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From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: And You Thought 900 Was a Ripoff!
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Date: 4 Sep 90 03:10:37 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 617, Message 1 of 10


While conversing with someone the other day about profitable 900
services, we tried to decide which would make more money for the
proprietor of such a service: sex or religion. Both would pay, but
which would be more profitable? We left it as a toss up.

And now comes a report from the {Weekly World News}, July 31, 1990,
which leads me to believe religion would be a far more profitable type
of 900 service. Here is the report from WWN:


"Suckers Fork Over Big $$ to Talk to God on the Phone!"

By Scotty Paul


Desperate, downtrodden believers were easy prey for three coldhearted
con artists who bilked them out of their life savings -- by pretending
to have a direct phone line to God.

But instead of talking to the Almighty, the gullible old fools were
chitchatting with a bearded wino in a rundown flat in the ghetto of
Naples, Italy.

[Moderator's Note: Bearded wino in a rundown flat? Sounds like a few
900-Service phone rooms in Chicago!  PAT]

"Those poor people were lonely with nothing much to live for except a
glimpse into the hereafter," said Police Inspector Guiseppi Nonno.

"They were convinced they were talking to God and paid big money to do
it."

The sleazy swindle was set up by two ex-convicts, Antonio Meli and
Mario Locatelli, according to Inspector Nonno.

"They charged 50,000 lire ($40 USA) for the first minute, and 25,000
lire for each additional minute thereafter," he added. "Some of the
victims gave these bums everything they had."

Heartless hucksters Meli and Locatelli showed no remorse as they were
convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to six years in prison. 

They admitted forming a weird religious cult and persuading naive,
trusting souls to join. "And then the two creeps squeezed them dry.
Three believers even mortgaged their homes," said Inspector Nonno.

The greedy gurus opened their hotline to God soon after an elderly
woman came into their headquarters pleading for spiritual guidance. 

"She was afraid the Devil had taken over her soul. She wanted to drive
him away and get right with God again," said Meli at his trial. 

Another pitiful old man sought sanctuary in the cult because he was
lonely. "There was really nothing going on in his life ... nothing to
live for," said Meli. "He wanted to talk to God about heaven."

"We told them we could arrange for them to talk to God directly," Meli
testified. "They fell for it hook, line and sinker."

Playing God was alcoholic Roberto Scalfari, a well-educated man who
had once been a college professor, but had slipped to skid row.

"We gave him a piece of the action and he was a very, very convincing
God," said Meli. "When the word spread, people were lining up to use
our heavenly line. We could not make the calls fast enough."

Scalfari died of liver failure before he could be brought to trial for
his part in the crime. 

                         ----------------------

And you thought 900 Service was a ripoff!


PT