UNACCEPTABLE: Surf’s Up Member Claims Prosecutor Will ‘Be Introduced To God Himself’; Calls For God To ‘Avenge’ Bowdoin
UPDATED 10:53 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) In an angry religious rant, a member of the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up Forum claimed that a senior trial attorney in the Department of Justice “is going to be introduced to God Himself!”
The remark was directed at William Cowden, one of the prosecutors in the ASD civil-forfeiture case. The post was titled, “God will Undo This Injustice.”
A poster with the username of “stuart” made the remark. Forum Mods have permitted the inflammatory post to stand. As of this writing, no other forum member has responded to it.
UPDATE: Some Surf’s Up members have responded to the post, rebuking “stuart” for his lack of decorum. “stuart” responded by saying he was just “encourage[ing] those that want to beleive.”
Here is the original post, verbatim (italics added):
Just watched the news about the Steven’s case. It was shown how corrupt these AG”s can be. Cowden has met more than his match. Cowden is going to be introduced to God Himself! Andy said as the Bible states that if God be for us who can be against us! I met Andy at the Miami rally and he shook my hand and looked me in the eyes. ASD is the most honest thing online. Since satan’s attack allowing the goverment to hold 50,000.00 of my own I have battled through every day just to keep the faith. There are thousands of people praying for God to rescue our funds. People we are ASD! The goverment has what doesn’t belong to them. God Almighty will avenge Andy and all of us! I’d rather God avenge us then we trying ourselves. God does a much better job. Look Andy is 75 and with God has not crumbled under all this preasure that should let you know that God is with all of us who beleive. If you don’t beleive then you like the AG are in for a rude awakening. Further more the Holy Spirit was very much felt at that rally in Miami.
…to which I suggest the author read 2 Corinthians 11:14-15
“…for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”
Sound like anyone we know?
I also seem to recall from my early catholic days some teachings regarding worshipping false gods and idols…..
Hi Entertained,
That Surf’s Up post is just plain disturbing, and it’s good to know that it’s being talked about elsewhere.
Given the talk of conspiracy theories and FEMA camps to imprison Americans — sandwiched around odes to Andy Bowdoin — a dangerous pattern is emerging.
Prosecutors saw this very early on, with references to “followers” and Bowdoin as head of a “flock.”
Some of the postings are disturbingly irrational.
Patrick
‘Andy said as the Bible states that if God be for us who can be against us!’
ISn’t this stated in the Koran and not the Bible?
Romans 8:28-31
“I met Andy at the Miami rally and he shook my hand and looked me in the eyes.”
I see this line in every scam….every single one. What these poor fools don’t know is that Andy or has their fingers crossed behind their back when looking them in the eye and shaking their hand. The scammers ain’t playing by the same rules.
One the other hand, I thought that the pious would get their rewards in heaven. Isn’t the love of money the root of all evil? What’s 50k to this guy if God is going to collect his debts in the afterlife? Congress critters go for more than that. He got a bargain! (sorry, only one exclamation point)
It is from the Bible, and you will find this in Romans 8:31.
And invoking the name of God in supporting outright fraud is somehow different than invoking the name of God with regard to acts of terrorism, suicide bombing and ethnic “cleansing” how, exactly ???
It may be just me, but calling down the wrath of God on Attorneys General and law enforcement officials seems diametrically opposite to the philosophies espoused in the Bible.
Maybe this Sunday, the various congregations should focus their attention on the true meaning of Matthew Chapter 21 in the King James Version of the Bible.
“12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves”
Truer words could not have been spoken.
What hit me is at first I was going to say “and all the true believer’s said Amen.” Then I thought can’t say that because Andy’s follower’s think they are the true believer’s. Then I thought I would say, “and all the faithful said Amen.” I realized that could also apply to Andy’s followers. It made me realize we Christian’s have been used by charlatan’s once again giving us all a black eye; and we have to parse our words so as not to be confused with the misguided among us.
