A new level of disgust has been reached by a man posing as an online pastor. Pastor John Carlson made money from 100s of 1000s of people through donations to his “cause.” In return for their donations he prayed for them. He took the hands of the church into his own and is now paying the ultimate price.
His website went by the name ChristianPrayerCenter.com. He used it to portray false testimonials. Included in the testimonials were some far-fetched claims. The testimonials claimed his prayers helped people give birth to healthy babies, win the lottery, cure HIV and avoid home disclosures. Sick right?
John Carlson wasn’t the only Pastor involved in the racket either. Pastor Eric Johnson and other religious leaders were getting their hands dirty as well. People were paying anywhere from $9 to $35 for their “online prayer service.”
Eventually the pay-to-pray service got too big for its britches. Its Facebook page reached over 1 million likes. People blindly posted their prayers and sent money hoping to receive a miracle in return. This is the ultimate crime of preying on people’s burdens. It should have been called preying not praying.
Once the truth was uncovered, people realized the “Pastors” were all fake. The mastermind behind the scheme is Seattle businessman Benjamin Rogovy.
For a whole 4 years between 2011 to 2015, Rogovy took advantage of the disadvantaged. He created a fictitious yet convincing profile on the popular social media platform LinkedIn.
During the 4 year span, he was able to squeeze over $7 million out of the people he tricked. Before the bust, the investigation went on for an entire year. ChristianPrayerCenter.com is now shut down for good. The court has ordered America’s biggest enemy to repay over 165,000 people back a sum of over $7.5 million.
Rogovy also implemented a secondary tactic that tricked people into paying a monthly fee for his false service by offering them “continued blessings.”
The website now portrays a message thanking everyone for their prayers. In reality, it should post a picture of the man behind the racket locked in a cage.
This man is biggest piece of scum to make recent news.
