Unlikely.
So, with the appetite of a ghoul, I look forward to the next crop of scoundrels.
f
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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ChuckV
New Member
USA
6 Posts |
Posted - 11/19/2002 : 08:47:21 [Permalink]
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Thanks for the welcome. I've been reading for a few weeks now and I like it here.
I understand that in our evolution looking for patterns was useful, but I'm surprised that we haven't developed better filtering capability to reject all the bogus information. The natural world is full of deceit (camouflage, mimics, baiting, etc.) - along with our culture. It seems that picking out liars would be an important skill. Well, I guess we've done OK even as gullible as we are.
CV |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 11/19/2002 : 09:09:33 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
quote:
Even though she had more acting talent, she and Access Resource Services fleeced people out of far more money then the other three. Looking at the figure of $500 million of charges they are not collecting on, how much have they received? Does anyone know if Edward, Geller, Browne et al are anywhere near $100 million?
CV
Hi Chuck. Welcome to SFN!
True enough and I dunno. However, the gullible will always find a way to get fleeced. Witness the various, state lotteries. Grifters like Miss Cleo come and go (remember Psychic Friends?); the foolish and impulsive remain to be preyed upon by the likes of Access Resource Services. The difference between they and solo performers like Edward is merely one of degree. I'm sure that Edward, et al, are kicking them selves for missing out on 'Miss Cleo's' gold mine.
The point is that the quacks are merely the results of the presence of the easily flim-flammed. Predators always hunt the easiest prey.
When the prey wises up and no longer feed dollars to these scumbags, the predators will will find themselves looking for employment. Wising up would also put a lot of preachers on the sidelines. Will this ever happen? Unlikely.
So, with the appetite of a ghoul, I look forward to the next crop of scoundrels.
f
I just loved it when Psychic Friends went belly up due to "bad investments". If the psychics were as good as they claimed, then why did they have bad investments? The irony was just too funny.
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Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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