To quote from the confession of a conman, “the easiest way to con people is to join a church.” It is why Andy invoked the name of God into his spiel. Since Andy is a Godly man, anyone who is perceived to be attacking him is no better than Satan himself. This is what is so scary about all of this in the unbridled devotion to Andy.
This is pretty horrendous. When I was at school, we were taught that these kind of comments were BLASPHEMY
Alasycia,
When you were in school, you could ask Jesus himself. LOL
I’m kidding… Very little that the folks in La-La Land say surprise me any more. Next it will be aliens and space ships and fire breathing dragons. I wouldn’t be surprised if this post wasn’t done by Andy using a fake name.
Andy is such a con man I don’t believe he is a “man of god” he just found another way of fleesing money out of people. But I still don’t understand why he just didn’t run with all the money, after the Tampa convention.
Maybe Andy got caught up in all the glory and popularity. He actually started believing his own words?
Largely because, surprisingly enough, it’s not just about the money, but also about the power and ego stroking.
Add those factors to the fact virtually none of these HYIP ponzis are solely the work of the “public face” and you can start to understand why and how they get caught, despite being forwarned.
Look back at P.I.P.S, 12DP, CEP and Legisi and you can pick many moments where a “smart” operator could have cut and run with multi millions.
Instead, all the abovementioned scamsters greedily hung in there trying to squeeze out the last extra dollar from their victims.
Despite outward appearances, many, if not most, of these HYIP ponzi operators are amazingly unsophisticated, naive as to the workings of law enforcement and dangerously ego driven.
“Let He Who Is Without Sin…”
The “let he who is without sin, cast the first stone” incident is one of the most well-known lessons of the Bible. A woman, who had been caught in the act of adultery was brought to Jesus Christ by the scribes (see Lawyers) and Pharisees (see Who Were The Pharisees?) as a test to see if the Messiah was a liberal in matters of the Law of God. In response to their deceitful query, He didn’t condemn the woman, not because He was a liberal, not because He condoned her sin, but because the men who brought the woman to Him were Hypocrites. He was the only person there that day who was free of sin, the only one who had the right to “cast the first stone.” He didn’t stone her (or her accusers), but instead forgave her and told her to “sin no more.” Otherwise, the day is coming when she, if she didn’t thereafter repent, won’t be stoned, but will be burned – along with the hypocrites who brought her to Him that day, if they didn’t thereafter repent of their sin:
“Blessed are they that do His Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” (Revelation 22:14-15 KJV)
Hi, Patrick;
You know what strikes me about “stuart’s†post?
I’ve been a Christian of the “born again” variety since 1976 (after being an atheist for the first 30+ years of my life) and I’ve never encountered any Christian who used such evil invective. Never in any circumstance whatsoever.
That causes me to wonder if “stuart” might not just be, in effect, a wolf in sheep’s clothing – someone just using God’s name for his (stuart’s) purposes. In other words, a man who’s a phony – or possibly a deluded – religious zealot.
I was previously aware, in a general sort of way, that some people “use” religion as a tool to achieve their own ends. However, the last several months have brought it into sharp focus.
Since becoming interested in the saga of ASD – and by extension the whole autosurf/Ponzi subculture -I’ve come to a painful understanding. I now have a heightened awareness that not everyone who talks religious talk or invokes the name of God is sincere. To the contrary, I’ve learned that many scammers use religion/God as a cloak to provide themselves with respectability.
Need proof? Below is an extreme example I found by doing a search for the term “scam + God†a few minutes ago. It’s an email message, which I’ve edited a bit, and from which I’ve removed the contact info.
Bottom line: Some people who talk “God talk” are scammers and some may be demented people who need professional help. “stuart” may fall into the latter group.
_______________________________________
From: “JOHNSON MARIA
Reply To: xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: GOD IS THE ULTIMATE GIVER!
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mrs maria johnson
12 Alnwick Road
London, SE12 9BT, U.K.
GOD IS THE ULTIMATE GIVER!
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
I am Mrs. Maria Johnson, A widow to the late Sheik Mohammed Johnson, I am 73 years old, I am now a new Christian convert, suffering from long time cancer of the breast. From all indications my condition is really deteriorating and it’s quite obvious that I won’t live long according to my doctors. This is because the cancer stage has gotten to a very bad stage.
