Low-income Earners, Mental Health & Gullibility
Source
This morning my mum sent me a link to a video of a prophet from our city confessing to being a fake pastor. Such things generally don't interest me but this was interesting because it's someone we knew personally. He claimed to have killed people and done diabolical things all to garner wealth by attracting people to his church.
I've always thought of him to be a fake prophet so I wasn't really surprised. What has me puzzled is how he says the desire for wealth led him to be a scam prophet. I know his family to an extent and they're not poor, they were privileged to move abroad several years ago and they seem to be doing well.
I believe if things were that rough for this pastor guy, he could have easily left Nigeria to seek a better life abroad since the majority of his family were there already. But he resorted to being a charlatan, a scam artist that preys mostly on the poor and people in need of one breakthrough or the other.
Why Do People Keep Falling For These Scams?
I look at most of these prophets and can immediately tell they're fake and I expect that people can tell too. But no, a vast majority seem to drop every sense of reason. This is mostly the case with low-income earners who seek financial upliftment.
These people do not make enough to meet up their needs and it affects their entire well-being and even lead to mental health issues like depression and anxiety. I came across a study some time ago that says half of the adults living in debt suffer a mental illness such as depression.
It's not far-fetched that such adults would seek help wherever available and be gullible enough to fall for false prophets especially in an overly religious country like mine. I often wonder why a person in lack would continue giving all their money to a so-called prophet like they were brain-washed.
The truth is, these scammers aren't that smart to even brain-wash anyone, they simply take advantage of people that already are in the darkest points of their lives.
Depression and anxiety are major drivers of the gullibility of people which affects their ability to think properly and rationalize situations. If people can find a way to not be affected by the state of their finances to the extent they fall into depressive holes, they would be self-aware enough not to fall for scammers like Mr fake prophet.
This is a very common situation in Nigeria where financial literacy is evidently low, so if people can better handle their finances and not be controlled by it, then we probably will have fewer people being bamboozled.
Discord - wolfofnostreet#4939
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Good thing he confessed to it...
one down, thousands to go..
What's funny is that his confession is the bigger scam. From my investigation, the pastor of the church he made this confession in is no different. They're all in on it and it's just a grand scheme to deceive even more people.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
https://twitter.com/wolfofnostreet_/status/1487532813935075333
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
Yes, desperation will drive people to believe just about everything, and this isn't just financial desperation but also relates to health and relationships. I think of all the people scammed by fake cures for cancer (not to mention the medical industry, but that's another story); people that have gone in debt paying fake mediums to connect them to their dead loved ones. But fake prophets show up in many ways. I think the biggest ones of them all are the politicians who make huge promises while of course failing to deliver upon all of them, all the while harvesting our energy. You're right that once we take charge of our lives—not just in finances, but in all areas—we'll no longer be vulnerable to fake prophets.
In my country I don't think people believe politicians anymore, that'd just be weird because they've proven themselves over and over to be liars. People know they're bad people but they're some who would collect handouts from them when it's election time and sell their votes. They know it's bad but they're in lack too.
It's tiring thinking about it.
Posted using LeoFinance Mobile
Yes, I think it's amazing that anyone still believes politicians! But you're right that for some people, it's difficult to give up these perks—whether these perks are concrete or come in the form of false hope or scapegoating.
It seems we love being in toxic relationships in this part of the world with our jobs, with our God, etc. There is always room to exploit people and people are willing to participate. I think we overestimate the Q.I of the masses. I can say that a lot of people aren't really bright (even with an education), they cannot think for themselves or challenge the status quo.
Hi wolfofnostreet,
Join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Your post right here is nothing far from the truth. If one really connects the dots together, one would realize earning a low pay attracts some form of vulnerability . It is not far fetched that people earning low pay will always look for all these get rich quick schemes that are always on the long run scams. Emancipation from financial and mental slavery is key.