My late husband was killed during the U.S raid against terrorism in Afghanistan when he traveled to Afghanistan to monitor a Hospital/a Humanitarian Foundation (HHF) he was setting up for the benefit of the Afghan masses as of then, whose majority, and 99 percent of them are muslims/islamic scholars and
loyalists.
During the period of our marriage we couldn’t produce any child. My late husband was very wealthy and after his death, I inherited all his businesses and wealth, and when I noticed that my condition is not improving rather it gets worse by the day I decided to divide part of this wealth, to contribute to Charity and the development of the churches in Africa, America, Asia and Europe.
I selected you after visiting the internet and I prayed over it.
I am willing to donate the fund to you for charity, the less priviledged, churches,orphanages and widows, propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained.I took this decision upon myself because I don’t have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not Christians and I don’t want my husband’s hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers.
Because I have come to find out that wealth acquisition without Christ is vanity upon vanity.
Please I want you to note that, this fund is deposited with a Security Firm in London England. and upon my instruction, you will file in an application for the transfer of the fund in your name which i registered as a gold bar with the security company
Lastly, I honestly pray that this money when transferred will be used for the said purpose.
May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you and your family.
Await Your Urgent Reply, any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for a church, another person or christian individual for this same purpose.
Please reply me through this email address:xxxxxxxxxxxx
Yours in Christ.
maria johnson
My Grandfather who was a Rabbi once told me that “God would rather have 10,000 drunks staggering down the street than one man on the Pulpit!”
Hi Pat,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and for posting the letter. Trading on God happens daily in virtually all spheres. I agree that “stuart’s” post is notable for its invective.
This type of thing is only one overt step away from danger, which is why I wrote about it on the Blog. I don’t have a clue if “stuart” is dangerous. But I do know that dangerous people sometimes view these things as a call to action — and later defend their actions by saying they were acting in the name of God.
A year or two ago, I came across a scam in which the purveyor was telling people it was their Christian duty to invest in the Oprah chain-letter gifting scam. Pay $5 and send an email to 5 Christians. The theory was that you’d emerge with more than $30,000 from fellow Christians.
The scam involved sending $5 to one email address on the list, removing the name and address from a list of five names, and inserting your name and address in its place. Trouble was, all five email addresses in the original pitch were email addresses associated with the sender. He got creamed in the forum in which he tried to pull it off — and then threatened to sue, citing scripture all the way.
So, it never truly ends — new day, new scam trading on religion.
Affinity fraud is a major problem. One of the ASD prosecutors is a former SEC attorney who was involved in breaking up an affinity-fraud ring in Ohio. It’s not always easy, because victims often have a profound need to believe.
Thanks for your comments.
Patrick
Hi Mark,
The skim alone can make the autosurf trade lucrative. Remember last year when Andy told members he’d pulled only $50,000 out of ASD?
He forgot to mention, according to prosecutors, that ASD was paying an employee to surf for Andy’s son. There goes his argument that ASD was an advertising business.
That’s just one form of skimming. Another is setting up a dummy company to hide assets — Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises, for example, as alleged in the December complaint.
Another way to skim is to suggest someone has stolen money. More than $1 million reportedly was stolen from ASD, but no police report exists.
Or how about putting an ad for a failed, dissolved business in your own rotator — something prosecutors alleged Bowdoin did? It’s just another way to skim.
An autosurf operator doesn’t have to run with the money if he is skimming — although some operators skim AND run.
Patrick
That would be funny, but the fact is one of the earliest online ponzi schemes was called Omega Trading and the die hard followers of that scam, more than ten years after their leader confessed and went to prison, are still awaiting their payout packets, and the back story involves spaceships, first contact, the prophet St Germaine etc… it would be a bad science fiction story, only it’s true. Do a quick google of the NESARA scam, or look at the NESARA gallery over at http://www.quatloos.com
Those people make the Arbys Indians look like a gathering of Nobel Laureates.